Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham

Great sleep lab. Techs were awesome and room was comfortable and that of a small hotel room. Private bathroom was a nice touch.

This is my local ER if my spouse or I need care after-hours. I like the fact that it's in the BI system, so they can see records (with some difficulty/work-arounds) from the main BI hospital as well as outpatient clinics, labs, and urgent care centers. I recently went here late on a weeknight after urgent care had closed, because I cut my hand with kitchen shears. The check-in process was quick, the waiting room was almost empty, and I got into a room quickly. It was very quiet, so I imagine it was a slow night.

The nurses and techs were really nice; the gentleman who cleaned the wound--worst pain of my life, literally--was sympathetic and caring.

The doctor was pretty straight-forward, and answered my questions when I asked them (I know to advocate for myself), but there wasn't as much forthcoming information as I would have liked. For example, would bruising be normal? Swelling? Pain? It was only 3-4 stitches but it was a deep cut so I had all of that, and wasn't sure if it was normal.

I also got contradictory information in the ER vs. the urgent care center [also BIDMC] where I got the stitches taken out, but I think that's more the fault of the urgent care center. The discussion was around whether to keep the wound covered until the stitches came out: the ER nurse said to cover it when possible to keep out infection and to minimize scarring; the urgent care nurse who took out the stitches 10 days later said I shouldn't have done that. [Note: I'm not docking the ER for this, because based on my research/talking to other doctors, what I did was perfectly fine. There were also other things that the urgent care didn't do right, so I'm leaning in favor of the ER. In fact, 1 month later, it's healing quite nicely with a smaller scar than had I followed the urgent care instructions.]

No billing issues.

I'd 100% go back again if I needed something simple done. However, for something more involved or complicated (or for someone with chronic illnesses), I'd opt for the Boston BIDMC ER to have access to a wider range of specialists.

My mother had to go to the ER for passing out. I am her healthcare proxy but they deliberately cut me out of the loop and I wasn't allowed to go into the ER and explain what happened to my mother for over an hour. Eventually, I was allowed in but they didn't listen to me or ask for approval for any tests. They then decided to keep my mother overnight for tenuous reasons. The next day they continued leaving me in the dark and treated me horribly. My mother began declining from this day.

It turned out that my town's Fire Dept. EMS made outrageous claims about my house and my mother's living conditions. (I discovered through reading previous reports that they had been lying about my mother for awhile. Since December she has had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital several times. Apparently EMS was getting tired of it and wanted her removed from the house so they wouldn't have to deal with her anymore.)

The hospital without informing me called Elder Services and claimed they revoked my healthcare proxy and wanted to begin court proceedings in order to get a court order to remove my mother from her home. They lied to ES and claimed that I tried to remove my mother from the hospital!

I had to call everyone up in order to find out what was going on and demand answers. It was a terrible experience. And even though I found out from Elder Services that the hospital told them that they were not going to go to court after all and began talking to me and telling me what was going on. The damage had been done in my mother's condition. Long hospital stays affect her stamina and her eating and drinking, etc.

Instead of letting her come home to be taken care of the hospital forcefully recommended rehab, which has been a disaster.

I am now in the process of trying to get her home from rehab as my mother's condition with all the medication that Beth Israel ordered for her without any consultation with me is preventing her from being awake long enough to eat!

There are some stand out doctors and nurses and hospital staff at this branch, but, unfortunately some very terrible problems can occur because of the not-so-good ones.

Go to Boston. 20 minute drive. The care is so much better. Nurses and doctors are the best. So caring and interested.

The worst customer service I have ever experienced from doctors to billing. This place is awful

This is not the place to go for ANYTHING. Been in the ER since 3PM yesterday...not upset about that... haven't seen the doctor yet, not upset about that. Ordered lunch at 9AM, it's now 3:15PM and still no lunch.


Spent 8 hours on a gurney, parked in the hallway. moved to a room finally but no meds, so no sleep. Pain level is a solid 10, no help in sight.

