Oregon Health & Science University

My husband was diagnosed with liver failure and was led to believe he was a good candidate for transplant. OHSU allowed his health to deteriorate all the while telling him he would get a donor liver. What we were told would take one week to considered him for transplant took 3 weeks. During this time his kidneys began to show signs of damage as well. He did end up being accepted for transplant and placed on the transplant list. He was offered a liver days later and was being prepped for transplant but we were told the liver "timed out" and it was not viable for transplant. The next day he was told he still looked good and just needed to wait for a good donor liver. That same day one of the lines they installed in his neck began to leak cerrous fluid at an alarming rate but the doctor didn't seem too worried about it, he lost around 3 liters of fluid. They did nothing to stop the flow and allowed the fluid to drain onto him throughout the night . He lost so much fluid his blood pressure dropped and he needed to be admitted to the ICU to be put on norepinephrine. The morning after being admitted to the ICU the hepotolgy team came in and told him he was no longer a candidate for transplant and told him he would die, that there was nothing they could do, and that he should go on palliative care. The hepotolgy team dropped him without a second thought and would no longer communicate with us. Fortunately my husband's brother is a doctor and used his resources to find other options. One ICU nurse, a case worker and his brother along with the palliative care team worked to get a transfer set up to a different hospital. This took another 3 weeks because apparently nobody at OHSU knows how to transfer someone out of their care. He was transferred to Houston Methodist on 1/31/26 and had his liver transplant on 2/16 and his kidney transplant on 2/17. Today 2/19 he is on the road to recovery. If you or a loved one need a transplant and are planning to go to OHSU, please reconsider and go straight to Houston Methodist. I wish we had known sooner and not wasted so much time and health at OHSU.

Do not recommend going here if you are seeking transgender care. Unfortunately this is basically the only place in Oregon doing most of these surgeries and a lot of providers refer here. The wait times for surgeries are absolutely insane and it will likely take you an incredibly long time just for the referral to process. I was trying to get my referral for SRS to process since September and sent maybe 4 in through different doctors before it finally processed in December. Absolutely no communication as to why my referrals weren't going through and I'm really scared it delayed me even more. The Transgender Health Program is advertised as linking all the departments together to make it easier to receive care here for trans people. This is 100% not the case. I personally do not see why they even exist. I had to reach out to every department individually and send my referrals in that way, receiving no communication when things went wrong, and I seriously had no idea what I was supposed to do. Urology, for example, had requirements for SRS that nobody even informed me of. I had a suicide attempt in October because of OHSU. I was receiving laser hair removal here, which I was referred for in April and had to wait until the end of September to even begin. My very first appointment was supposed to be a consultation and they confused me with the only other trans person in the room because we had the same deadname. I received her laser instead of a consultation and heard some of her personal information. In October I went to schedule an appointment for laser and they told me my insurance was dropped. I had no idea what they meant, this was such a surprise, and supposedly it was due to some new policy in dermatology. I asked what this meant for my surgeries at OHSU (I had my FFS social worker clearance for 2027 booked at this point. This was in 2025 btw lol.) and they told me they were likely off the table for now but I could "wait a few months and maybe things will be different." I was also told that "OHSU as an institution" no longer accepted my insurance which made me feel really screwed. Called insurance and they also had no idea what was going on, because the ONLY SURGEONS THEY COVERED WORKED AT OHSU. When I reached out to the head of the THP she had absolutely no idea what was going on. Dermatology wouldn't give me an answer, nobody would pick up the phone anywhere else, and I ended up filing a complaint. Received a "resolution" in November and basically they just screwed me over because they're completely incompetent. I guess they had some new policy where people with out of network insurance were supposed to chat with someone about the potential costs, but this didn't happen, they just cancelled my appointments, and also even though it's out of network my insurance is covering 12 appointments and I have yet to owe anything but a copay. So yeah, I didn't get any real communication until November. I tried to kill myself on October 30th because I thought my surgeries were completely off the table. Honestly my surgeries are still off the table, pretty much, even though I've made some progress in getting them scheduled. The wait times are just so insanely long I don't understand. I'm 23 currently and will legitimately age out of my insurance before I have my first consultation for SRS in February 2028. No clue when the actual surgery is, that's just my consultation. I have to wait until February 2027 just to see a social worker and get cleared for facial feminization surgery, which is absolutely insane because I saw a social worker for SRS three weeks after my referral processed and the consultation for that one STILL ISN'T UNTIL 2028. I fully expect the facial surgery to take until 2029 or 2030 based on this. I've just felt so much worse about my transition ever since going through OHSU but I have simply no other option. I'm heavily considering detransitioning at this point because I don't see why I should continue when I can never have surgeries to fix my severe dysphoria. Hate it here.

I’ve been trying to get into OHSU for months, and the experience has been unbelievably frustrating. I had multiple providers fax referrals, only to be told the information "wasn’t correct," even after two different offices sent updated referrals with exactly what OHSU said they required. Sometimes they also claimed they never received the fax at all. I spent over two months calling weekly to check on the status and confirm paperwork was in. This process took at least six hours of my own time, plus hours from my providers who were trying to help. Each time I would call, I received different information. The final time I called, I was told- first - that they still hadn’t received the paperwork. Then I was told that actually they had received it and it was finally correct. And then, in the same call, I was informed they are no longer accepting referrals. If they were not accepting referrals, that should have been communicated clearly long before I spent months going back and forth trying to meet their constantly changing requirements. This was a complete waste of my time, multiple providers’ time, and honestly some of the worst administrative communication and customer service I’ve ever experienced.

I am disappointed. We had to travel to here for answers. Not again. We arrived expecting the 'top-tier' experience promised on the website, but instead, I received mismanagement waiting long (months) to even be scheduled here. I came prepared with eight questions; the doctor managed to answer (very vaguely and sternly) four before I had to essentially "cross-examine" him for one more. In essence he concluded he would need more testing, like why didn't we do this already. If the medical care is as outdated as the staff profiles on their website, we have a problem. Between the lack of privacy, unexplained scheduling mismanagement/ timeframes, doctor etiquette, and the questionable cleanliness of the facility, the only thing 'elite' about this practice is their ability to over-promise and under-deliver. I traveled (moderately far) for expertise, and found a facility that seems to be dodging inspections. The quality of care by the doctor was more robotic than robots. There needs to be updates.

There are a lot of reasons why this place is so great. I can specifically speak for 10A. The nursing staff is wonderful and kind and eager to help. They are quick to help their patients and do it with a smile. The people make this place! There are also currently nearly 800(!) volunteers total in the hospital that are there specifically to make patients' stay more comfortable. The volunteer program is well organized and that shows by the level of training and scheduling. And the view of Portland is awesome!

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) provides top-tier medical care, innovative research, and expert specialists. Patients benefit from advanced treatments, compassionate staff, and a supportive, state-of-the-art environment.

Great place to visit, whether ur a patient, family member, care-giver, medical service provider/staff/physician, or simply just a visitor of the beautiful views and ambience of PDX and it’s Oregonian topography. Excellent medical research center , renowned continual patient-care, on many sides, and an impeccable educational entity for medical health & sciences of the present & the future