Bethesda resident here. I would recommend Suburban over Sibley for just about every situation ever other than labor and delivery (for which I would still not recommend Sibley, I would just go somewhere other than Suburban). I've had good experiences at Suburban's ER, both adult and pediatric wing. I will say the pediatric side does not have a PICU. For anything major pediatric, I'd go to Georgetown - which is where Suburban transferred my kid after diagnosing RSV, just in case things worsened. I've also heard good things about Shady Grove's pediatric ER.

NOT Virginia Hospital Center. Mediocre to bad experiences. But the Labor and Delivery part was good.

My DW's family - they are multiple generations from Bethesda - have always gone to Sibley Memorial. It's remote location means it's a bit quieter than the other large hospitals in the area, they've always been seen very quickly. And, of course, it's close to home.

That said, for more long-term issues they will go wherever the care is best. NIH provides absolutely fantastic medical care for MS and cancer (we have way too much experience with those issues, sigh).

ER at Georgetown University Hospital. Received exceptional care both times we had to use it.

I almost called an ambulance while in the waiting area of an emergency room. The waiting time was ridiculous.

Hospital is in DC.

Totally depends on what you need.

Minor example: I needed stitches in the middle of the night recently (urgent care was not open). I got myself to Washington Hospital Center, walked in on some drama in the waiting room, asked the intake nurse how long of a wait - she said 5 hours. I walked out and ubered to another small nearby hospital that had me out of there in an hour. Was this a better ER? No, but did I receive better care in this instance? Definitely.

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe all ERs are equal. It could be the difference between life and death.

They aren't. But if OP is calling 911 she will likely not have a huge choice in which hospital. Otherwise, it's good for OP to do research on what hospital is best. There Re non life threatening reasons you'd need the ED.
I took DS to the ER when he was 15 months for an asthma attack. The hospital had a pediatrician at the hospital 24-7 but they were for the whole hospital. The non pediatric nurse was terrible and I had to advocate /tell her things because she had such little experience with pediatrics.

When DS was 2 , he had a similar attack and I took him 20 min out of the way to go Toa different hospital that had a PICU so the ED staff was much more capable of handling him.

I don't believe all ERs are equal. It could be the difference between life and death.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not that much of an emergency if you have the luxury of deciding which one you want to go to rather than going to the closest one because it's an emergency.

+1

I would suggest whichever one has a trauma center that is closest to you.

Give the wait times at most ERs, choosing one that offers better service that may be an additional 15 minutes away is perfectly reasonable.

In s true emergency, the closest one. For kids innVA, Fairfax.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not that much of an emergency if you have the luxury of deciding which one you want to go to rather than going to the closest one because it's an emergency.

+1

I would suggest whichever one has a trauma center that is closest to you.

Depending on the situation, it will be up to the paramedics anyways if 911 is called. DH was in a car accident and had chest pain at the scene (thankfully not a heart issue in the end). He asked the paramedics to take him to the hospital 15 min away because I worked there and it was the hospital of choice through our insurance. Paramedics said that given the complaint, they had to take him to the closest one.

Anonymous wrote:It's not that much of an emergency if you have the luxury of deciding which one you want to go to rather than going to the closest one because it's an emergency.

+1

I would suggest whichever one has a trauma center that is closest to you.

One thing to keep in mind is different ERs are more appropriate for different things. I live outside DC now but I work in a top cardiology hospital. We get a lot of cardiac patients in our ER for that reason. We also have a fantastic trauma unit and get a lot of those cases
A hospital 3 miles from us has some great orthopedic doctors and they get a lot of falls and breaks.

Neither of us has a pediatric wing or a PICU so hospital 8 miles away is more appropriate

It's not that much of an emergency if you have the luxury of deciding which one you want to go to rather than going to the closest one because it's an emergency.

Have had some mixed experiences with local ERs over the years - Fairfax Hospital ER, Reston ER. What is the best ER? I hope we don't need it in the future, but if we do, I'd like to choose the best available ER.