Mike O’Callaghan Federal Medical Center – Nellis AFB

This place has actually gone down hill over the years. I had a 9:30 DOCTOR appointment. I arrived 10 minutes early, am told to take a clipboard and go down to X-​ray because there is an order in the system.
I go down to X-​ray and am told there is NO SUCH ORDER in the computer. After a short discussion she called the clinic that sent me over, they had a discussion and then I was told to sit and wait that she will let me know if anything happens???
45 minutes later, hearing nothing I went and got a sandwich because I was hungry, ate the sandwich and then left. This healthcare system is horrible, they still don’t communicate and have NO respect for your time.
Oh well chalk it up to another failed medical system experience. The base will NOT let you go to see who your primary Doctor recommends you go see and so you give the base a chance and they seem to be clueless on what is going on. Very sad as I wanted this to be a good experience since I have not been here for a long time. Wasted my time and gas and never got to see a doctor…

hi i always like coming to the hospital they are always friendly and know they do accupuncture here i start my fist session oct 20 can’t wait… and i love my doctor he is so genuine. he really cares about his patients. .thanks for having this so i can give the family clinic 10 high fives… love sunshine. …

I always get amazing service here, I used to be a medic myself so when I’m getting checked in I’m watching the current medics and doctors very carefully to be sure they are up to par and they are actually usually better than I expect. I have a designated provider but it’s tough to get in with him so whenever I’ve been I have seen someone else and they’ve never let me down!!!

RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT: today was not my first visit. Every time I have been here, I have been treated very well from the front desk to the technician shooting the X-​rays or MRI. Awesome customer service from the front to back. Waiting time was not long considering the amount of customers. Service with smiles all round.

Although this was my first experience as a patient I am basing much of this review on my wife’s treatment. I spent my life going to Navy Hospitals. This was the first Air Force Hospital we have ever been treated at.
The first problem is getting an appointment. If you are lucky regardless of your issue two weeks is the earliest you can be seen. The norm is three weeks so got lucky for this visit. When the wife had an issue last summer we were forced to use the emergency room 4 times since she couldn’t be seen by a Primary Care Doctor.
Our so called Primary care doctor has never seen my wife even for checkups after being hospitalized. She called once 9 months after her hospitalization to ask how she was doing.
Everything is slow at this facilty so a day can be spent for just a check up or follow up. I am so concerned I am now looking for an out in town doctor as I don’t want to risk my families health.
They are admittedly understaffed and there in lies the problems with this facility. As retired vet in order to be in Tricare Prime I have to use their clinic or use Tricare Standard and pay allot out of pocket. I am now feeling that it is worth the money to get away from the ill run facility.
I was always told the Air Force takes good care of their people. That must be a thing of the past. This is the worst Hospital /​clinic I have ever encountered in my life. As a 25 year Navy Vet and Navy Brat my life was spent around Navy Hospitals. I must say the Navy would not put up with this VA like embarrassment of a Hospital.
I would give this one star but bumped it up for the kind staff. The docs, nurses, receptionist and EMT’s make the best of a bad situation. Hopefully I will find a good out in town Doc soon. I am going to discuss with the local Congressman my concerns with how patients are treated at this facility. I hope to help make things better in the future.

Went the other day to the pharmacy to fill my son’s prescription for a skin cream. It took about 30 mins just to be called up and then was told it would be an hour and a half before our prescription was ready. Being a Creech family and living 35 minutes away going home and coming back in a little bit is not an option for us. For being a hospital that treats 2 bases worth of families you think they would be better staffed. It makes no sense to force Creech families to come here if you don’t have enough staff to handle the demand!

Hubby landed here in complete pain (now has to go to the VA) the emergency room was ON POINT!!! Finally an answer to what was going on and able to get it under control!!! It was a year ago… but i just got around to writing about it!

