Sutter Amador Hospital 200 Mission Boulevard, Jackson, CA 95642

"I have to give my gratitude to Kelvin in the emergency department. A few weeks ago we took my grandmother to the ER late at night, and from the start Kelvin was incredibly welcoming and kept us all involved. We ended up spending most of the night there, and Kelvin was constantly stopping in to check on us and make sure we knew what was going on. He fixed my grandmother's IV when it was stopped, he gave us test results before he even told the doctor, he did everything he could to make sure we were comfortable. Absolute legend, thank you Kelvin. You made what could have been a miserable night noticeably easier. (Side note: it is very cold in the ER there, please bring extra jackets if you can.)"

"My son was seen here the day before Thanksgiving and the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the same set of symptoms. Sore throat, fever, head and neck pain. The first time we went in the DR tested for rsv, flu, and covid. All negative. He did not test for strep as he had been tested a couple days prior at an urgent care. The urgent care dr told me it may not show up positive yet, so take him in if his symptoms don't go away. I told the ER team this, still no strep test. So we left, and returned on Saturday with the same symptoms. The same doctor was working that had seen us on Wednesday and he seemed visibly annoyed when he saw us through the glass doors while we were waiting in the triage room. A couple hours later, he finally came in to speak with us. He told me he has a virus and it'll go away. He didn't even check him out this time. I told him I was concerned because his neck pain was getting worse and he had a fever for 6 days at this point. I asked for labs to be done and he told me it wasn't medically necessary but would do them to "appease" me as his mom. He did not think he needed to be tested for strep. He ran the labs, his inflammation markers were flagged as high, and the dr told us it means he has a virus. The interaction with him felt uncomfortable. It was clear by his tone of voice and body language he was annoyed we were back. Fast forward to the next week, I went to see a neurologist for my son (whose symptoms hadn't gotten better, and his fever had spiked over 103) who immediately sent us to the ER in Sacramento. We found out that he was positive for strep but since it had gone untreated for so long he had a retropharyngeal abscess in his throat and the infection had reached his spine, which is why he had the neck pain. This required my son to be admitted to the hospital and have surgery under general anesthesia. He's 9, and this was a lot for him to go through. My point in writing this is to say I understand we live in a small county with limited resources as far as health care. It takes time to get my kids in to see their pediatrician and if I need care right away, my insurance covers me to come here to the ER. I hope the doctors at this location stop being frustrated with patients who come in with what they view as mild illness or mild complications. Run all the necessary tests, thoroughly examine your patients and try to keep your frustration at a minimum. I felt so uncomfortable when I returned on Saturday because it was very clear he didn't want to see us. If he had just checked him for strep, which is so common, my son never would've needed surgery. We wouldn't have missed out on work and school this last week. I've used the last of my sick time taking care of my son who had a fever for 12 days, and was unable to return to school. I will not return here again, unless I happen to be in Jackson (30 minutes from my home) and someone stops breathing. If you have kids, I highly recommend taking them to Sutter Sacramento. They have a pediatrics emergency department and gave great care. They were kind, respectful, and took my concerns for my son seriously."

"Arrived by ambulance for medical treatment 5 hours later still hadn't seen a doctor. It is interesting that they show their statistics because they are below average in every way. Their expected time from intake to leaving is over 10 hours. Yea a particularly fine institution for those who don't care about quality care."

"Every time I go to see my primary care it’s as if he couldn’t care less. Even when I went in for my annual physical. I know we need to do labs, it’s the same labs we do every year. But instead of having me get the labs before I go in he waits till after my appointment to order them. Then he wants me to go get the labs and rescheduled an appointment. Which will be at least three to four weeks out. Then when I do go in it’s always the same. A phone call would be fine. But while I am there for either appointment if I ask a question he says you’re going to have to make an appointment for that. I have never had such poor care. He is great at referrals but the actual appointments never happen. I waited 8 months for a dermatology appointment and then because he said in his referral to check for psoriasis. The dermatologist said you don’t have psoriasis. Which I knew. But I do have several sun spots that are questionable. The dermatologist had them make another appointment- 6 weeks. Why I AM HERE. My open enrollment is coming up I will be leaving you"

"Sutter used to be the best hospital you could ever go to and now it's just as bad as Mark Twain. I came to the hospital with my 9 year old son with chest pains and stomach pains at 915, they didn't take us back til 1130, they didn't start doing test til after 1am them at 230 the nurse said did anyone draw his blood yet..ummm no, not yet when the Dr ordered it at 1130. Meanwhile we are in the hallway in a plastic chair, no pillow or blanket for him and he is so tired and just wants to sleep. You know the hospital charges full price to our private insurance for us to be in a room not in a hallway getting poor care and being ignored for several hours."