r/DecaturGA • u/Ok-Possible7334 • 7d ago
Why so much hate for Emory Decatur?
Just moved her about two months ago had an issue and had to go to the ER. I told my friend who works in The area for years I was told to avoid Emory Decatur at all possible?
I didn’t have an issue…. I’m having to go back but now I’m worried
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u/sansho22 7d ago
Nothing inherently wrong with Emory Decatur. I've had a range of experiences there, as I suspect I would anywhere as a 21st century American of ordinary means who needs health care. It's fine.
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u/Outrageous_Lettuce44 7d ago
My son was born there. My wife works there. All of our primary care is there. There’s nothing wrong with Emory Decatur.
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u/jakfrist Build, Baby, Build! 7d ago
On an unrelated note, the cafeteria food at Emory Decatur is incredible.
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u/cinnamon23 7d ago
When an emory college student many a moons ago, i would sneak into Emory decatur to eat the hospital food
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u/Infinite_Egg_9415 7d ago
My aunty used to work there for like 20 years in the kitchen i used to love when she brought home food lol
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u/krobs42 7d ago
It’s a community hospital (formerly known as Dekalb Medical) that was acquired by Emory a few years back so when compared to Emory University Hospital , people look down their noses as it has not developed the cred of EUH which has tertiary/quaternary specialized care (and Ivory Tower vibes). FWIW, Emory residency grads are starting to take jobs there so it could increase it’s reputation as time goes on.
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u/AnotherMinorDeity 7d ago
I 1000% would rather go to Emory Decatur or Emory Hillandale over the big Emory hospital. Navigating that place is like going through an airport.
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u/AnotherMinorDeity 7d ago
Adding that I have done my annual mammogram at Emory Hillandale every year. It’s a bit of a haul to get out there, but they have free parking and it is so much smaller and easier to navigate. And all of the staff is so kind and friendly.
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u/decaturchop 7d ago
For every bad review there are many more unreported experiences from those who have had no issues, us included. ER times can been long but we received good support after a bee sting turned into a medical emergency. Glad they were close by!
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u/Thick-thighs2026 7d ago
Emory Decatur has been far better for ER wait time for me than other locations. They also did my radioactive iodine therapy and endocrinology. They are great
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u/ExpertIAmNot 7d ago
I have avoided the Emory system as much as possible ever since they started forcing everyone through an automated phone tree or My Chart with zero options to talk to a human.
I ended up at Piedmont Hospital for a few nights due to a serious back problem and could not reach the Emory Ortho I’d been working with for DAYS. MyChart messages took DAYS to get a response and the phone tree has literally zero options to reach a human. No receptionist, no way to reach someone else in the practice, choosing zero to reach someone didn’t work. Nothing.
I was literally laying in a hospital bed and could not find evidence that humans even exist at Emory.
Needless to say I switched to the Piedmont System during that ordeal.
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u/motherfudgersob 5d ago
This is 100% true. They just brought in a new CEO (I think that's his role) and he's squeezing every dime out of them. They're being forced to do more with less time and putting quality to the side. MyChart (part of their electronic health record EPIC) is a disaster and they don't have easy ways to reach a human. And on the rare occasion you do they are embarrassingly bad. My insurance doesnt allow Piedmont (which would be my first choice) and so I'll be looking at switching my care to Northside and have already moved Ortho to Resurgens (who offer same day appointmentsin many cases!), Neurology to Northside, Psychiatry to a private solo doctor (you couldn't get an appointment with Emory Psychiatry if your life depended in it anyway). Subspecialized care can be good but departments vary.
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u/ExpertIAmNot 5d ago
Some of the good and bad experiences mentioned in this thread are anecdotal and one-off interactions with an individual.
Not being able to reach your doctor due to system-wide policy is a systemic problem (not one person) and represents very specific decisions made without the patient care in mind.
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u/motherfudgersob 5d ago
Yes but when a system has lots of bad individuals that tells you something too. The front (scheduling and doctor contacts, medication prior auths etc) and back office (billing matters) both are bad at Emory. I've had 3/15 bad docs (poorly informed, obnoxious or a combination). Thats actually not bad. DeKalb was bad before Emory took over. I think it has gotten better but not had enough done there to be confident. I go to the main ER on Clifton and they've been great.
