St Francis Regional Medical Center

Forced me to go to the ER instead of urgent care for strep throat!!!!! Are you serious?! All because my son's temp was 1° above there guidelines.... plus the people checking you in are absolutely rude!!!!!! I have had more than one horrible experience here.

Went to Urgent care. Was sent to ER for assessment to see if urgent care could see me. I spent less the 5 minutes in ER for vitals and told of course urgent care can see a sore throat. I seen by nurse less than 3 minutes told go to Urgent care. Never seen no Dr. total 3 minutes 180.00 plus dollars bill. I went to Urgent care seen Nurse Practioner. Again I seen no Dr never used as much as a tounge depresser for another 87 dollars. Was told they have no shot in Urgent only in ER can get shots. Urgent care I would need pills and I left. Interaction with all staff members cost close to 300 dollars for less than 10 minutes staff time. They should of kept me in ER and saved in 87 dollars in Urgent care don’t go the bunch of thieves.

THIS IS NOT THE BEST OPTION FOR YOUR MEDICAL CARE.
Having spent the first two weekends of 2018 in this facility let me advise you to go to another hospital.
We have so many wonderful hospitals in the Twin cities, there is no need to go here.
First things first, the nurses are wonderful, of this there is no doubt.
But the doctors give very, very subpar and inconsistent care. In my experience I saw 4 different doctors who would often give conflicting opinions of what to do. Often we were put in awkward situations and had to be strong advocates in our own care. It was up to us to be in charge of our treatment.
I arrived at St Francis with a ruptured appendix which the doctor never removed. The second weekend after it ruptured, we went back because I was not getting better. We learned I needed to get a drain put in for an abscess which formed. We waited for quite a few hours and then after our CT scan the radiologist appeared. He was obviously a little sick and admitted as much. He said, “I don’t feel so well, I could go ahead and put in the drain but you may get a secondary infection. It’s up to you.” It’s up to us? It apparently was our call whether he is well enough to do the procedure. I actually recommended he scrub in, put on a mask and let’s do this thing. He balked further, giving us the option but saying he could schedule it for first thing at 8:00 a.m. the next morning with a non-sick doctor. We ended up choosing that option. The next morning 8:00 came and went. 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 all came and went. Finally at 11:30 without anyone letting us know what was going on, we figured we better make some noise otherwise the surgery might not happen at all. Finally at 2:00 after being delivered to the wrong surgical unit which took awhile to correct, we had the drain put in. We were told the radiologist had been waiting for us for hours and was almost ready to leave for the day.
The next day another doctor came and had the nurse show me how to flush the drain with saline solution and said I will need to do this each day. When I was discharged, a different doctor said I should not flush it, just leave it alone, and did not send saline home with me. Sure enough, after a few days the drain was clogged and not working. I went back in to the ER. The radiologist gave me a CT scan and asked if I’ve been flushing it. I said no, as I was told not to. He had a nurse try and flush it but she couldn’t get any fluid back out. I said it looks plugged to me. He said I’d be fine and to come back in 4 days. But by the next day it was oozing puss all over and I was feeling very sick again. It was at this time we felt we had no choice but to change hospitals and surgical teams for the sake of my health and recovery. And I’m certainly glad we did.
I could tell many additional stories like this one from my stay at St. Francis, but just let me warn you - go elsewhere for your care. You are worth it and you are paying for it. Go somewhere where you won’t have to question everything the doctors want to do to you.
Now 2 1/2 months later, I still have my appendix inside me and finally am scheduled for surgery at another hospital.

Very clean place. Everything seems very updated and the TVs in patient rooms are huge. The legacy cafe (I think) had great food options at low prices. The nurses were helpful and friendly.

St. Francis is a wonderful facility and I could give it no higher praise! I have had nothing but excellent care here from the ER, to Surgery and recovery. The Dr.s, Nurses, Nurses Aids and even the housekeeping staff made my day in some way or another. Most important part is I have received excellent care and will always choose this hospital and ER first.