I had my baby here last July, and I have been thinking about reviewing this place for months.
At 7 weeks pregnant, you are forced to attend a class. At the class, you learn:
1) Unless you have Tricare standard, you are forced to have your baby at Mike O’Callaghan.
2) You will be put into either the family practice or familiy medicine residency and you have no control over this. In FMR you see one doctor for all of your visits, and in FP you get whoever showed up for work that day.
3) They make you fill out this survey that is given to some organization on base and they will call you relentlessly wanting you to come in for classes and wanting to come to your house and inspect it for the baby’s safety.
4) You get a «goody bag» mostly filled with junk information and coupons.
I saw Dr. Hawks for my entire 10 months and he was amazing. He was the most empathetic, caring, professional doctor I’ve ever had. I wish I could still go to him for my appointments.
At some point you will have to go in a do a blood glucose test. You go to the lab really early in the morning and they draw your blood and give you a bottle of sugar water to drink. And then you wait an hour and they draw blood again. Then repeat that. I was unlucky that day and got a new phlebotomist and they stuck me 7 times that day. I had bruises all over my arms.
If you hit 40 weeks they will force you to come in for a non-​stress test. I had a chaotic hot mess of a time there for that. Their brand new state of the art non-​stress test room is like a dark closet… literally a 5×10 room with THREE reclining chairs in it with curtains inbetween people. And there’s a bathroom at the end of the room so people keep bumping into you to use the bathroom if you’re on the end. It took the tech 50 minutes to do my non-​stress test. I saw 3 people come and go for theirs while I was there.
At 39 weeks the doctor started pressuring me about getting induced. I had heard horror stories about being induced and the rate of c-​sections so I was less than thrilled. In the end, Dr. Hawks let me go one week past my due date and then stripped my membranes at about 10 am. I went home and by 4 PM I was having hard contractions. I waited until 9 PM when the contractions were 4 minutes apart and called labor and delivery. They told me I was probably just dehydrated and to take a bath or drink some tea. I told them no, I’m in labor, I’m coming in. I get there and I’m in a lot of pain, with contractions every 3 minutes. They check me and I’m at 6 cm. A Dr. Slappy (I’m not making this up) comes in and tells me I have to stop making noises. She has obviously never had children or is just mean. The anesthesiologist who did my epidural was a complete dick. He asked a million questions and he got visibly frustrated with me when I was having a contraction and couldn’t answer right away. He rolled his eyes and huffed. Zero compassion or empathy. I’m sure he’s probably tired of dealing with people who are in pain but he needs an attitude adjustment. My baby was delivered by Dr. Hawks and it was a beautiful experience. I was discharged less than 12 hours later. You can’t get any sleep there because they wake you up every 30 minutes to take your blood pressure or give you a pamphlet about not shaking your baby and stuff like that. They make you watch a discharge video and you are forced to meet with a lactation consultant and they give you a million pamphlets and I felt like «enough already!!! I want to go home». Oh and the only complaint I have about Dr. Hawkes is he sewed me up wrong… I have a weird flap of skin in my lady parts that was never there before.

In general, I would say this is an average military medical center. The Emergency Room is treated more as an urgent care clinic than an «emergency» room, however. They have a system that includes a «fast track» for non-​emergent quick fixes… This includes a 3-​bed area where those deemed quick fixes can be in and out as quickly as possible. That’s great and all unless you have a more serious issue and you’re being held up waiting and watching several people who came in after you waltz in and out in no time… We waited in the waiting room for 6 hours for our 6-​month-​old with a 104 temp to be seen by a Doctor. I would have understood the wait more if we didn’t watch about 20 people who came in after us get treated and leave before we were even taken back. Also, once we were finally back, our daughter was barely given a 2-​minute checkup. Just a little frustrating… Something is wrong with this overall picture.
Labor and delivery would get 4 stars… They lost a star when they failed to get me out of my stinky, dirty L&D room and into a post partum room in a timely manner. If it weren’t for my mom being there, I would have been lying in gross birthing fluids the entire NINE (9) hour wait for our room. And no, they weren’t backed up. We finally got a room when we had visitors come. I wish they would have come sooner!!! Maybe they would have moved me sooner?!
Other than that, labs and pharmacy are your average long waits you’d expect.

People bad mouth the military medical system, but having worked there for the last four years of my Air Force career, I can say that the MOFMC is one of the best military medical facilities. My family and I are on Tricare Prime, and we choose to have the MOFMC as our primary healthcare facility.