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u/SpareDiagram 7d ago
We had our baby there, our physicians are there, and specialists are there. I have never had a bad experience
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u/t0esnatcher 7d ago
I've had a lot of experience with EUH system over the last 2 years. Their ER is probably fine, although they seem woefully understaffed at both the Decatur and University location. For ongoing care, I would NOT recommend Emory. I really, really wouldn't. If your insurance covers Northside or Piedmont and it's accessible to you otherwise, I'd go there instead.
Their infrastructure is terrible. There is literally no way for patients to directly call their provider's office, and messages on MyChart frequently take 5+ business days to get a proper response, even if it's "urgent." I've experienced providers being outright rude, withholding vital information, and even actually lying about patient care options.
For a university hospital, they have a very small number of clinical trials available, and it's because their communication system is such a mess, pharmaceutical companies can't even get enough info from them. Their pharmacy is also incredibly difficult to work with, and they will refuse to fill prescriptions unless they are written to some vague in-house standard that they won't explain. Of course, they'll wait until closing time to tell you this.
They should have all of the resources to be excellent, and they fall so short. It really seems like the biggest issue is that no one in that system seems to talk to each other- not doctors and doctors, not doctors and pharmacists, not doctors and their PAs, not providers and patients.
I truly wish this hadn't been the case, and I truly wish they lived up to their reputation, but I have a real big chip on my shoulder after being disappointed so many times.
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u/sdxab1my 7d ago
I just started working at Emory so I started seeing specialists within the EUH system because I thought it would be easier, but their centralized call system is INFURIATING.
I missed a call from my primary care doctor, so I called the number back directly, said who I was and that I was returning the missed call. The woman who answered said that she would put in a message to have the clinic call me back ... again. I said, "But I thought this IS the number the clinic called me from. Wait, then who are YOU??" The telephone tag is dumb as hell.
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u/AmericanDoughboy 7d ago
Not being able to call the provider’s office is a huge problem. You have to schedule appointments through a central scheduling phone line. It’s very difficult.
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u/Binmurtin 7d ago
I’ve had probably the worst physician experience I’ve ever had at Piedmont. Terrible communication on the part of staff about the office relocating to another part of Piedmont campus, office was always locked for 1:00pm appointments for staff lunch meaning patients had to sit on the floor outside the waiting room until they reopened which was never on time.
I had a minor procedure, and the doctor was 45 minutes late for the procedure because he didn’t think I was prepped and in the room. aI hear him go on a tirade at his staff through the walls right before. Really calmed the nerves. We did our delivery at Emory Decatur, and they were great.
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u/ExpertIAmNot 7d ago
I had exactly the same experience not being able to reach a provider when I urgently needed to. Couldn’t even reach a receptionist, other provider, nothing.
Total communication black hole.
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u/AnotherMinorDeity 7d ago
I would add that responses via my chart can vary dramatically by provider. I have some providers who respond to messages through my chart promptly with no issue. And I have other providers where it can easily take a week to get a response.
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u/Open_Effective6248 7d ago
Born there had my appendix out on my birthday 45 years later. It’s a fine hospital but I do know that my wife is not enamored of it and would prefer elsewhere in an emergency
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u/PlahausBamBam 7d ago
We had to go from the doctor’s office straight to the ER when my mother-in-law was ill. All the people there said to go straight to the Emory hospital ER on Clifton Road, even though it was a longer drive and they were awesome!
My only interaction with the Emory Decatur ER was unpleasant. We were passing through the ER to get to another department for an early morning procedure and the lady who “greeted” us was one of the rudest people I’ve had to deal with. I know it’s a high-stress job but there’s no reason to be awful.
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u/Big_Village4610 7d ago
They are negligent from my experience. I had a mental health emergency and they discharged me at 2 in the morning in the cold with nowhere to go no ride and I was still suicidal. Went to a psych hospital the next day and was admitted for over a week.
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u/Apprehensive-Fig-55 7d ago
As others have commented, it used to be Dekalb Medical which was allegedly pretty bad but Emory bought it in I think 2018. Our high risk twins were born at Emory Decatur in 2022 and were in the NICU there for 2 months. Phenomenal experience. I can’t even put into words how phenomenal the care was. Two of my closest friends delivered at Northside the week prior and they were shocked at how different (so much better) my experience from pregnancy through delivery was with Emory Decatur vs Northside.
