St Michael’s 24 Hour Emergency Room

On May 24, 2015, I was having an anaphylactic reaction upon returning from a business trip. I went to the St. Michaels Emergency Center in Sugarland, Texas and after completing the paperwork and paying the co-​pay, I was examined by a nurse and saw a doctor for approximately 3 minutes. Subsequent to his «examination» of my condition, I received a steroid shot and a prescription for 3 antihistamine tablets, which the pharmacy charged me $ 1.50. Needless to say, the treatment did not even minimize the anaphylactic reaction and I had to go to another doctor, who diagnosed the problem promptly and prescribed a treatment the brought immediate relief.
I got the bill today from St. Michaels Emergency Center, LLC, which showed the Center charged my insurance company $ 1900.00 dollars for their services. I was in their Center for approximately 20 — 30 minutes at best, most of the time spent in the examination room alone. This place is a «ripoff» and I would not recommend them to my worst enemy. After the insurance paid, I still had a balance of $ 360.64, plus the $ 150.00 co-​pay, I spend over $ 500.00 for nothing. I could have treated myself for what they did and saved the insurance company and myself a lot of money. I won’t do that again, that’s for sure.

My 15 year old daughter received stitches here on 6÷6÷15, and it was a fairly easy and swift in and out. A week later we stop back by to have the stitches removed. We were greeted in the patient room with a big WOW from the doctor asking how old my daughter was! This seemed awkward and was the first red flag for this doc. He then proceeded to probe personal questions at my daughter and even go so far as to ask about meeting for breakfast to discuss her athletic skills and college recruitment to A&M. I was done at this point and wanted to leave immediately. As my daughter and I left the room, I asked her for her impression. She was creeped out by the doc, and was completely uncomfortable with him straddling in front of her asking personal questions and making in appropriate comments. I will not take any of my family back to this place! Creeper doc works there.

It seems there are 3 St. Michael’s 24 hr emergency rooms in Houston area, and this one (Located in Sugar Land) is the one I went. Be honest, this place is so far the worst worst worst medical place that I have ever been to!!! Very unprofessional doctor, unprofessional nurses, and very very friendly front desk person. I don’t want to tell the full story because it’s long. But please trust me, they are extremely unprofessional (both doctors and nurse) and they charge a lot. The doctor gave us an uncompleted prescription which needs an extra paperwork to fill out, and it was not able to use at the pharmacy at all. And the next day when we went to the emergency room again to ask them to help fill out the extra paperwork that the doctor did not complete, they were not willing to do anything about it!!! So we wasted hundreds of visiting fee and got nothing helped!!! The most ridiculous thing is that the second time we went there asking for extra paperwork, the frond desk lady act really like «The doctor would not fill out the paper work for you, I don’t give a shit on you!!!» And since my husband’s situation was kind of urgent, I got a little bit over reacted and told her «Please don’t give us that attitude, we really don’t like it.» And she did not even talk back and asked a nurse to talk to us. When I finally calm down, I was trying to apologize to her about my anger that expressed on her, but she did not accepted, and gave me back a very unfriendly look!!!

In the early 2000’s my daughter went in for a small cut she received while at work. While the service she received was alright, the billing process was a nightmare. We were billed for an enormous quantity of saline, costing hundreds of dollars. It was a small cut on her finger and abut ½ syringe was used. Took repeated calls to get resolved because although the didn’t dispute it, the fixing part just couldn’t quit get done due to office staffing issues. Paid the finally corrected bill. Then at least 2 years later another company sent another bill, independent charges for part of the visit and the delay was because the had been switching billing companies and were behind?! Then we would get random notifications from insurance that you get when something is being reviewed for some reason or resubmitted. It was just crazy!
Second story, a couple years ago my 10 year old son cut his lip open on the school play ground and the treating Physician was the devil himself. He injected his lip in four places to numb it. The physician says, «Just let me know if you can feel it.» When he starts stitching him up, my son can feel it, he is freaking out and crying. I try and get up from the my chair to go up and hold his hand and the Physician turns around and seriously, had the eyes of the devil, like sit down don’t come near this table. Then he is like okay, just tell me if it hurts and does another stitch and another and another, four total! It was a horror show. Each stitch my son is screaming. Absolutely no compassion or people skills at all. My son still doesn’t have total feeling to smile at the corner of his mouth. A plastic surgeon should have probably done a facial procedure like that. I would never go back.

The service was good but I am disgusted at the cost of going to this emergency room. My daughter had an ear infection on Christmas Eve and my wife took my daughter to the St Michael’s emergency room. We were charged $ 1100 for the doctor to listen to her lungs, check her ears, and write a script. Total doctor time was about 20 minutes. The Hospital bill was $ 800 and the doctor bill was another $ 300. We asked St Michael’s for a review of the bill and they lowered the bill by 25% which is still $ 800. This is truly the fleecing of America. St Michael’s should be ASHAMED! To top it off St. Michael’s can’t even itemize the Hospital bill. The don’t have a flippin’ clue as to what the $ 800 is for. They say the $ 800 bill is itemized. That is just plain stupid! Avoid this Emergency room otherwise you may go bankrupt.

