I've alot of experience with the Childrens medical system so this review only pertains to the Emergency Department. I've been sitting here for 3.5+ hours waiting to have my baby girl seen with a room full of other sick/hurt kids. If we were sick coming in, there is a good chance we will be coming out. I've seen two people get tired of waiting and leave for the med center ER. I'm not sure what is going on in this department but it has to be one of the most mismanaged departments in the whole children's system. I'm only here because the urgent care we went to first sent us here. If I could give this review a zero star I sure would. Still haven't been seen and I'm so upset with this extreme wait i felt there was no way this experience could get 2+ stars so might as well spend some of my wait time writing this review. Hopefully management sees these reviews & tries to improve, because this has been a top notch bad experience.

Sitting in an ED room at the moment. Have been since 5 am. That’s FIVE am. Still waiting for a room to be available that they are forcing us to use. Our 4 month old has had RSV the past week and has slept very little so we decided to take her into ED here this morning since she had a slight fever. Turns out technically she didn’t have a fever (below their 100.4 threshold). They got us in okay but then things turned for the worst. They suddenly wanted to run blood, urine, nasal, all kinds of kits and tests. The provider, first name Crystal, never caught her last name as she didn’t say it, I just heard Crystal as she was calling Social Services on us but I’ll get to that in a moment.. Anyways provider comes in says okay well it very well could be Meningitis and wanted to immediately do a spinal tap We say we don’t wan that at all, do all the other tests, as I’m gone taking care of my dogs, tells my wife that she (“Crystal”) doesn’t believe it’s Meningitis. I get back and we are on the understanding of three options: 1. Spinal Tap for meningitis and if negative go home 2. Get admitted for observation and see how it goes 3. Take our Daughter home So we opt to take our daughter home. Turns out that Crystal (man I wish I caught her last name but now she has called social services and we are waiting another provider) changed her mind. She took our daughter’s temperature and at first couldn't even figure out how to use the thermometer. Then when she does figure it out she says “oh it says her temps 36.3 that can’t be right haha” ……36.3 C is 98.6 F.. Doctor. She then tells us that it’s not wise for us to go home, even though my daughter is clearly better, and if we go home that the hospital is going to call the cops on us if we leave and the only way that we can now leave today is by the “unnecessary”spinal tap for meningitis.. which the provider Crystal already said she doesn’t have. Now we have been waiting nearly an hour for another provider.. since she won’t talk to us and we just want to get admitted at this point so we can go home tomorrow hopefully. I could keep going but I’ll be ranting at this point. I will never bring my daughter here again nor recommend it to anyone. (Before I get the generic “we hope your daughter is better” response, she is. Please let us go home.

Kacie, one of the triage nurses, was an absolute godsend when we came in with our 2 day old daughter after she stopped breathing. She tended to our baby girl with so much care, as if she was looking after her own child. She immediately got me postpartum care items, since I had just delivered a few days prior I was still in a decent amount of pain. She got us comfortable until the NICU team could come down and get our daughter, and checked in on us every few minutes to make sure we were doing okay. The emotion Kacie showed was so wholesome, we clearly were not “just another patient” coming through the doors. I can’t emphasize enough what her care meant to us in our time of need. She is what every nurse should aspire to be.

Absolutely AWFUL experience. We were at Children's E.R. for our 16 y/o son's shoulder injury that happened during a high-school sporting event. Staff nurses sent him to radiology for collarbone x-rays. After 45 minutes, the doctor (who turned out to be a Nurse Practitioner) came into our room and stated she should've examined him first and ordered shoulder x-rays. We waited another 1.5 hours until radiology doctors could get a chance to read the x-rays. Finally, they said his shoulder x-rays were negative. Nothing was broken, fractured, or separated. The NP stated it was likely a bad sprain and that we'd need to make an appointment with a sports medicine specialist. She was opposed to any pain medication stronger than Motrin. She said any medication besides Motrin would have to be given intravenously, and she didn't want to start an I.V. just for that. When my son stated his shoulder pain was still a 7-8 on the pain scale, she eventually ordered nasal fentanyl for pain relief and sent us home. ---- next day---- Apparently, Children's E.R. contracts with a private radiology firm during overnight hours for x-rays, and per the N.P., they didn't see anything to note. Children's hospital called us back the next night and stated earlier in the day, their own radiology department looked at the same x-rays, and they believed there was a Grade 1 or 2 separation of his right shoulder after all. They said we should follow up with our primary physician for further direction. When we went to our pediatrician the next day, we saw she misrepresented and embellished our conversations negatively in her dictation notes. In one example, she stated, "we INSISTED that she watch a video of the event." It couldn't be further from the truth. We thought she was politely watching to gain a further understanding of what had happened, which is the only reason we offered to show it to her in the first place. Overall we felt lied to and manipulated, and ultimately, they misdiagnosed my son's shoulder. The Nurse Practitioner was smug, rude, and condescending. She was dismissive of my son's complaints of pain and discomfort and couldn't have been more unpleasant, disrespectful, and unprofessional during our interaction. It was an AWFUL experience, from the beginning to the end.

