St Alphonsus Home Health & Hospice

Pros

• The care was phenomenal.
• Cancer care is very good.
• St Luke's provides a single bill and is properly managed to avoid surprise charges.
• The cancer ward nurses are among the best.
• ER, orthopedic floor, and OR nurses provided exceptional, personal care.
• Al's treats patients like real people.
• The quality of care from start to finish was exceptional.

Cons

• Trinity Health Billing is described as impossible to deal with, billing for covered care, with no follow-through, and they just send accounts to collections.
• The billing issues at Trinity Health reportedly consumed 50+ hours of the reviewer's time and never resulted in correct charges being fixed.
• St. Alphonsus is labeled horribly managed, including a bill revised seven months after discharge.
• Reviewers complain of surprise bills and five different bills due to contracting differences.
• The emergency department care is called horrible on two separate occasions.
• The cancer center is said to have frequent staff changes, forcing patients to repeat information, leading to a loss of confidence.
• Luke's is criticized for treating patients like cattle, implying St. Alphonsus is preferable by contrast.
• The hospital is described as untrustworthy and a place one would not return to.
• Front desk staff are described as rude and unprofessional, with complaints about attitude and incorrect information from reception.
• Medical records staff are accused of interrupting and showing a lack of respect to callers.
• The overall experience is labeled the worst, with allegedly rude doctors and nurses, god complexes, lying to cover mistakes, and deliberate delays in care.
• There are reports of delays and confusion obtaining medications for a child due to communication and insurance issues.

Review

Across the mixed landscape of experiences described, St. Alphonsus in Boise stands out as a place where moments of extraordinary care sit beside hard, frustrating realities of administration. Families recount emergency visits, inpatient stays, and cancer treatment episodes in which the medical team delivered compassionate, attentive care, while the back-end systems - billing, scheduling, and internal communications - often failed to keep pace. The same facility that earns heartfelt gratitude for bedside presence and technical skill also becomes a setting of repeated frustrations over paperwork, communication gaps, and perceived management problems. The contrast between these poles is striking and recurrent.

On the human side, many reviewers highlight individual nurses and care teams whose kindness and competence left lasting impressions. One patient's mother described a bedside experience marked by phenomenal care during a dire accident admission, praising the "hard working nurses" who connected with her family during a frightening time. In the cancer ward and ER, several posters mention specific providers and nurses by name who made an effort to connect and reassure: Katie in the ER, Jelena on the orthopedic floor, Lin the OR nurse, and others who took time to treat patients like real people rather than just an average case. A visitor in the fifth-floor cancer ward even affirms that "everyone here is great, some of the best nurses I've met." These glowing statements are not isolated; they thread through multiple stories, underscoring that the clinical talent and bedside empathy exist within the system.

Yet beneath that gratitude lies a chorus of complaints about how care is billed, scheduled, and managed administratively. Several reviews rail against Trinity Health Billing, describing an experience that begins with confusion or disagreement about charges and quickly devolves into a painful cycle of calls, explanations, and no follow-through. The sentiment is consistently that billing inaccuracies are frequent and uncorrected, leading to accounts being sent to collections despite the patient's assertion that the bill is incorrect. One reviewer notes spending more than 50 hours since the takeover trying to get the department to "do their jobs," only to see the issue rebound into collections. Others describe "surprise bills" and multiple bills because different services are subject to different contracted rates, making the cost picture opaque and frustratingly uncertain.

The billing chaos is frequently contrasted with competing experiences at other local hospitals. Some reviewers claim that St. Luke's offers a simpler, more transparent billing experience - "they only give you one bill" - and that this simplicity is a tangible improvement over the more complicated bills arising from multiple contracts. This comparative lens fuels a broader critique that St. Alphonsus is poorly managed in its administrative arm, despite praise for the clinical staff. For these patients, the problem isn't the care itself but the way it is billed, tracked, and communicated back to the patient.

Alongside billing and administration, some reviews spotlight issues around communication and continuity, particularly in cancer care. Recurrent staff changes within the cancer center are described as a barrier to building trust; patients report repeating themselves to clinicians about details that used to be known, eroding confidence in the cancer team. The sense conveyed is that constant turnover disrupts the patient experience, adding stress to what is already a fraught journey. This lack of continuity compounds frustrations that begin in other departments, leaving some patients with a lingering sense of disconnection from their own care plan.

