Ottumwa Regional Health Center

I had to go to the emergency room because I felt like I was having a heart attack but it turned out to be a panic attack. The nurse staff was so kind and Dr. Randy made me feel heard and sent me home with my meds until I get into my appointment later this month. I was very well taken care of. Thanks to all your ER staff.

I loved the psych ward as it had wonderful coloring books and let me experience art forms such as that of origami it also aloud me to learn about the fundamentals of physics such as gravity through using small blocks of wood

If i could give 0 stars i would. I have had so many horrible experiences with this hospital including when i came in by ambulance. Woke up in a room from having a seizure & was alone with no one checking on me for an hour. Took my daughter there today & spent 3 hours sitting in the waiting room watching people come in after us go in & we continue to wait for our turn. Meanwhile receptionists are to busy laughing & watching vidoes on their phones to acknowledge that im trying to ask them a question. We never did get seen....if u really cared about the feedback from the community you would see the community is not happy being treated like they dont matter. Make changes!!

I had a long complicated history with ORHC, some good some life threatening. I have to give high marks to Dr. Ryan VanMannen who saved my life after I was given the wrong medication by a different doctor in 2013. Dr. V absolutely saved my life by sending me to University of Iowa. In 2016, I had some difficulty with good services and was sent home instead of to the Rehab floor when I couldn't walk or care for myself. I then had some issues with the physical therapist they sent over. He was good at his job, but began a friendship with me that he abruptly cut off due to his fiancee and got the hospital involved, despite it not being an issue that involved the hospital. I had a few more procedures done here, with the excellent Jeffrey Bittner, but I decided for most of my needs to go to Jefferson County in Fairfield instead, which had a more inviting feeling anyway.

Worst couple years of my life.nBack in Sept. 2018 I had the misfortune of having a routine scheduled abdominal CT for kidney stone indications performed at ORHC. Radiology Partners of Iowa is who ORHC contracts to do impressions of the scans done in house, as well as several other small community hospitals in the area utilize R.P. services. Unfortunately Dr. Elvin McCarl was the Radiologist who interpreted my scan, and it happened to be 12:29pm so I’m sure he was more concerned with getting to lunch than his patient who was desperately needing answers. My doctor had ordered the CT scan with contrast, he was confident that a grain of sand would be easier to detect. McCarl’s report states kidneys were normal, even though there was a stone he didn’t report. Although he did make mention of “duodenal wall thickening unknown significance, evaluate for any symptoms of duodenitis clinically”. So a couple weeks later my doctor who was going off Dr. McCarl’s diagnostic report sent me in for a Upper GI Endoscopy w/ biopsy for testing, instead of getting that kidney stone blasted. 2 unimaginable years later after multiple unnecessary procedures and a trip to ORHC’s ER, during a follow up visit with my urologist he pointed out in less than 30 seconds what McCarl had so blatantly missed. No kidding that thing looked like a full moon on steroids, and he informed me I got screwed over. So I filed a complaint with ORHC and they determined Dr. McCarl indeed missed the stone in 2018. They sent me a letter stating that with an apology for the incident regarding the contracted services provided Radiology Partners of Iowa. Radiology Partners got back with me, and I sent them all the dates of services, procedures, and providers names. They never got back with me after that, so I called them. I was informed the Good Dr. McCarl had gotten a lawyer and any questions or concerns were to be directed to that law firm. I don’t have the resources to compete with his legal team, at least right now. I filed a complaint with the Iowa Board of Medicine, they asked what type of outcome I would like to see. I told them to suspend his license to practice for at least a year if not longer, as his neglect caused me to be out of work for an extra 2 years ( at $85,000 per year), not to mention the martial stresses involved, or the complete hell of living with a boulder inside your kidney beating you down. I also requested that they put Dr. Elvin McCarl on a patient offenders list of providers to avoid, that the public has access to.