Tucson Medical Center Pediatric Emergency Department

"If you have a sick child, go else where. We brought our 4 month old in for wheezing, a cough, rash, retractions, and congestion. He had a low grade fever (99.5). They took his temperature, and sent us on our way, no tests, nothing. Took him to our pediatrician for the same thing a few days later, he was positive for RSV and received a breathing treatment. I can’t believe the level of incompetence of the doctors here. The nurses did a great job and were nice, but if you value the health of your child don’t go here."

"I’ve been to the pediatric emergency room for my daughter once and had a great experience, so my initial thought was to take my son who had a very severe rash that was super hot to the touch and on and off fever for the past few days! For the most part the triage staff and front desk were so nice but to start I felt like they forgot about him because after exactly 4 hours of waiting I went to the receptionist desk to check our estimated wait time and they stated “he’s in the middle still” even though multiple people who checked in for non emergent cases way after us were getting taken before us. So after I asked this, automatically she called him back? We go back to the room and a nurse just comes in and gives him Motrin and says the Dr will be right in. An Hour goes by and the provider finally comes in and listens to his heart and stomach and said automatically it’s a stomach virus that’s going around and wanted to just prescribe him Zofran. My main concern being this rash he said “could” be a symptom from this virus and to let it go away on its own in 10-14 days! I kept restating my concerns regarding the rash and how it was everywhere in every inch of his body and still he stuck with his diagnosis. We finally got discharged after being there for a total of 7 hours and my son woke up still with the same symptoms so of course I didn’t wanna go back to TMC and I took him to Nextcare urgent care and within one glance of the provider looking at him she ruled out STREP!! They tested him and right away he was positive! This whole time my sons body was fighting this infection and not once did anyone at TMC mention any possibility of it being from strep, apparently he showed all the symptoms and now he’s having the proper treatment! With the advice from the UC nurse she said anyone with medical training would automatically know that the rash was caused by strep throat so the fact that if I didn’t stick with my gut and still got him rechecked my son could’ve ended up in the hospital with an internal infection because the Dr at TMC said to let it go away on its own! Very disappointing thought that I couldn’t even trust his medical advice. I will not be going back there!"

"I can’t thank the ER and ICU and pediatric nurses enough and doctors. You are all amazing and I can’t thank you enough for the care that you gave our son. And a very especial thank you to the male nurse which under the chaos and fear for our son we believe his name was Andy (but our apologies if it wasn’t )he was in the front checking in the kids on September 3. We can’t thank you enough for being observant and immediately saw our son and knew he had high blood sugar and immediately rushed our son to the back for treatment. We can’t thank you enough. All of you were amazing with helping and caring for our son and a huge thank you to the ER nurse that took the time to give me a hug of assurance. This whole pediatric center was amazing from the nurses, doctors, custodian and volunteers and the therapy dogs. Thank you all you made his time there to be more comfortable and he had lots to do to keep him occupied once he was feeling better and to the nurses for allowing our son to talk your ear off at times or accommodating him if he needed something. I would 100% recommend this place for all children. We can’t thank you all enough all of you are truly amazing."

"My daughter spent two days at TMC and I was impressed with every single person that we came in contact with. They were efficient and thorough. The hospital and ER was clean. Most of all they were very kind and gave my daughter the care she needed, while making her as comfortable as possible. Truly impressed!"

"I can’t speak for the regular emergency room, but yesterday I took my daughter to the Pediatric Emergency Room and the experience was top notch. Even the lady that checked us in and took the initial vitals was awesome. The nurse & Dr. were caring and took the best care for my daughter. I was extremely happy when we left. I have not one bad thing to say, do not hesitate to take your child here! We don’t live in Tucson but I would drive the hour and 20 min to take my child again if it were needed!"