One that's closest?

Never go to Providence in DC. But for cardiac problems, I would recommend WHC.

We are CC MD based. We have used ER's a ridiculous number of times. For a kid accident/stiches type visit - Suburban has been a good choice. For more complex care - if you can triage it correctly - Children's and we've diverted ambulance to go there even w/the extra 15-20m. For adults issues - we've used both Suburban and Holy Cross and Georgetown (all fine - and I'd weigh time of day (traffic getting to and/or likely kind of issues probably being brought in say I certainly wouldn't go to Gtwn on a F/S night in spring or around Halloween!) For my parents/seniors- I have been so impressed with the geriatric ER at Holy Cross. They truly do seemed to be trained to slow down, respect the underlying reality of age, etc.

For pediatric issues we always go to Children's if possible after a bad experience at Suburban. We're in Bethesda.

Let the EMT decide where to take you

Anonymous wrote:

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

I recently learned that Georgetown does not really do cardiovascular stuff. They send ambulances elsewhere and refer cases once stabilized. So I wouldn't drive there for chest pain (and an ambulance likely wouldn't take you there either for that).

Yup - they all get sent to WHC.

A good er will often have longer wait times for minor/non life threatening issues. If you have cardiac issues, or are bleeding or something else that is time critical for life, you will be seen first. That means the sprained ankle, while painful, will have to wait. The doctors are focused on the critically ill. At fairfax er, I have joked you know you are ok when they put you in the hall.

Anonymous wrote:

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

Very surprised to hear that b/c my mom had surgery there about a year ago and I had both my children there and the staff was amazing.

Took DC to the ER at Inova Farifax and they were very good.

Best to do in the ER only for emergencies and use the walk-in urgent care clinics if you need to see a provider after regular working hours.

I was just talking about the ER at VHC.

Unfortunately, we've had many occasions to visit the various DC ER s. In our experience, GW is great for urgent adult issues. They will take kids if it is a true emergency, but I wouldn't recommend it. They are nice, just not equipped. For cardiac issues we've been to both Georgetown and WHC, I'd go back to WHC next time. For true emergency kid stuff, children's, hands down. They aren't clean or particularly nice, but they know how to handle kids and families in distress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend is an ER doctor at a level 2 trauma hospital and I asked her where she would take her own daughter for an emergency and she said Inova Fairfax hands down.

That's 45 minutes from us in NW DC. Any idea where she'd recommend for inside the city/close in burbs?

She also lives in the city/close in burbs and apparently she would drive to Inova Fairfax...

Anonymous wrote: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.

Suburban's ER can be good, and for things like a stroke they are unparalleled (they are a stroke center). Ditto firvtge icu - great care.
The rest of the hospital can be crap though so if I thought it was an issue that might require a hospital stay I might keep driving (if that's possible).

Wouldn't go near Shady Groves ER for most things (though they do have a good orthopedic practice).

I have been to the ERs at Georgetown, GW, Sibley & Suburban. Based solely on my experiences with each , I would rank them in the following order (from best to worst):
1) GW
2) Suburban
3) Sibley
4) Georgetown

A lot depends on the situation, however. As previous posters have mentioned, certain hospitals' ERs are better for specific medical issues & some ERs are more likely to have long wait times for non critical patients (as good as my own experience was at GW, for instance, I have heard that most walk-in patients wait a long time to be seen so I would recommend Suburban & even Sibley first to someone seeking care for any issue that does not require immediate attention &/or warrant a 911 call). Beyond that, the quality of any one ER experience depends quite a bit on the particular staff members on duty/assigned to the patient.

Anonymous wrote:

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

I recently learned that Georgetown does not really do cardiovascular stuff. They send ambulances elsewhere and refer cases once stabilized. So I wouldn't drive there for chest pain (and an ambulance likely wouldn't take you there either for that).

WHC is the sister hospital of Georgetown. WHC has the cardiac specialization. Go there for heart issues. They also have the best burn care, and can treat the most complicated psychiatric cases.

Holy Cross

Holy Cross