Patient Information

Accommodations
Your Room
Your room assignment is based upon your admitting diagnosis and the bed availability on the day of your admission. Private (single-bed) and semi-private (two-bed) rooms are available. Your medical insurance usually determines your specific accommodations.

Your Bed
Beds are electrically operated. Your nurse will show you how to work your bed properly.

Room Temperature
Each room is equipped with a thermostat. If your room’s temperature is not comfortable, please notify the nursing staff.

Calling Your Nurse
A call button is located at your bedside. When you press the button, the nursing station is alerted to your need for assistance. A staff member will respond to your signal as soon as possible.

Environmental Services
Your room will be cleaned once every 24 hours. For your convenience, we will attempt to clean your room during the times you are scheduled to be in other areas of the hospital. Should you have visitors when it is time for your room to be cleaned, they may be asked to leave the room for a short time.

Telephone
All patient rooms are equipped with a telephone. Your family and friends can call you in your room by dialing (760) 242-2311. At the prompt, they need to press 2, then enter your room number and either a “1” for bed A or “2” for bed B. If you are in a private room, they should enter your room number and “1.” You may call the hospital’s operator by dialing “0” at any time for assistance. St. Mary Medical Center cannot accept collect calls.

Local Calls
There is no charge for calls made to the immediate High Desert area. To place a local call, dial “9,” wait for a dial tone, then dial the telephone number.

Long Distance Calls
Long distance may be billed to a calling card, third party or collect. To place a long distance call from a patient room, dial “9” + “0” to reach long distance service. When the operator answers, give the area code and the number you wish to call. You will need to provide your billing information at this time.

Directory Assistance
Dial “9” + “411” to be connected to directory assistance.

Hearing-impaired Services
A TDD special-needs device is available for the hearing and/or speech impaired. Please contact the SMMC house shift for this device at extension 8124.

Television
Each patient room is equipped with a television with remote control. If you have any questions regarding the operation, please check with your nurse.

Cellular Phones
Cellular phones are prohibited inside the hospital due to electrical interference.

Admissions 
Your admission begins with the decision made by your physician that you require medical treatment on an inpatient or outpatient basis. Your physician is responsible for your clinical treatment while you are here as a patient. Your physician will make any necessary arrangements for laboratory examinations, medications, diet and other special treatments.

Admitting services are located at the main entrance of the hospital. We accept admissions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You will be requested to complete all necessary admission requirements. If you are scheduled for a procedure or surgery in advance, you will receive a phone call at home a few days prior to your expected arrival. Your personal and insurance information will be gathered in order to expedite the admission process once you arrive at the facility.

Admitting, Hours of Operation 
Inpatient and Outpatient Admitting
Monday – Friday, from 5:00 a.m. until 10:30 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

Emergency Admitting
24 hours a day, seven days a week
After-hours in- and outpatient registration will be processed through ER admitting.

Consent Forms: You may be asked to sign consent forms for certain types of treatment, tests and/or procedures that your physician has ordered for you. If you do not understand the procedure or test you are asked to consent to, tell your nurse and your physician will be notified. It is vital for you to understand the risks, benefits and alternatives available to you for the services you will receive.

ATM
An ATM is available for use by all visitors to SMMC. It is located in the emergency department entrance.

Cafeteria 
Sunday through Saturday - 7 days per week 

Breakfast served from 6:30 a.m. until 9:30 a.m.
Lunch served from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
Dinner served from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

Vending machines are located in the cafeteria.

Cancer Information
St. Mary Medical Center has had an approved Commission on Cancer Program since 1985.
To find an approved Commission on Cancer hospital you can go to American Cancer Society “Find Treatment Centers” or American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer “Find an Approved Program Near You.”

In order to help identify preventable causes of cancer, all cancer cases are reported to the state of California. If you would like information on clinical research, please contact a member of our nursing staff. This information is also available through the National Cancer Institute by calling (800) 4-CANCER or by visiting www.nci.nih.gov.

For those diagnosed with breast cancer, specially trained volunteers from the High Desert Unit of the American Cancer Society can provide information, support and hope. For information on the Reach to Recovery program, call (760) 245-2443 or (800) ACS-2345 (toll-free). You can also visit the Web site at www.cancer.org.

Care Management/Discharge Planning
The care manager helps coordinate your care and acts as your liaison among the many healthcare programs, providers and services. Our Care Management Department is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and can be reached at extension 8356. On-call care managers are available daily until 11:00 p.m. by calling the administrative coordinator at extension 8171.

CarePages
Staying in touch with loved ones and friends while also managing a healthcare challenge can be difficult.  But staying connected is a crucial component to getting, and staying well-for both patients and caregivers.  St. Mary Medical Center understands these obstacles, and we're prepared to help.

