While we were expecting Ilyana we toured the two hospitals in town, Mercy and St. Luke's. Based on the tours they both seemed very similar but in the end we decided to go to St. Luke's. While we had an excellent experience at St. Luke's, we decided to go to Mercy for Ryker's birth. To me, there was no clear 'winner' between the hospitals when we toured them. After experiencing both hospitals I felt that one was definitely a step above the other though.
Nursing Staff
The skill level of the nursing staff was probably the most important aspect to me when deciding which hospital I felt was better. It was also the biggest difference between the hospitals. At St. Luke's, every nurse made us feel like the most important patient there. I truly felt like we had become friends with some of them. At Mercy, I don't even remember most of our nurses names. There were several instances at Mercy that I would ask for something (pain reliever, ice packs, water, etc.) and they would forget about it. At Mercy, they also have a "care program" for teaming up with your support person (husband, friend, etc.) so that they can get you water refills or other things you need. To me, I felt like this "program" just came across as laziness, especially since Jake was at home with Ilyana for most of my stay.
Another big difference in the nursing staff was their concern for me and baby's specific needs. At St. Luke's, I informed them that I have a minor latex allergy and they said "Let's be on the safe side and avoid it". They put signs on the door, informed any new staff that came into the room, and were very careful to avoid latex. At Mercy, I informed them of my latex allergy when I checked in and again when they brought me back to my room. They informed me that the monitor belts they generally use have latex in them and put them on me anyways. Thankfully I didn't have any issues, but it was very concerning that they didn't take my allergy seriously, as minor as it may be!
At both hospitals they recommended that I wake baby to feed every 3-4 hours, including at night. During both my stays we chose to send baby to the nursery at night so we could get some sleep. At St. Luke's they consistently brought Ilyana back to me at least every 4 hours to eat. At Mercy, although they said they would wake me when it was time for Ryker to eat next, I woke up after 6 hours had passed and had to call down to the nursing station to have them bring him to me.
If the above examples didn't make it clear, St. Luke's won this category hands down.
Food
The food was probably one of the biggest differences between the two hospitals that we knew about from the tour. At St. Luke's they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner at specific times buffet style. Additionally you can get cold sandwiches, salads, and other assorted foods whenever. At Mercy they have a large menu that you are able to call room service to order from at any time. This was one of the big reasons we decided to go to Mercy for Ryker's birth. I knew that Jake would not be there and available to stay in the room with baby every time that I wanted to go and get food, so it would be handy to have room service available.
In this area I felt that I preferred Mercy. At St. Luke's you got to choose your own portion since it was buffet style, however your options were more limited and you weren't supposed to go back for seconds. At Mercy it was nice to have the freedom to eat what I wanted when I wanted, although the portion sizes tended to be small. One of the nights I ordered french toast, oatmeal, and a sugar cookie at 11 at night! It definitely hit the spot!
I felt that the taste of the food was fairly equal at both hospitals. Decent, but a little bland.
For us, Mercy won this category.
Comfort
After giving birth you're obviously a bit sore so being comfortable is important. However picking between the two hospitals with this category in mind was difficult, you have to pick your battles.
Both hospitals had chairs in the rooms. St. Luke's has wooden rocking chairs and Mercy has padded glider chairs. As you can imagine, sitting on something padded was quite a bit more comfortable than sitting on hard wood or smooshed up pillows. The beds however were just an uncomfortable hospital bed at Mercy or a real bed at St. Luke's. Not only was the real bed more comfortable, but it was also easier to get into after giving birth. Thankfully I was a lot less sore after Ryker's birth otherwise I don't know if I could have climbed onto the hospital bed!
The rooms at Mercy were bigger which was nice, especially when entertaining visitors. However the set up was a lot better at St. Luke's for things like outlets and places to sit.
This category was quite a toss up so we'll call this one a tie.
Miscellaneous
There were a few other areas that I felt were important to mention while comparing the two hospitals. The first was the accessibility of the birthing centers. At Mercy we had to drive up 3 floors of a parking garage, enter in through a locked door, and then check in at the front desk. When having intense contractions just a few minutes apart, this is not what you want to experience! At St. Luke's Jake was able to park right out front in short term parking, we could walk right in (if it had been at night the door would have been locked), and they quickly got me back to a private room to check in. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to labor in front of visitors in the waiting room. Obviously St. Luke's won for that.
Another thing I felt worth mentioning was the layout of the birthing center. Often when you're trying to help labor progress you can walk the hallways to keep things moving. At St. Luke's there were several different hallways with alcoves throughout them that you could pause and sit in. At Mercy there was just one hallway and a small outdoors area. For me, I preferred the privacy of the hallways at St. Luke's, however I could also see where one might enjoy the outdoors area at Mercy or may just not care about others seeing them labor. This really comes down to preferences, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
The final thing I wanted to mention in this category was cost. I have heard that Mercy is cheaper to birth at, however for us our bill from Mercy was at least $1,000 more expensive than our bill from St. Luke's (this is only the bill for the baby, not for me, as they were billed separately). The only thing that should have effected the price difference was that Ryker was circumcised and Ilyana, obviously, was not. So maybe circumcision is just expensive. Otherwise Mercy was more expensive.
For me at least, St. Luke's was the winner of the miscellaneous category.
Obviously this blog post is completely based on my opinions and personal experiences at each of the hospitals. I have talked to others about their experiences and some have had similar experiences and others have experienced completely the opposite. I'm sure the experience you receive from either of the hospitals just depends on the day, however for us St. Luke's was very clearly the better hospital and the hospital we would choose if we were to have another baby (we're not, sorry. Ha!).
