My local hospital ratings.

S is out again. This was a shorter hospital stay. There's a new drug regimen and let's hope that it's better than the last.

So over the last couple years now, I've had the chance to stay over at a couple different hospitals. Usually in the maternity or peds wards. I'm probably more of an expert than I would want to be.

Some awards and notes:

Most convenient: Mills-Peninsula. This was the closest and takes the least time to get to. Unfortunately, it's not quite so full service for the specialty services we've needed. Stanford is a convenient location, but little else.

Best Parking: Mills-Peninsula. The only one where parking wasn't a complete struggle and the only one that didn't charge or require validation. CPMC has ridiculous parking. By far, the worst. No elevators in most of their lots. What is one supposed to do with a babystroller? Also the lot was always full, but they would led you in and circle for 20 minutes looking for non-existent spots because they were too lazy to put out a sign that said FULL. LPCH has barely adequate parking, thought I dont' know what they'll do after rennovations are complete. UCSF has a funky parking lot that is built into one of those steep San Francisco hills, but we never had a problem getting a spot.

Best Environment: UCSF. Only because I know Stanford was LPCH a good environment. I could reach it by bike when need be. CPMC had a nice view, but beyond a Starbucks and a small grocery store a block away had nothing to offer. UCSF is located near my old hood in inner Sunset. It was nice to be able to take a short walk down some familiar streets and get some good food that I haven't had in a while.

Best Facilities. CPMC and Mills both had pretty good rooms. I would put UCSF and LPCH a notch below that in terms of comfort.

Best Food: Hospital food isn't ever really good, but I would pick CPMC. UCSF had the worst. I got a random plate that claimed Steak, but all it contained was about a dozen french fries without any meat.

Best Social Services: Each has a chaplain, a dietician and nursing consultants. The LPCH nurse nazi was a bit intimidating in her demands and I liked the dietician I met at UCSF. But I know to see specialists, LPCH is a landmine to try to navigate and costly.

Best Nurses: I think Mills had the best service. They were very helpful at a time where we really didn't know what to do. LPCH was uneven. It had some amazing people, and some not so amazing. CPMC was a disappointment on this front. Our kid needed to be poked several times, but they found something to laugh in all that. UCSF was okay, though they were often trailed by students. And for those who care, UCSF definitely had the prettiest staff too. In general, UCSF made me feel really old.

Best Doctors: Honestly, I find this one hard to rate. So I'll skip it. All I'll say is that LPCH and UCSF were teaching hospitals so be prepared to repeat your story over and over again for an endless parade of people, residence, interns, day shifts, night shifts and assorted nurses and specialists. And the only thing I'll say, which I blogged about somewhere in the past, is that the guy we got at CPMC was a little bit of a clown and not a people person.

Best Overal Experience: Wifey might disagree, but I'm okay with going to any of these places other than CPMC. I think I felt most listened to at UCSF. Unfortunately, our insurance situation could still send us there in the future, but maybe I need to change that next year.