Foothills Medical Centre

NEVER EVER let an ambulance take you to or go to Foothills Emergency on a weekend night. Two few doctors and all suffering from battle fatigue. Multiple drug overdoses that require immediate attention so if you are experiencing chest pain and have a history of heart disease you are at the bottom of the line.

If I could give zero stars I would.
Came there with early pregnancy miscarriage and bleeding. Waited for 7 hours (!) and had to leave without seeing a doctor. Hey, I understand that my case was not life-threatening. But at least have decency to tell me so instead of keeping us waiting for hours.
The next day I went to the South Health Campus Urgent Care and was seen by a doctor in less than an hour!

Great people working in the lung department. Quick and courteous, I stayed here for 5 days and I have to say everyone that I dealt with were extremely helpful and helped make my stay a decent one. I am forever in debt to the nurses, porters, and doctors working there. Also a specific shout out to Kami in unit 6 she is one of the sweetest people I have met in my life!

Some parts of the hospital are older, and some brand new. Overall this is one of the bigger hospitals in Western Canada and definitely the hospital you want to be at if you or a loved one falls ill. The staff are highly educated and consistently learning from other staff from all over the world who are interning at the hospital -- since it is the main teaching hospital in Calgary.
This hospital houses some state of the art equipment and top doctors in Calgary. I highly recommend the Foothills Hospital.

I was a patient under under the hospitals care for about 8 months. I have read some of the reviews given by other members. Frankly I was a little offended by what I read. The staff at foothills medical center are very professional, hard working and care very much. Yes if you come to the emergency room with a migraine and some back pain, you may be waiting for a while. The staff may seem distant when being asked repeatedly how long one must wait, or why this person is going in before that person. In this case it is not first come first served. It's most urgent first served. So if your well enough to decide to go home after waiting a while, maybe go to a clinic instead.
While some problems may slip through the cracks (which did happen to me, resulting in my abdominal wall being entirely removed), the staff does everything they can to avoid this. Don't forget they work 12 hours shifts up to 7 days a week. Dealing with people that think they are the more important than everyone else. There fore I would like to remind you that patients is key. This is one of the best hospitals I've been to, with the best staff and some of the best doctors in Alberta.
Thanks to the doctors, nurses, nurses assistants and physio team. I am able to walk again and begin returning to life as normal.

I give 2 stars for some nurses and some support staff in the ICU. Shame on you. Doctors and their students were awesome. My complaint is that most ,, not all nurses in this unit are lacking compassion. Compassion is the ability to understand someone's emotional reactions. My son had a very life threatening problem that brought him to the icu near death and on the ventilator- life support. One nurse spoke to my son .. even in a coma .. his others just pressed buttons on the machines. The one person that needs to be removed immediately,, spoke to me and my friends .. suggesting my son would not come out of this. Sarcastic- rude etc. The day my son woke up from a coma he was shocked and wouldn't enter the room at shift change. (My son was woken up by the next nurse.. 15 minutes after his shift change the night before) I went out a half hour later to ask him if he was planning to introduce himself to my son .. and he said - not until you leave - that he didn't want me influencing my son. This was his guilt speaking. They insinuated that when in a coma while my son was kicking and moving his arms that I was stimulating him .. no I was talking him down and holding his forehead. Finally another nurse came in and adjusted his sedation and he became quiet. I know in my heart this nurse was neglecting my sons care. While I slept there ,, this nurse was never at his station .. always walking around talking with other nurses at their stations. I get I was an emotional wreck, completely identified with my pain of seeing my son like this ,, but if you get to a place in your job where you are checked out emotionally, more training is required. The female social worker on this unit is magnificent,, the other .. needs to move on. I know that as a masters in social work .. you know why people are upset, and fully identified with their fear / pain. I would like to thank the doctors and respiratory people on this unit. I wish I could identify the great nurses too, and the one social worker. I wish I didn't get as emotional as I did .. so that my complaints would be handled.. not under the cloud of my responses to what I was seeing and feeling. In closing ,, my complaint with this one nurse in particular,, is he said people either come here to live or to die. ,, you had already made up your mind ,, my son was going to die. You were wrong.

If I could not give a star at all I would. I am so disappointed in the way this staff operated. My boyfriend and I went into the hospital around 9:30 pm last night. The wait said it was about 2 hours which was fine. We waited 4 hours in the waiting room waiting to be called back to see a doctor. Which we still didn't see when we got back there. The staff at the reception desk wasn't very sympathetic and slightly standoffish if you asked them how much longer it would be and why it was taking as long as it was. I understand that sometimes emergencies happen but we felt like our issues didn't matter to them. After 4 hours they took us to another waiting room in the back where we waited for an hour in hospital chairs for someone to come take our info and problems. We were then moved into a storage room with a bed so my boyfriend could lie down. 2 hours later still had yet to see a doctor and no one had told us why we were waiting for so long. I am extremely unimpressed with the lack of compassion for their patients and their time. My boyfriend was in sever back pain, fetigue, possible tonsillitis, and a massive migraine. No I know we might not be what one would call and emergency but some kind of consideration would have been wonderful. Letting us know why they weren't able to get to us after 7 hours of waiting. No communication and a very unprofessional, uncaring approach to handling people who just want simple information. Very disappointed. We did leave after 7 hours and 5:00 in the morning to go home since I had to work and still no doctor.

My mom went in to get a CT scan abdomen...The paper she got from Foothills Hospital said that a CT scan abdomen would be done. But she ended up leaving with getting both a CT scan abdomen AND a CT scan abdomen and pelvis done. Our family doctor didn't tell us about the risks of a CT scan. Had we known about it, we wouldn't have gotten a CT scan done. The ultrasound she did prior to the CT scans showed nothing out of the ordinary, except for kidney stones. Nothing on her blood or urine tests as well, all done prior to the CT scans. We blame ourselves for not checking the risks before getting it done as well. The reason why the second CT scan was done, was because my mom said she wanted a CT done of her bladder in the radiation room. But shouldn't they have told her that this is not what was ordered. Also, when she was getting the CT scan done, she felt that her neck was really hot. To this day, a month later after the CT scan, she still feels really hot in her body due to the radiation she got. Also, the skin color of her face and neck have turned darker. I'm hoping that the CT scans she's done here won't cause cancer in the future. I'm honestly really scared for her.

Really knowledgeable doctors and compassionate nurses. Specially on the general surgery unit. Things to change are little more welcoming receptionist at the unit desk and more private rooms.