Hi, my family and I moved here from Hawaii. I just recently visited the nellis afb emergency room and I was beyond pissed off. The staff is completely uneducated and unprofessional. During my stay in the peak hours of 7pm on Wednesday December 10, 2014. I was not seen until three hours after. Being a concerned patient, I asked occasionally when I could be seen and e staff could care less otherwise. The staff has been talking loudly about personal issues and complaining about not being interested in treating patients. The staff has also been announcing to the entire emergency room about a sexual attraction between a soldier and employee. For further reference I would appreciate my kids not to be disturbed by the sounds of a triage nurse having sexual relations behind curtains. Also, because of this incident I will not have my children or myself treated at this hospital. Very unprofessional. I wouldn’t like to also know all the staff conversing about their lunch and personal life while I’m tending to my sick child who needs help. This is by far the worst emergency room to go to and I will spread word to the community. It is a disgrace being treated by unprofessional staff. I’ll be sure to get this complaint to higher management. To top it all off, my medications were not the right ones prescribed. I waited 5 hours for poor service. I’m surprised that the officers and nor the NCOs within the staff stepped in to put a stop in the unprofessional atmosphere. Due to this incident, my child is still untreated and doesn’t have the right medication. I’m currently at another emergency room where they are just absolutely doing a far better job than NELLIS. I’ve already made a ice complaint and I pray that this is well taken care of.

I get treated very well here. The nurses are wonderful and I have an excellent set of doctors.

Amn Hughley & PA Brown are the best!!! I cannot say enough good about them. The Air Force sure got a great deal when they enlisted these two! They are the cream of the crop & the best of the best! What a great team they make… I have been in the military from the day I was born (military brat) then joined active duty myself so I can say I have been around & got the T-​Shirt with confidence, & these two are the best medical professionals I have ever seen so far, they go above & beyond for their patients & you can see that they really care! Hang on to them if you can Nellis AFB, they give the Air Force a good name & something to be proud of!!!
J & D Kultala

I believe this hospital and ER has been instructed to treat as little as possible, and to make it SO difficult to be seen that you give up and go home. While you wait — in the ER, you hear the staff complain. About hours. About patients. About how tired they are. The doctors are jerks. Regardless of what you know about your condition? In 5 seconds the doctor knows more than you AND your previous doctors combined.
How about this Nellis AFB? Instead of another food court full of fast
Food for Fattys & toxic GMO industrial farmed food? Get rid of ALL the food court and open
That space up to an urgent care clinic? Run by people in the business of providing care? Who like their jobs?
We can’t get appointments when we’re sick, the nurse won’t
Get anyone a referral to be seen off base when the clinic is booked two
Weeks out and the ER doesn’t
Want us in there and doesn’t treat appropriately.
Are you trying to kill us???
Here are my lovely experiences with Nellis AFB medical Clinic & ER:
1: clinic: I checked in as new to base. The paperwork asked: «why are you here?»
And «list your medical problems.»
Who knew the doctor could only handle 1 problem per appointment. So while I’d listed asthma, arthritis, lap band follow up, menopause, thyroid” like their paperwork asked? Apparently I got it wrong. In the hallway– this doctor started yelling: «just who does she think she is coming in here with all this?!! Then he proceeded to go on a rant related to lap band– at which point I went out into the hallway and asked him if he was referring to my chart? He said yes. I then read him the riot act about privacy and HIPPA and asked him who he thought he was to stand out in a hallway and run down a patient where everyone in gods name could hear him and asked if he had he lost his mind? Then I jerked my file out of his hands, called him an asshat and told him „thanks but no thanks“ — then I went straight to the medical group commanders office and Tri Care and then patient advocacy.
.
ER:
1: Went to ER concerned about 1 inch weeping gash hot spot from a hiking fall on front shin bone
And ankle pain. I was given an X-​ray that apparently no one read and a corset type
Brace to lace up and squeeze over my infected leg. Was told to stay off leg
And foot.
Went back 3 weeks later, and it’s all worse. My entire center
Leg bone is red and hot to the touch and still weeping.
Well of course it’s worse I’ve had a fractured ankle the
Entire time AND a bone infection.
They are not going to script me for antibiotics because
„Everyone abuses and over uses them“ to which I say:
I’ve been off my leg for nearly a month, you misdiagnosed
A fracture, I seriously do not want to come back in here to have this
Bone scraped down at my age… I’m not some toddler with sniffles. This IS serious.»
Then they DC me to home. I ask… What about my fractured ankle? It’s still swollen 3 times it’s normal size…
«Oh, continue to stay off it.»
Seriously??? Finally I tell them if the USAF can’t afford a flipping
Immobilizer boot to write a script for one and I’ll go buy one.
At this? They sent me to orthopedics to get a boot.
It took 4.5 months to heal this 6 week problem due to their
Apparent orders to discourage treatment if at all possible.
ER: 2 Went in with kidney stones. Dr argued with me I’d pulled
A muscle in my back. I’ve had stones before… Like I’d make this up?
He discharged me with flexeril and back exercises. I went home
Passed the stones, put them in an envelope and took them back
To him at the ER with a note: Here’s The pulled muscle in my back. Thank
You for ALL your help.“
ER 3: was there for flu, dehydration which they did not treat. It turned into pneumonia I privately paid a real doctor to treat. While there, a confused elderly vet came in completely disoriented believing he had an appointment. He had urinated the front of his pants. He was unstable on his feet. The man in my opinion as a geriatric social worker — was likely in the middle of a manic episode or off his meds for a psyche. Diagnosis. The staff, even the doctors who spoke with this man who obviously did not need to be driving, did not intervene or call APS to assist him and help get him home or the police. He was threatening to kill himself by the end of his time in the ER because he had been told and had an appointment card
And when he showed up they said he was wrong even tho the card he had did say his appointment was that day. The ER called his clinic who said they had cnx’d his appointment and he just went off the wall. The bad part is? The ER Staff let this man go and get behind the wheel of his car when he couldn’t barely string a sentence together or walk.
I guess as long as they weren’t out on the highway with him they didn’t care.
This place is a nightmare. Avoid.