The techs are awesome and really care the nurses are good too, I don't know about the doctors, so overall, it has to be MANAGEMENT that has this hospital this bad. this is the last time I go to BETH ISRAEL. I'll die first.

Wife was brought in after a severe bout with Covid-19 for vomiting, nausea and dehydration. Was checked in soon enough at approximately 3:30 pm. Given a gurney in the hallway for her and no chair for me. We waited for an hour until she was "addressed". Hooked up to an EKG and BP cuff at 4:30 pm. Ok. Still there for an hour with EKG leads and BP cuff after the nurse left without saying anything. An hour later, nurse comes back to do a blood draw. Two hours later, 6:30 pm, a doctor finally comes by and says, "So you were vomiting? You had Covid? Ok. We'll look at the blood work." An hour later, 7:30 pm, she comes back, same statements. Never saw her again. Wife left to 11:30 pm on guerney until I finally said something. No offer of a glass of water. No compassion or statement that "we're overwhelmed, but I just wanted to see how you're feeling? We're working on your labs." People were asking, "you guys seem overwhelmed." A nurse yelled "all hospitals are that way." Finally, at 12:30 am, a nurse attempts to hook her up to an IV for electrolyte solution and an anti-nausea med. Two blown-out veins later, another nurse finally gets her hooked-up. No one comes by again until 1:30 am. A doctor showed up who had an incomplete understanding of her case. They did find some cardiac issues, but ruled them out as "chronic" - see a cardiologist right away. "Let's discharge and get you out of here." This is not how to run anything. Some compassion and a bit of customer service should be on tap. Not leaving people to cool in the hallway. Nurses spent more time staring at computer screens for 20 minutes at a time only to interrupt their "screen time" by texting someone. Lots of horsing around, talking about NFL playoff bets etc. At 2:00 am, I asked who I suspected to be a nurse; what happend to the discharge. He looked at me like I had six heads and after I explained to him that my wife was seen by the attending physician, said he'd get the paperwork and get us out in 10 minutes. It's now 3:30 am. Another nurse came back with the discharge papers. Took out the IV tap and said, "good luck." Twelve hours for a blood test, IV, EKG and go home - see cardiologist? Nope. I never saw what I would call a "head nurse" in charge. Only saw one physician on duty for the whole floor. I counted 15 patients in the ER suite at 11:30 pm and two persons in the waiting room. I was also yelled at by some 20-something for going to the kitchen to get a glass of water after being instructed to go there by another floor nurse as where to get the water. This ER is being run similar to a call center. I am positive they are being held to some sort of Erlang Service Level percentage. The computers are dictating actions; and not the other way around as evidenced by the "hypnotic state" the nurses seemed to be in. I would probably be in the same state with endless beeping from unattended alarms, static computer screens, a screaming injured elderly man left on a gurney in the hallway, text notifications from my friends and on and on.

Don't go to this place because it sucks. They tell you one thing, and then you get there to tell you the total opposite

Every time I have been to this hospital it's been made into hours of waiting once seen. My 80 year old father was there for stitches and was there from 7:00pm until 1:30am! A lot of goofing around by staff at the nursing station. Forgotten about for hours. At least have the courtesy to check in and/or explain the hours of waiting when it's not busy. Male nurse put blood pressure cuff, turned it on and oximeter, walked away, left my urine cup on the counter only to have another nurse pick it up 1/2 hour later. Another visit with my son was all waiting while staff goofed off. Will be going to NWH from now on.

WARNING: They send patients home after day surgery without pain meds despite requesting pain meds 3 times. The doctors are dishonest about it as well. If you have a procedure there and suffer pain afterwards, you have been warned.

A year and 1/2 ago went here very sick. Immediately got me a scan. They saw something and knew immediately they are a small hospital and had me transferred to Boston where further tests were taken. Diagnosed with cancer. Am now cancer free and on maintenance drugs with a team of doctors from both hospitals-that are the best