St Josephs Area Health Services

Been hospitalized multiple times and staff are wonderful and caring every time.

Took my seven year old here and all of the staff were so attentive and caring ! They quickly identified his issue and minimized the amount of needle sticks he received, but having the entire team in at once! I am so thankful for their care!

HATE THE ER. everytime my daughter or i go in its an hour or more for no more that 15 to 20mins of service. This last time I was in the nurse said i will be right back with your paper that was at 10pm didn't come back till 10:28pm. I like the walk-in and the docs.

A few years ago my father, who lives in that area, went into the clinic at the behest of my mother who could tell something was seriously wrong. The doctor he saw, Dr. Officer (also an ER doc), said he was fine, gave him some nitrates to take, and sent him home. A nurse and my mother both agreed, sans doctor, that this was not accurate and that she should bring him to the ER. Turned out, he was in the middle of a massive heart attack and had to be airlifted to Fargo for an emergency quadruple bypass surgery. Thankfully he was saved and recovered well.
Cut to a week ago.
He was sitting at the kitchen table with my family and suddenly dropped his head and was unresponsive. I called 911, EMS came, we lowered him to the floor and he regained consciousness. The EMS looked at his medications and saw that two days before, his doctor, Dr. Benson at Essentia, had changed his blood pressure med from a half a tab once daily, to one tab twice daily. They said that most likely, the med change had made his blood pressure drop so low that blood wasn't sufficiently getting to his head he passed out, and once we straightened his body out on the floor, the blood flowed to his head again. Having a somewhat medical background myself, this made perfect sense.
He was taken to the hospital in the ambulance for a doctor to check him out. The nurses were all fantastic, as nurses almost always are, but the doctor he saw (one who is not listed on their website) told me when I asked him very specifically, that the med change was not what caused this episode. However, he could not give any alternative explanation.
My father was released and is doing just fine. He is not taking two tabs of his med daily, but to prevent a repeat episode is taking a half tab twice a day and has had no problems since.

I have been to numerous ERs, hospitals, and clinics in my profession and for personal reasons, hundreds in fact. But I have NEVER seen such unapologetic, gross negligence and bold-faced ignorance. Had my mother not insisted Dr. Officer was wrong those years ago, my father wouldn't be alive. What kind of doctor is unable to recognize a massive heart attack WHILE IT'S HAPPENING?
What kind of doctor increases a prescription for a beta blocker by 3x and does not instruct this to be done gradually as is standard practice? ("To reduce your risk of side effects, your doctor may direct you to start this medication at a low dose and gradually increase your dose.")
What kind of doctor disregards the most logical and obvious explanation for sudden unconsciousness and states matter of factly that this huge med change would not have the effect that it SO clearly had?

I would avoid this hospital for anything other than a fishing hook in some body part. I grew up in the area, and hate to say it, but from the above experiences I would not trust the doctors of the Park Rapids clinics or hospital. The nurses on the other hand, have all been amazing and frankly, saved my father's life with their encouragement of my mother to seek secondary care for him.

We had our baby at Park Rapids and had a very good experience. Everything went very smoothly. The CRNA did a great job with the epidural. We stayed one night and then went home the following day. The nursing staff took great care of us.