Family Practice: i think people have to understand that PCM’s have to see patients from 0630 to 1630 (at least) every twenty minutes. not only do they see active duty (air force, navy, army, marine corps, coast gaurd) but they also see their dependants, retirees and their dependants, reservists and foreign military services on orders to nellis. so yes you will have a wait time to get seen for your sniffles that will go away on its own in two weeks.
E.R: this service follows strict guidelines in order to see as many as they can as best as they can. they only have like 12 beds. and also note that stupid kids come into the E.R. to get put on quarters for their cold, so please blame them for wasting a bed and resources and your time.
Pharm: again this is a big base with lots of people to take care of. there are busy times of the day like there are not so busy times. if you dont want to wait come back the following day early so you get your meds in 10 minutes not 40.
Lab: again big base long wait time. this is also a teaching hospital. youre more than welcome to deny a student experience but what good are you doing anybody?
i’d be lying to you if i said everything is great about this facility. but it wouldnt have been awarded best large hospital in its MAJCOM for the last 2 years, just sayin guys.
I repeat this is a teaching hospital. every great doctor nurse and technician was a student at some point. they would not be the great practitioners that they are if everyone denied them experience.

I don’t know if there has been a lack of healthcare professionals entering the military over the past few years or what, but I’m starting to see more contractors (who probably don’t even have to do all that physical fitness stuff like the rest) here than doctors with the gold leafs on their work clothes.
The pediatrician I used to have before I became legal enough to have a less annoying doctor was this fat, civilian woman who looked more like she belonged in the school nurse setting than a federal hospital. IMHO she was incompetent to the point of giving me meds that didn’t work or that I didn’t need in the first place. I had the typical zits and blackheads that nearly every teen goes through in their high school days, but I was prescribed this acne medicine that made my skin worse and dry. After that, I went back to just using regular facial/​blemish cleansers that you buy at the commissary.
When I turned 18, I refreshingly got a new family physician. She seemed to be an intern or whatever, because she said that she needed to check with her higher-​up how doing physical check-​ups go for those who needed to get all of that done for ROTC. Let me tell you: any intern that works here are more likely to know their way around military culture than those who didn’t go to COT or did the HPSP (Health Professions Scholarship Program). So my experience with her was better that the previous doc I had.
Waiting times are pretty average, but it’s tricky to set up an appointment early because so many are calling in for one. So if you wanna get checked-​up, call for an appointment at least two months before.
Tech got fancier over the years — now there’s even a small coffee place near the lab/​prescripton/​radiology area. Well then; seems like the Air Force is putting its budget to decent use.
I’ve only been to two other big military hospitals in my life, and I’m too young to remember how they compare to the one here at Nellis. I’ll say it’s prett much a decent hospital.

