Shriners Children's Chicago

I recently received a tour of the hospital and I’m blown away by the attention to detail when it comes to patient care. We were honored to hear from a current patient and mother who passionately recounted their experience with the cleft palate team. I’m at a loss for words with how moving and inspirational their story is. From the drive of the clinicians to achieve ground breaking progress in the OI field, the management strategy to schedule patient specialist appointments with the family’s travel burden in mind rather than hospital related statistics, their architectural design centered around young children and the feeling of inclusiveness, their unique approach to patient activities, advocation of mental health wellness… words are just failing me at this awe inspiring movement created by such caring individuals.

We drove 4 hours here to see the Pediatric Orthopedic(Dr.Capello) for my daughters feet. 5 days prior to coming here we took her to the walk in clinic for a cough and they tested her for RSV and said she was negative and her lungs were clear. Basically said she was fine and if anything came back in her labs they would call to let us know. It had been 5 days, noone ever called, we assumed she was fine. After a long drive we arrived, got checked in, and was called back. This is when it went downhill. 3 nurses came around the corner holding a piece of paper saying SHE HAS STREP and freaking out. They said you took her to a walk in on January 1st, I said yes, she didnt have strep they said she was fine basically. They said hurry go in here and shoved us in the first room. The doctor then came in masked up(understandably) and said she tested positive for strep the results just came back from the lab today, shes contagious and its unsafe for me to be in this room. We apologized and told her if we had known we would not have brought her/drove that far! So she proceeds to stay away from my daughter and ask me what was going on/why we brought her in. I start telling her she cut me off a few times saying "oh kids do that", "thats normal", basically trying to hurry it up. She said well take her pants off so i can look at her legs, I did. She looks at them for a second from a distance. I tried setting my daughter down on the floor so she could actually see my daughters legs/feet and how she walks and she says NO please get her dressed and keep ahold of her. Then my 1 year old daughter reaches out to touch the cabinet and she says NO NO NO dont touch anything! Shes contagious she cant touch anything! Then tells us her legs/feet are fine and if she hasnt grown out of it by age EIGHT bring her back, and makesure we call her doctor to get medicine. That was it. Maybe 5 minutes in the room with us. My daughter was treated like she had a deadly disease and they were scared to even look at her or they would get it. It was STREP THROAT. We felt like we did a "walk of shame" out of the building. Wasnt even sure if we was allowed to let her walk out because she might get strep on their floors. It was so ridiculous. She didnt get the time/attention/care that she deserved. The care we drove 4 hours to get. We got to the car and me and her dad just looked at each other like wow that just happened. They really just treated her like that over STREP THROAT. This is what we drove 4 hours for. It was a bad experience. On top of being told we would be paid for transportation for getting there and lunch while we was there- we wasnt offered none of that. But thats okay we were just coming here for the GREAT care we was told we would get here at Shriners.

Shriners really understands what it means to be the best children's hospital. I only heard about them during one of their outreaches at a local fall festival and I'm so glad, but also honestly so shocked. Luries is a hospital everyone hears about, but while Luries loves to tout itself as the best, I would argue that they love to brag, but Shriners is the quiet, consistent, humble, money-where-your-mouth-is hospital that you, as a parent reading this review, actually wants. First, they actually understand children and their fears and how to not manhandle a scared child into submission but to get their buy-in, so their bedside manner with kids is stellar, unlike the other top names (Luries, Shirley Ryan, U of C, Rush, Loyola. Loyola's handling of our child for an MRI actually had us deal with PTSD for our kid and fear of doctors for another 9 months of doctors- about 20 appointments of anxiety because of that; an additional 6 months from Luries'). Kids have far fewer fears about procedures with gentle and kind para staff who are willing to take the extra minute to assuage a child's fears. Shriners had my daughter laughing for radiographs where U of C held my daughter's arms down as she was screaming, crying, and trying to get away because she didn't feel safe. Additionally, it seems there is always something magical happening at this hospital. Want to pet a pony or meet a superhero? It's happening when you're there! This is enough for practically any younger child to forget to be nervous and become genuinely excited to be at this hospital. Of greater importance is their medicine. They have some of the top names in the specialty fields and they are excellent in their respective specialties.The services and diagnostic workup they offer in these fields fields are bar none. If that wasn't enough, they even understand parents and their needs! I feel like this is the unicorn of hospitals, no kidding. Originally when I began this medical journey with my child, I had to scale down my work to part time to fit in all the doctor appointments (because I didn't know about Shriners back then), which took 9 months to schedule each, were in separate Luries/Rush/Northwestern/Shirley Ryan offices (each of these places had many offices and it was no exaggeration that I was spending more than an hour on the road to many of them), and each appointment was a separate day. God forbid there be an accident on the highway, or you've spent hours on the road and no doctor appointment to show for it with a fee because you couldn't make it on time due to the road conditions (*cough Luries cough*). I couldn't believe Shriners could/does get multiple doctors on the schedule and synced up all for one day of appointments. I'm now able to go back to working more thanks to this, and that helps our situation significantly, and our daughter thinks this hospital is like Disney World, which for a kid with multiple MRIs and blood draws and tests galore, that says something!!! If you have not been to Shriners yet, I cannot recommend it highly enough. From a parent who has been around the medical block and can tell you the ins and outs, pros and cons of each... You really need to go to Shriners. Nothing I have seen can compare to this hospital... It is really one of a kind.

My daughter was admitted to the inpatient unit for PT OT and speech after a massive Brain bleed from late October to early December. When she arrived she was not able to sit up on her own, by the time she was discharged she was walking with a walker. Their therapist are all genuinely invested in their patients and their outcomes. We still go for outpatient therapy and see Kayla, April,Debbie, and Kate who are all so amazing. The nursing staff is very kind and empathetic. I would say if you are there are an extended period of time and orders get changed to double check with the nurses that they were implementing them. Sometimes they may get lost in translation. The weeks are so busy with therapy that by the ending of the week kids are exhausted. I did like that on weekends were very mellow to slow the kids to rest. Child life does a great job at learning what the kids hobbies are and then providing activities to fit that child. Dr Martinez Connie and Dan are amazing providers. We are so happy we chose Shriners’s Chicago for our daughter’s care and rehabilitation.

Most caring, compassionate hospital ever! Everyone that works here is wonderful! Dr. Morris is a genius! If your child has maxillofacial/oral needs, I cannot recommend him highly enough! He takes all the time you need to answer any and all questions you and your child may have. He is so patient and kind, especially with nervous kids!