Our 26 day old grandson was admitted this past week. Other than Kelcie, who was an angel, the care and attention was terrible. My daughter literally begged the night nurse to help her care for her baby because she was exhausted. She was still recovering from her c section and had an infection of her own. She ended up in the er herself that night. The nurse gave her zero attention. We had to ask repeatedly for information. Not one doctor came in the first day to give us a diagnosis or results for any tests until we told them we were halting any treatment until we were told what was going on. We were left in the room to care for the our baby with no help. Basically, you are the caregiver. No sleep, no meals, no help. This hospital is a joke.

Went in with my preemie baby whose oxygen level was showing lower than normal (at 91 for about 20 mins but went back up and this is not too odd for him. He has other health issues that make his “normal” lower) and he was breathing a bit weird. Waited an hour and a half with a ton of coughing people who weren’t wearing masks before our anxiety was just too much and decided to check his oxygen which was at 98 and looking fine, so we decided to leave after i was able to book an appointment with his pediatrician for 8am (we went in at 1). The nurse SAMANTHA K put in his chart for permanent record that she “Informed mother that she could move to a private area in the waiting room to be away from others, but she declined.” WHICH NEVER HAPPENED and “continued to encourage mother to stay to be seen, but she declined.” Which also NEVER HAPPENED. All she said was “okay if he gets worse of course come back sign this”. This note makes me look absolutely careless and horrible, and now is in his record for all providers to see, which would raise red flags without context. Now I have to worry about them making a false claim to dcfs or something, which I’ve seen other reviews mention as well. Absolutely ridiculous.

Waited 3 hours to be told there was nothing they could do but test. Why was this information not given right away and why don't they do the test (it takes 2 hours for results) when they triage? Then it took almost 30 minutes to get discharge papers. Won't be going back there again.

We are currently sitting in the ER, and it is our second time here in 24 hours. Unfortunately, the first treatment we tried for our 7 month old didn't work, so we needed to come back. Yes, the wait the first time was a little long, but everyone was and has been fantastic. The second goes around, and everything is being done quickly and efficiently. Nurse Kacie has been absolutely amazing, and overall, the experience has been great.

Brought our infant in and reported that she’s been sick for 3 weeks and just had a temp of 103. Myself and another minority are the only 2 waiting to be seen at my time of arrival. A non person of color comes in long after us, reports vomiting and is triaged and seen before both of us. There’s no first come first serve here. Excuse given by the receptionist is level of acuity as to who will be seen first. Who is determining level of acuity? Id hope not the checkin receptionists! Level of acuity cant be determined until at least triaged by a medical consultant. In my case we had not even been triaged, yet they are telling me ppl who came after me are being triaged and seen first because of acuity. I would think an infant who’s been sick for weeks compared to a 7 year old vomiting at home is acuity. We left because the story they gave is nonsense and I can tell what’s really going on with the preferences in who will be seen first it’s obvious. They also make everyone stay in a very small confined waiting room. Sad this is the only 24 hour children’s ER. I would not recommend this place. All children should be cared for fairly or given the option. It didn’t appear too busy yet wait times were excessive for certain people.

The wait times are crazy here ! we were told we were being admitted two hours ago / it’s now 3 in the morning ! Our small child has to suffer here. Staff were great aside from the doctor. I would not recommend this hospital to anyone and will actively tell people to avoid it

Absolutely disgusting how long the waits are for children. There’s no way they aren’t aware how unorganized this department is…almost 3 hour wait and my daughter wasn’t even triaged yet. I left after such a long wait and honestly felt like I failed my baby girl. This ER needs more staff to help with the amount of kids they see! You are one of the biggest childrens hospital in omaha.

We appreciate the amazing, caring providers and staff at Children’s ER. It has to be a really tough job and these providers have the love, compassion, and knowledge needed to provide excellent pediatric care.

Tell me how spending 5 hours waiting in the childrens ER waiting room with my sick child is okay?! They never called us back to a room. I asked the lady when my child would be seen since they were calling everyone but him back. And explained that we have been here since 8:30 last night. And she said that they're seeing more severe looking kids. SO apparently a fever. Runny nose, ear pain and a cough isn't enough for my kid to be seen in a timely matter! I will never return here. I am so highly disappointed this is how child care is at this place.

Nurse at the front desk was the most helpful. Arrived at 1130 PM with a 9 month old with RSV they got us in to see a nurse quickly but then to see a doctor we were waiting until 2:30 AM! That’s not okay with littles. We ended up leaving without even seeing the doctor because we would have been waiting until 4. That’s insane, and it wasn’t that crazy busy.

They took good care of my daughter. Wait time not bad at all. Staff is super nice and courteous.