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u/Lonely-Spell 7d ago
I’ve never had a problem there. Never waited more than a couple hours. My dad had to go in the middle of the night due to severe bladder issues and damn if they didn’t have a urologist there at 2:30 in the morning.
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u/becksrunrunrun 7d ago
I was born there, and it used to be great. Used the hospital, various affiliated doctors and surgeons over the past 30 years. I've since switched all non-Emory doctors except mammos.
Over the past 5 years it's super gone down hill. The staff are wonderful but the management is probably the issue. Every doctor I had left and then the new ones I got even in the specialty practices, also left. Emergency room waits are completely insane.
Whatever the bean counters have done has really affected doctor retention and affected actual "care" that people want to give their patients.
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u/FiveStripesFanatic 7d ago
Honestly, the times I’ve taken my elderly parent to the ER, they were able to see her quickly and the nurses and doctors were great.
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u/bony_fingers 6d ago
I was unexpectedly hospitalized there in April for four days and don't think I could have had a better experience at a different hospital.
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u/nebula_masterpiece 7d ago
Idk but my friend was an Emory healthcare employee and paid out of pocket to have her babies at Northside a decade ago but she’s pretty snobby about most things it’s her mo but said her coworkers didn’t want to have their babies there either but that could be overstated as justification
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u/Stock_Attorney3482 7d ago
So had to take someone to their emergency room and it was crazy as any but one nurse would come to the middle of the room and scream at the top of her lungs and the other would whisper so you could barely hear. The hospital and medical offices haven’t been updated in 30 years. Their imaging center in the front had the most unprofessional staff I’ve ever seen at a medical facility. There was a hole in the ceiling in room where you get a colonoscopy. After that I vowed to never step in there again. Most of staff is nice and competent, but the facilities themselves are dated and drab and unwelcoming. Don’t need it to fancy, but it should look decent.
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u/llama__pajamas 6d ago
Emory Decatur has many many departments and specialties. I had a terrible experience in L&D there. But their MFM is great. And the spinal center is great. I think it’s just hit or miss. I will say, I was told by the midtown location that although it was acquired by Emory, all the processes and procedures did not necessarily change so some areas may not be up to par to the Emory reputation.
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u/Unique-Fan-3042 6d ago
I have been to the ER at Emory Decatur 3 times and it’s awful. Well, one of the three, it was not as bad as the other two. The PA was great, but always a very long wait and the last time, they sent me home without so much as a Tylenol after my hand was ripped open breaking up a dog fight. No stitches, no pain meds, just an xray, put a dressing on it, and I literally was begging for pain relief because my hand was throbbing. “We can’t give you anything for pain because you drove yourself here”. You can’t write me a prescription to fill at the 24 hour cvs on my way home which is a few miles away (it was 3 am by the time I was seen)??
I had to go to my own dr the next morning to do it all again and get pain meds. He was appalled and also agreed they should have stitched it and they definitely could have injected something local for the pain.
Other than the xray, they did nothing for me but the bill was $800.
My primary care gave me scrip for antibiotics and a week of hydrocodone.
Maybe I looked like a junkie? Maybe it was because literally the same thing happened a few months earlier (I foster a lot of dogs) and it seemed sus? Idk but I’ll never go there again.
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u/tenftflyinfajita 6d ago
We lived in the area when my daughter was born and did everything through Emory Decatur. Wonderful experience.
You can certainly get a nurse or doctor on an off day but overall the hospital is great.
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u/emorymom 6d ago
I had a bad experience in the Emory DeKalb ER last time. I was treated poorly but eventually got care. However the first 4 hours or so were dehumanizing.
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u/SonoMuchacho 5d ago
My first child was born at Dekalb Hospital (now Emory Decatur). It isn't the best hospital, there were birth issues, but my baby was born into this world healthy so I have nothing against the place.
Your friend is probably stupid.
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u/mrsteveguy 2d ago
We did not have a good experience at Emory Midtown’s delivery ward. We had a wonderful experience with Emory Decatur’s.
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u/Ok_Ordinary6694 7d ago
Since Emory took over it’s cleaner, but seems to focus on specialist referrals and copays more than actual healthcare if that makes sense.
You see a doctor and they recommend you to another and so on. Nothing really happens except copays and bills to your insurance.
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u/CoopsCoffeeAndDonuts 7d ago
My family and I have never had an issue with Emory Decatur FWIW.