There are also acute, on-the-ground service complaints that touch every patient encounter - from the ER to the medical records desk. A few reviewers recount experiences with rude or unprofessional behavior: an unsympathetic receptionist, a caller who was dismissed or misinformed about discharge details, and a medical records representative who interrupted and spoke over them. When you couple those anecdotes with occasional reports that urgent medication orders for a child were not fulfilled promptly, the pattern becomes clear: administrative friction and poor frontline communication can undermine the overall perception of care, even when clinicians are delivering high-quality medical treatment.

Despite the challenges, the overarching narrative is not one of universal despair but a nuanced portrait of a hospital system with real strengths and real strains. The compassionate care and the genuine warmth of many nurses and doctors are repeatedly lauded, offering a counterpoint to the administrative criticisms. The personal testimony at times reads almost as a two-sided ledger: on one side, gratitude for moments of exceptional care and professional competence; on the other, frustration with billing practices, insurance navigation, and inconsistent communications. The result is a complex, imperfect portrait of a well-meaning institution doing important work under pressures that citizens encounter in any large healthcare system.

In summary, the stories present St. Alphonsus as a place where humanity and skill in the clinical setting shine through the noise of administrative bottlenecks. Families celebrate dedicated caregivers and moments of real connection, while also wrestling with opaque billing, frequent contract-driven charges, and inconsistent administrative follow-through. The verdict hinges on the experience: patients and families frequently praise the care they receive from nurses and frontline clinicians, even as they urge improvements in billing transparency, administrative reliability, and continuity of care - especially in high-stakes areas like cancer treatment and emergency medicine. The shared hope expressed across these voices is for a system that preserves the personal, compassionate touch patients remember while delivering clearer, faster, and more reliable administrative processes.

This part of Boise, Idaho offers a convenient and easily accessible location for senior living. With several physicians, pharmacies, and hospitals within close proximity, seniors can easily access medical care and prescriptions as needed. Additionally, there are a variety of cafes and restaurants nearby for dining out or grabbing a cup of coffee with friends. For outdoor recreation, there are several parks in the area where seniors can enjoy nature and leisurely walks. The presence of a theater also provides entertainment options for those interested in movies. Overall, this part of Boise provides a balanced mix of healthcare resources, dining options, outdoor spaces, and entertainment venues for seniors to enjoy a comfortable and fulfilling lifestyle.

Physicians

• Boise Valley Asthma & Allergy Clinic (0.3 miles)
• St Alphonsus Medical Group (0.3 miles)
• Don J Beasley MD (0.3 miles)
• The Allergy Group (0.4 miles)
• Primary Health Pediatrics (0.4 miles)
• Jones III Arthur C MD - Jones Arthur C III MD Ear Nose & Throat (0.4 miles)
• Amber Taylor, MD (0.5 miles)

Pharmacies

• Med Now Pharmacy (0.3 miles)
• Canada Prescription Service (0.5 miles)
• Albertsons Pharmacy (1.2 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (1.3 miles)
• Walgreens (1.4 miles)
• Walgreens (1.7 miles)
• Walmart Pharmacy (1.9 miles)

Hospitals

• The Caughlin Clinic (0.4 miles)
• Southwest Idaho Advanced Care Hospital (0.6 miles)
• Intermountain Hospital Otptnt (0.6 miles)
• Surgical Care Affiliates (1.9 miles)
• Maribel C Morrell (2.3 miles)

Cafes

• Dutch Bros Coffee (0.6 miles)
• Western Collective (1.2 miles)
• Starbucks (1.2 miles)
• Push and Pour (1.4 miles)
• Starbucks (1.4 miles)
• Dutch Bros Coffee (1.6 miles)
• Alchemist Coffee Roasting Co. (2.1 miles)

Restaurants

• Charlie Brown's (1.3 miles)
• Applebee's (1.3 miles)
• Barbarian Brewing (1.3 miles)
• Sandbar Patio Bar & Grill (1.3 miles)
• Chick-Fil-A (1.4 miles)
• Café Zupas (1.5 miles)
• Red Lobster (1.5 miles)

Parks

• Kathryn Albertson Park (1.6 miles)
• Dog Island (1.6 miles)
• Esther Simplot Park (1.8 miles)
• Fairview Park (2 miles)
• Willow Lane Athletic Complex (2.4 miles)

Theaters

• Regal Edwards Boise & IMAX (1.8 miles)