Saint Thomas West Hospital

I went to St Thomas West for a pulmonary functions test, as referred by my PCP, and was surprise-billed for $1,136. As a single, recent college grad in an entry level job, this bill was devastating to receive.

I have called STW customer service, price quote line, patient advocacy, my insurance, and my PCP dozens of times at this point and I'm convinced they overcharged me for this routine test. I would encourage everyone to look at HealthCare Blue Book for a frame of reference for tests and diagnostics. Mine was supposed to be $62 on average. I'm unable to figure out why I was charge 18x more than the average price, *with* commercial health insurance. My own doctor was baffled as to why my bill was so high. I also never saw the results of my test.

Sadly, I think this also shows an issue with the health care laws in this state as a whole. More transparency and laws against surprise billing should be implemented asap.

In my humble opinion, this is the best hospital in the Nashville area. And on my last go around before shoulder replacement surgery I had a grand tour of several hospitals. Ascension healthcare Is doing a great job!

Knocking stars off because their billing is b.s. Don't pay a bill you get from this hospital until you double check with your insurance. They will bill you before counting all insurance payments and discounts and make you think they are going to send the bill to collections if you don't pay it in full in two seconds. They should wait until insurance clears before billing patients and freaking people out. Pretty good experiences personally with doctors, nurses, etc., but their billing department doesn't know what they're doing. I don't need cancer and this b.s. too.

**Update: After checking with insurance and gathering documents and expecting a hassle, based on some past experiences dealing with health care billing departments, I called St Thomas. Turns out I have indeed paid my bill in full and don’t owe the crazy amount indicated on the new bill. Apparently it was generated before insurance made adjustments. I’m still annoyed that they put me through all this stress to start with, but the woman in customer service was super sweet and assured me that everything is paid on the account.
So, edited review and added back a star.

I had a stent put in at St Thomas heart West and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had at a hospital. Today ( over a year later) I tried to call and got the triage nurse her name was Heather. I asked her to speak with the nurse of the cardiologist Dr Pearce who assisted in my stent which was implemented by doctor Scoville who is a masterful and premier dedicated surgeon.

The woman who answered the phone (Heather I believe) interrogated me like a criminal because I had moved my check ups to Lebanon with cardiologist Doctor Woods simply because it was closer to home. She was very rude and nasty and I lost it and I basically said, what is your problem. Mind you...this is absolutely the first time with all my visits and all my interaction with this Hospital that I have received or given anything less than total courtesy. Then I called back and she hung up on me twice more. I tried to call again and she blocked my calls.

Brilinta the medication of which I have been taking twice a day for a year is commonly taken for a year after a stent from my understanding and then in most cases stopped because it is a blood thinner and reduces the possibility of a blockage in the stent. When I talked (following my surgery) to dr. Pierce he gave me the impression that he possibly wanted me to stay on Brilinta after a year, I didn't know whether I was supposed to go back on two Brilinta a day or down to one a day or take it out of the picture. But with my interaction and confidence with dr. Pierce on my initial follow-up from the stent surgery I felt the doctor Pierce was the best one to ask and get his opinion on that simple question at the very least before making any drastic changes.

This triage nurse absolutely refused to let me explain what my intentions were and insisted that I go to doctor Woods because he is now my cardio doctor. In other words she decided to remove any assistance to me from Doctor Pierce to take me off of communication with my primary cardiologist (Dr Pierce). I intend to copy this message in this review and keep it for my records for my family should anything occur due to this debacle. Things like this could cost people their lives, just one nasty rotten triage nurse with a angry Power Trip up on the wrong side of the bed one day.

She kept hanging up and then blocked my calls. I assure you she was the one that initially got nasty and offensive and would not give me a chance to explain myself or speak with dr. Pierce's nurse. I never once asked to speak with the doctor himself, I didn't want to put him through that trouble as I know he's busy. I do believe the triage nurse name is Heather and that's what she said and then hung up on me twice and blocked me and I will remember that for a long time. She refuse to hear me out and refused to let me talk to Dr Pierce's nurse so she could simply ask the Brilinta question when he had a moment? HORRIBLE! This kind of stuff is why hospitals get sued!

Before my mother's quintuple bypass and heart valve replacement, she was in ICU. Great nursing staff there. Polite and respectful.
After the surgery in the CICU. Total opposite, nursing staff. Rude and disrespectful. Nurse Becca was my mother's nurse and by far the rudest and disrespectful.