This place has gone downhill.
Three weeks out to see your primary doctor so by the time you get in you’re either on your death bed or recovered. Then if you do get in it’s a one hour wait to see your primary doctor-​then it’s a quick 25 minute visit and never mind the time it took to get there… almost one hour round trip then another 25 min waiting in pharmacy-ugh…there goes your afternoon.
A cluster.
Every time I come here there’s always something ridiculous going on:
For surgery I dont allow students to work on me, doctors only! So I highly recommend that you mention this when a 20 yr old in scrubs walks into surgery prep. Boot him out quick.
Another time I was here for surgery there was a Fire alarm! All of the patients had to huddle in a coffee break room until we were cleared or told to wait for possible evacuation.
On another visit the computer systems were down!
On another visit there were super Looooong lines to get on base!
They moved the pediatrics to a temporary trailer… they’ve been there like six months!
ER needs help! Wait time is too long! You will wait here forever!
I was here for 8 hours, then another time my husband was turned away for chest pains! What? Who the blank does that? I had to act like a crazy escaped gorilla to admit him-​I even went as far as to hunt down my surgeon so he could look at him and thank goodness he did! He also was puzzled when he was trying to get us into the E.R. Unnacceptable!
Main gate is closed now, so you have to drive farther-​ugh!
Ever since they opened the V.A. hospital they took all the quality people! Thank goodness there are a few who come back a few days a week-​like in the labs-​oh, and tell them you don’t want an intern trying to draw blood… don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Pharmacy hours M-​F 7am-​5pm
Pharmacy always full wait time usually 15 min. or more
Pediatrics also takes FOREVER to get an appointment-​but at least they have a somewhat friendly accommodating staff.
Kids love the snack store on first level-​they make fresh popcorn-​yummy. And that’s about the only good thing about this place now. Sad very sad!

I’ve been here a few times now. We have been to the ER, dentistry, our PCM, optometry, and the immunizations clinic. Overall, I am highly satisfied with our experiences.
ER-​3/​5
–My husband was seen less than 10 minutes of arriving and had his X-​rays etc. done right away. The only downside was the long wait we had to be seen again before leaving. We spent at least half our day in the waiting room just to get the X-​ray results and my husbands leg wrapped up. Overall a mediocre experience, I don’t know if I’d come here for an urgent emergency.
DENTAL-​3/​5
–My husband came in to get his wisdom teeth removed. I sat around waiting a looooong time to pick him up downstairs. When it was finally time, they sent me down to pick him up… when I got there they had the wrong person waiting for me in a wheel chair. Whoops… I had to park and wait about five minutes since my husband was about to really be brought down anyways. He did finally come out: P so there’s minus 1 point. Minus another point because my husband has had reschedules quite a few times, at least four, in a two month period for the same appointment.
PRIMARY CARE-​5/​5
–Our PCM is Dr. Harris. She is awesome! Very professional, attentive, helpful, and really eager to help you in every possible way. We saw her for the first time when my husband sprained his ankle and needed a profile done. I saw her recently for a women’s health evaluation and high blood pressure concerns. She was very thorough and addressed every concern I had. I think we really hit the jackpot with her: P because I’ve heard not so pleasant reviews about other PCMs here.
OPTOMETRY-​4/​5
–1star deduction because you have to schedule an appointment one month prior to actually coming in, they’re really busy! Besides that though, everything else is great. They have all the latest technology that most private optometrist would not have. I had Dr Helman for my visit, he was very thorough with my visit. I had my eyes dilated and was informed my eyes grew in a bit longer than usual. He informed me on the risks that may come along in the future related to that and what I will ‘see’ if it ever happens and what would need to be done. I’ve had my eyes dilated before at different optometries and never once did anyone inform me of the abnormality! I will definitely be back again next year for my annual eye exam.
IMMUNIZATIONS CLINIC-​5/​5
–I’ve never had to wait more than two minutes for my walk-​ins. Quick, fast, and easy!

Can’t complain, it’s amazing what medical services we get, compared to civilian medical care! They treat our troops great for the most part!

It’s not a great hospital. Okay, honest to goodness I’ve never had a lot of visits at medical facilities. Up until I got married and put on Tricare I had only step foot in one hospital a LONG time ago and only been to UMC Quickcares because I had no health insurance.
The hospital itself is expansive and takes some getting used to to navigate. I’ve only been to Family Medicine for womanly checkups and of course, to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions from said visits. I have also been in the ER because my father had to take a trip out there (by his own insistence) while he was in Vegas over a holiday. Being high ranking he got superior treatment to any treatment I or my husband has ever gotten (my husband doesn’t speak too highly of this facility).
Of course, since I’m basing off my experiences it’s been okay, nothing spectacular and nothing to make me stop going (as if I had a choice). Medical care is hard to come by these days and I thank my lucky stars I can get seen for free and get meds for free, even though I do have to plan my appointments out 6 months in advance, and yes, I DO plan my appointments about 4 – 6 months out because if I don’t I won’t get an appointment when I want one.
Main rating based on facilities, niceness of employees I’ve dealt with and the family/​womens doctors.