Not sure why others have reviewed St. Michaels poorly. We’ve unfortunately been a regular customer of SM’s. I have 4 boys… nuff said. The staff is great. We never wait, and they always call to check on us the next day.

The staff was fine, but the doctor was not. When we opted not to do further testing, he became angry and rude. Terrible bedside manners. This place has too many reviews that are similarly bad. The doctors seem like they are money-​grubbers out to scare people because it’s an «emergency» center. On top of that, even though we had paid the entire bill at the time of visit, they sent another bill later saying that we hadn’t paid. In other words, they were billing us a second time for the same visit that we had already paid for.

$$$!!! Prepare to part with lots of cash! My son had a cold and I was concerned he had an ear infection, he had all the signs. On a positive note, I got right in. This should have been my first sign of things to come. The Dr. was very nice, but hurried through the exam. He checked my sons throat and ears. No infection-​great, right? Not so much. The girls at the front desk didn’t see that we had met our family deductible and insisted on charging a full visit co-​pay while insuring me that I would get a refund once the claim was processed. Anywho, weeks later I find that they charged my insurance over $ 400! What? That’s one expensive ear and throat check! The Dr. fee is separate from the facility fee, so I’m paying $ 82.00 out of pocket. NEVER AGAIN!

We went to this Emergency Room 3 times; once I had stomach flu, then my 2yr old split his chin & the last time he had an ear infection. At first we were very pleased with this ER because there was never a long wait, we were in and out very quickly, the receptionist, nurses, doctors, all very nice and professional. In fact we live in Houston, and drove to Sugar Land just to avoid having to wait in St. Luke’s Minor ER (which usually takes 4 – 8 hours). Everything was great at St. Michael’s except for the bill. The first two times, our insurance must have covered it and I think we paid less than $ 200, but the 3^rd time, we were charged almost $ 800 for a 5 min. visit with the doctor and a prescription for antibiotics. We have a high deductible, but come on! $ 800 for an ear infection diagnosis! Please! Considering my husband is currently unemployed and we just had a baby, I am very upset and feel like we’re being ripped off. I wish they had explained the cost to me up front. If I had known, I would have just waited, given my son Tylenol through the night until the pediatrician’s office opened in the morning.
So if you go to St. Michael’s, make sure you ask them to explain the cost to you up front and make sure your insurance will cover it!

They were quick and painless. The bill was explained to me carefully and they worked with me on the payments. I have been here twice and my wife has been here once. When you are in need of an emergency room the last thing you want is a long line and mounds of paperwork before you can see a doctor. St. Michael’s provides a very refreshing take on the emergency room experience

Unfortunately had to use their services twice. Fortunately they have a great staff of Doctors who provided excellent service both times. The facilities are first class with all the equipment right there in their building. The room felt like a 1^st class hotel room. They even found something that we needed to get checked out that we weren’t there for. I highly recommend St Michaels & is so much better than going to an emergency room. Went straight in with no waiting both times.

My husband had severe stomach pain and cramping for about 24 hours; when time and meds did not help him over the weekend, we decided to go to an emergency center, rather than wait for his PCP to open, and try and get an appt. that day, etc. St. Michael’s 24hr emergency room was just what we were looking for.
We arrived shortly after 7am. The front desk assistant was extraordinary — polite, kind, friendly, and went out of her way to help us. The nurse was friendly and helpful. For an Emergency Room, they were in no great hurry to do anything. There were a few other patients while we were there, off and on, and at one point my husband complained of greater pain (after receiving IV pain meds). Afraid he would throw up, I found the doctor and told him, and the doctor said he’d get the nurse to give him more pain meds. There was no.haste.whatsoever. A minute or two later the doctor was nearby and I called to him, and the doctor said the nurse would be by. Five minutes later (a lifetime when your loved one is hunched over in pain!) I went out in to the hall and said Any time now! The doctor looked at me like I was crazy and said the nurse would
and I looked at the nurse, who was sitting at his desk in no big hurry, and I said «I see him sitting there and I was under the assumption that he was the only nurse here!» and suddenly the nurse decides he can get up and get meds for us.
After that, everyone was *very* nice to us, and checked in with us, and talked to us and let us know what was going on. Which is all that they needed to do in the first place — TALK to us.
We may have caught the doctor and nurse on a bad day; while they had a pleasant if aloof bedside manner before I got mad, they had an effusively nice bedside manner afterward. Perhaps the doctor just doesn’t like women; I got that vibe from him from the moment he came in to see us (comments he made about how wives behave, and talking to me with his back turned, which I found very rude). And then we got the surprise of a bill; turns out even though our insurance treats this out of network business as in-​network as a courtesy, the business doesn’t, and we ended up owing thousands of dollars. On another review page, a rep of the company says the doctors always place follow up calls with their patients. We never received one. We will avoid St. Michael’s in the future.