Now you can stay connected with family, friends and colleagues before, during and after hospitalization through a CarePages website.  CarePages provides free, private websites that make it easy to:

• Update family, friends and even colleagues all at once
• Share photos
• Collect supporting messages from loved ones and friends
• Learn more about healthcare issues
• Connect to other with similar concerns

Ethics Awareness and Resources
SMMC seeks to place ethics awareness, resources and processes as close to the patient as possible. The hospital’s clinical ethics response team offers consultation to healthcare professions, patients and their families when ethical considerations or personal dilemmas arise. The goal of the response team is to focus on ethical issues in order to enhance the quality of care the patient receives and to provide support and guidance for family members and care providers who are dealing with these troubling issues. All consultations are advisory in nature.

Financial Arrangements/Patient Financial Assistance
Patient Billing
After you are discharged from SMMC, you will receive an itemized statement reflecting daily charges, including supplies and support services, such as X-rays and anesthesia.
If you have any questions regarding your bill, please call the business office at
(760) 946-8100.

Separate Statements
You will receive a separate statement from the physicians involved in your care and treatment. This includes your physician, surgeons, pathologists who interpret laboratory test results, anesthesiologists who administer the anesthesia, and radiologists who read, interpret and forward the results of radiology, nuclear medicine and ultrasound procedures to your physician for consulting or to the emergency room physicians.

Patient Financial Assistance
Our Patient Financial Assistance Program helps to make our services available to everyone in our community. This includes people who don’t have health insurance and can’t pay their hospital bill, and patients who do have insurance but are unable to pay the portion of their bill that insurance doesn’t cover.

In some cases, eligible patients may not be required to pay for services; in others, they may be asked to make partial payment. To find out further information on this program, please call the business office at (760) 946-8100.

Financial Counselors
If you anticipate difficulty concerning the financing of your hospitalization, we urge you to consult with our business office immediately so that our trained financial counselors can assist you with arrangement prior to your discharge. Counselors will be happy to answer your questions about payment arrangements, insurance coverage and other financial matters. Counselors can be reached by calling (760) 242-2311 extension 8325 or 8326. They will also come to your room for your convenience.

Fire Alarms
Fire alarms may sound while you are in the hospital; they are loud ringing bells and flashing lights. When this occurs, we request your cooperation. Please return to your room and remain there until “all clear” is announced. Do not use elevators during this time. If there is an immediate danger, patients and visitors will be directed by hospital staff.

Gift Shop
The auxiliary gift shop, Sunshine Square, is located immediately past the main lobby. Sunshine Square carries greeting cards, plants, flowers, convenience items and gifts. Proceeds from the gift shop and yearly auxiliary special projects are donated to SMMC.

Hours of Operation 
Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.
Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Going Home (Discharge)
Your physician will decide when you are ready to be discharged and will advise the nursing personnel. Hospital discharge time is 11 a.m. When preparing to be discharged, please ask your nurse to help you make arrangement to pick up any valuables that you may have stored in the hospital safe. Your nurse will assist you in gathering your belongings and check to make sure you return home with all items that you had upon arrival to the hospital. Wheelchair transportation is available within the hospital and to your car. A responsible adult needs to be available to provide transportation to your home. A discharge lounge is available for delays in transportation.

Insurance
Most hospitalization insurance policies do not cover all expenses incurred. You are ultimately responsible for your account. In some cases, we may ask patients to pay the deductible and co-insurance portions before or during their stay. Some insurance plans require pres-certification prior to admission. Please follow all requirements of your insurance plan and make any arrangements deemed necessary by your insurance company.

Patients who are not insured will be asked to make a deposit either before or at the time they are admitted. The balance of the hospital bill can be paid when the patient is discharged, unless other arrangements have previously been made.

Language Interpreter Services for Non-English Speaking and Hearing-Impaired Patients
While you are a patient at SMMC, you have the right to communicate with people inside and outside of the medical center.

If you do not speak or understand English or have a hearing impairment, you have the right to have access to an interpreter. SMMC provides interpreter and translation services for our non-English speaking patients and the hearing impaired. If you are in need of these services, please ask a hospital staff member who can assist you. There are TTY units located in the emergency department and the administrative coordinator’s office for the hearing impaired. In the event that you have a concern regarding this process, please contact the interpreter coordinator at extension 8005.

Lost and Found
For questions about an item that has been lost or found, please contact patient relations at extension 8865.

Mail and Flower Delivery
Flowers and any mail addressed to you will be delivered to your room. Mail received after your discharge will be forwarded to your home address. Flowers delivered after your discharge will be returned to the florist, who will then take responsibility for contacting you concerning flower delivery.

Flowers are welcomed in all areas of SMMC except for the critical care and neonatal intensive care units. It is best to send flower to a critical care patient after he or she has been transferred to a room outside the critical care unit.

