PHOENIX -- Specialty hospitals promise top-notch care, private rooms and gourmet food. But there may be a problem: they don't always have the people or equipment needed to deal with complications.

CBS 5 investigated concerns about the number of 911 calls made by Valley specialty hospitals unable to handle their patients' medical emergencies.

DuWayne Nevius had back surgery to repair a degenerative disc at a specialty hospital in 2004.

By all accounts, the surgery went without a hitch. The problems started when the hospital staff couldn't wake Nevius afterward.

"They thought maybe I had a stroke or a heart attack," Nevius said.

After two hours of unsuccessful attempts to wake him, a nurse called 911.

"The firemen showed up and they didn't want to transport me because I had just had back surgery -- major surgery," Nevius said.

They did transport him, though, taking him by ambulance to the emergency room at Banner Desert Samaritan Hospital.

"Oh, was that a rough ride. With no pain medicine or anything, it was a very rough ride," Nevius said.

5 Investigates obtained the 911 records for 10 of the Valley's largest specialty hospitals and surgical centers. The records show more than 150 patients transported to Valley emergency rooms after undergoing procedures at those facilities.

"I think the problem is calling these places hospitals," said Dr. Jacob Amrani, a Valley spine surgeon. "There is a place for the surgery centers, but people need to understand that this is not a full-service hospital."

Amrani said specialty hospitals and surgical centers can be a good choice for relatively young and healthy patients, but older patients with multiple health issues may be at an increased risk of having trouble and ending up in an ambulance headed for an emergency room.

The Arizona Board of Medical Examiners is rewriting its rules for surgeries that take place inside a doctor's office, following a string of deaths and complications involving office-based surgeries.

"Everybody just has to recognize that an office isn't going to be equipped in the same way a hospital is equipped," said Timothy Miller of the Board.

But the new rules will only apply to office-based procedures, not to operations that take place at specialty hospitals.

Doctors say the responsibility rests with the surgeon.

"The real issue here has to do with patient selection," Amrani said. "If you pick the right patients, I think that the procedures can be done safely at a specialty hospital."

In Nevius' case, despite his age and a heart condition, his doctor went ahead with the specialty hospital option.

The result is that, three years later, Nevius says he can't sleep, can't work and suffers from depression.

Nevius said his doctor never told him that if something went wrong at the specialty hospital, staff members would have to call 911.

One of the biggest points of contention with specialty hospitals is that the doctors who operate there are usually part owners. Critics say that gives them incentive to perform more surgeries in their hospitals because they'll make more money.

Those physicians counter by saying that a small doctor-owned hospital that concentrates on one specialty offers patients the type of care they won't find anywhere else.

Click here for the information on 911 calls from some of the Valley's specialty hospitals and surgery centers.