Dr. Keith Thomas Sivertson, MD

Overall GREAT doctor!

I had the unfortunate experiece of dealing with Dr. Sivertson in the emergency room of St. Luke's Hospital in the Wood River Valley, Idaho. My daughter was transported to the emergency room after she had a bike accident. In spite of wearing a helmet, she sustained a head wound. She was bleeding profusely, was in shock, could not remember the accident and was verging on hysterical. Dr. Sivertson's bedside manner did nothing to reassure or calm her. He was abrupt, uninformative, dismissive and, I'd say, arrogant. Never once did Dr. Sivertson explain to my husband or myself what he was planning on doing or his assessment of our daughter's injury. He checked her wound and questioned her about the accident. The fact that she couldn't remember much freaked her out, but he never once reassured her that memory loss can be caused by a concussion and is usually temporary. After receiving the results of the CAT scan the doctor never shared them with us, but had his nurse tell us that there was no brain damage. By this time my daughter's head was causing her excruciating pain. She asked the nurse if she could have some pain medication. The nurse asked Dr. Sivertson who popped back in for one minute and told her that pain meds would make her throw up. She is an EMT and knew that there is an anti-nausea medication she could take to prevent vomiting. She asked about that. He left the room again without ONE SINGLE RESPONSE! Shortly thereafter the nurse returned with the anti-nausea medication and a pain pill. We never saw Dr. Sivertson again. I understand that he was the only physician in the emergency room, but you should understand that it is a small town hospital, on a Tuesday night. There was a patient with a leg injury leaving shortly after we arrived and we were told that the doctor had to put stitches in another patient while we were there. We heard him chatting at the nurses' station so it's not like he had no time to explain anything to our daughter or us. I still have no idea if Dr. Sivertson is a competent doctor. He may be. But it is a terrible shame that a doctor with his personality is the one emergency room patients encounter at St. Luke's Wood River Hospital.