UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh - Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology

I had to come here in January 2024 because of a kidney stone, and everyone was so kind and caring. The doctors and nurses made me feel safe and comforted during a really scary time. I’m so thankful for everything they did for me. Thank you for taking such great care of me!

Honestly this place has gone down hill. My daughter had a cardiac blood test that the levels should be no higher than 25 and my daughters were 600! NOBODY called me! I took her to an adult cardiologist because she was 18 and they asked what medication she was put on? I said none! They were shocked and immediately started her on a statin. She had another medication a pediatric doctor was prescribing and they just stopped filing it. Once again sent a notice in the children’s hospital app that I told them at least 10 times I can not access with my phone and to please call. They never did. They had her get a scan of her liver. It came back fatty liver and once again Never called or addressed it in any way. So why do the test and then not follow up when something is wrong. My daughter had cataracts and even though she saw an eye doctor, they forgot to tell me. Then when they did they wanted to see her every six month. The problem is they didn’t have any appointments available for a year and told me I’d have to wait, but at the same time I would be noncompliant! WTH Try to find pediatric doctors outside of children’s if you can. I could go on and on.

I have no doubt that Childrens hospital helps and even saves a lot of kids. But this is a review of our specific experience. We drove an hour because our 4 yo daughter had been complaining of heart/chest pains and our at-home oxometer was reading really low oxygen. Shes our third kid, we aren't newbie parents who freak out of every little thing but this had been going on for a while and so we made the call to bring her into the ER. Knowing all the country hospitals would just send us to childrens anyway, we came straight there. The waiting room was busy. But it was pretty clear that most of the kids in there were not there for emergencies - lots of sniffles, lots of coughs, a couple kids in casts, a lot of kids that probably should have been at an urgent care instead... but we sat there long enough to see that no one was having life threatening issues. But we sat there in the waiting room for 2 hours before they even took her vitals, then another hour+ before we even got to a room. Then they didn't even put her on a heart monitor. All in all we were there a full 4 hours before any doctor actually saw us. Thankfully, all ended up OK with her but the lack of urgency for a child coming in with potential heart issues was pretty wild to me. I don't blame any of the staff or nurses we interacted with. They were all good. But I felt it was a management and priorities issue. When a kid comes in with potential heart issues, head trauma, lack of oxygen, that's supposed to be like an immediate call to action. We weren't the only ones either. There was one girl who was basically limp in her dads arms, I don't know what was going on with her but it didn't look good and they sat there just like us for over 2 hours. Another family we were next to had been there over 7 hours. Its just unacceptable to wait that long in an emergency room at one of the most well funded and well regarded hospitals in the region.

My son was life flighted into Children's after an awful accident that I was also in. I was in a hospital 2 hours away with a broken spine, neck,and many other injuries. Any parent can imagine the absolute dread and hope that your child just survives then multiply it because it was actually happening. My child was in a coma for 5 days in and out of brain surgeries. I wasn't able to get to my son for 8 days, within that time the surgeons saved my son's life. No one understood how he made the miraculous recovery he did, but it was the hands of the surgeons, nurses, doctors, and the rehabilitation floor. We spent 5 weeks in the hospital and still go back often for follow ups. I never expected Childrens to be such an important part of our lives but I am forever in debt for them saving my son's life.

Year after year this hospital and UPMC seems absolutely committed to making their operations more obnoxious to the residential neighborhood they exist in. Bright floodlights added to tops of buildings shining into homes. Shipping and receiving in the middle of the night. Slamming bay doors. Heavy work trucks. You are still in a residential neighborhood. Figure out something. I know you probably don't care and may not read this, but your neighbors ( not just me ) are starting to find you to be an increasing and unmitigated nuisance that really has no courtesy to the people who live around your hospital. In the past 5 years, it's only gotten worse and worse. You never did these heavy deliveries at night before, you didn't send folks off your property to go smoke on ours, and you didn't have all of these highly placed floodlights streaming into our windows. Last fall you started work on your retaining wall in front of the Ronald McDonald house. Your workers left huge sheets of aluminum banging off the side of the wall for weeks. I reported it. Nothing done until I had to physically march up there myself to bend the sharp metal back into place so the entire street could get some sleep. Then when you started working on it again this spring, the SAME thing happened again. There are people who live here. Your actions effect us. No matter the good you do, and we do understand about the helicopters, traffic, and general operations necessary that make a bit of noise and light unavoidable... but it's getting sloppy, careless, and discourteous. res ipsa loquitur