Privacy Breach Notice Update, 4/6/2023.
We understand that being admitted to the hospital can be a stressful time and we want to assure you that we will provide everything you need for your care. Some things that might increase your comfort are:
Other important items to bring:
Please DO NOT bring any of the following with you to the hospital:
Patient’s use of own medication or self-medication is not permitted*. Medications brought to the hospital should be identified by the nurse and then returned home with a family member or stored in the pharmacy until dismissal. All medications prescribed by your physician and dispensed by the St. Mary’s pharmacy are individually packaged and bar-coded for your nurse to scan and check each dose to ensure accuracy before it is administered to you. Medicare will NOT pay for medications you take at home or receive in the following hospital settings: emergency room, observations status, surgical day care, and all other outpatient settings.
*Exception—Using the patient’s own medication is permissible in three situations:
We realize that having a loved one in the hospital is very stressful. In order to help facilitate communication between the nurse caring for your loved one and you, we recommend using one family member as a contact person. This will allow the nurse to quickly and efficiently communicate laboratory, procedure, and surgical results. The less time that your loved one’s nurse spends on the phone, the more time he or she will have to care for your loved one. This also causes less confusion when there is one person receiving and communicating information. Shift change occurs throughout the hospital from 6–8 a.m., 2–4 p.m., and 10 p.m.–midnight. During these times it will be more difficult for the nurse to communicate with you.