Medications
Please give your nurse a list of any and all medications you are taking, including dosage(s) and times. Your nurse will review these with your physician, who will make a decision on which medication(s) you should continue to take during your hospitalization. Your nurse will bring your medication to you as ordered by your physician. All medications you may have brought with you, including over-the-counter medications, should be returned home, as they may interfere or interact with tests or medicines ordered for your treatment. If you must use your own medication from home, a physician order must be obtained. The medication will then be kept in the medication cart and given to you by your nurse.

Newspapers
Newspapers may be purchased outside SMMC emergency entrance. Papers include the Daily Press, High Desert Sun, Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

Patient and Family Support Services
Chaplains are available to assist patients, their families and/or significant others in a variety of situations. Arrangements can be made to contact your own priest, rabbi or person of faith. Please let your nurse know if you would like to speak to a chaplain or contact the administrative coordinator at extension 8171.

Patient Meals
Your meals are a vital part of your medical care. They are prescribed by your physician and prepared under the supervision of registered dieticians and food serve professionals. A diet aide places your appropriate menu on your food tray. An auxiliary member will collect your menu and provide assistance, if necessary, in filling it out.

If you are on a general diet, you may select the foods you like from our menu. The meals you choose will generally be for the following day. We will make every effort to allow you to select your meals on the day of admission. If for any reason you are unable to complete your menu order, you will be served the regular menu scheduled for that meal according to your physician’s orders. If you have any questions about your diet, please ask a member of our dietary staff to visit with you. Please let your nurse know if you have questions or comments about your meals.

Patient Relations
Patient Relations Representatives are available to assist you with any questions or problems you might have during your stay. You may reach your patient relations representative weekdays from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. by dialing extension 8865. Should the patient relations representative be out of the office visiting another patient, please leave a message with your name and room number and a representative will return your call as soon as possible. After-hours: If immediate assistance is necessary, please contact the hospital’s administrative coordinator at extension 8171.

Safety
The safety of our patients is of primary concern to the entire staff at SMMC. We work to ensure that programs and processes exist that provide appropriate protection, safety and security for all employees, volunteers, patients, families, visitors, vendors, medical staff and organization property. All staff members wear a medical center identification badge. You should not be approached for tests, meals or any services by anyone not wearing this badge. Security officers are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Should you need the assistance of a security officer, dial “0” and the medical center operator will contact the security office for you.

Smoking Policy
For your health and the health of all employees and visitors, SMMC is a non-smoking facility. Smoking is permitted outside the building at various designated locations. We request that smoking be done away from the exits in an effort to prevent smoke from being carried inside the buildings when the door is opened.

Medical Social Workers
The care management department at SMMC is staffed by qualified Medical Social Workers who are available to help you make practical and emotional adjustments to changes that you may be experiencing during your time of illness. Our Medical Social workers can assist you in many ways, which can include providing referrals to resources or services, acquiring information, problem solving, exploring identified needs and providing support. If you would like to speak with a social worker, please contact your nurse.

Spiritual Care
St. Mary Medical Center chaplains reflect core values of our hospital: dignity, excellence, service, justice and hospitality. They also reflect the core hopes of our spiritual care department—to foster respect, depth, understanding and inner wholeness—as we face the meanings of our living, our illnesses, our dying and death itself.

We foster relationships of trust where questions of hope and doubt, fears and faith can be explored.

Chaplains are available to visit each of our patients and their families. Our chaplains make visits to patients prior to surgeries and are available for other services to both patients and their families.

Spiritual care is never imposed—rather, it is relational and authentic. We enter into personal journeys of hope and despair, belief and doubt, presence and mystery. Our skilled chaplains are trained in counseling, theology, clinical pastoral education and concerns unique to patient and family care.

Catholic mass is provided in the chapel Monday through Friday and other religious services, as requested. Chaplains are available Monday through Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and are on call 24 hours, seven days a week. Bereavement memorial services are conducted three times a year for parents and families who have lost children due to miscarriages or stillbirths.

For more information or to speak with a chaplain, please call (760) 242-2311 extension 5511.

St. Mary Medical Center Patient Financial Assistance
SMMC is committed to meeting the healthcare needs of the community. We will work together to make your entire medical stay, including the billing process, as pleasant as possible. This includes people who don’t have health insurance and can’t pay their hospital bill, and patients who do have insurance but are unable to pay the portion of their bill that insurance doesn’t cover. You may be eligible for financial assistance through the St. Mary Medical Center Patient Financial Assistance.  Financial Assistance Application
To learn more about the Patient Financial Assistance, please contact one of our patient account representatives at (760) 946-8100.

Asistencia Financiera para los Pacientes
de Caridad de St. Mary Medical Center

Nuestro Programa de Asistencia Financiera para los Pacientes ayuda a hacer que nuestros servicios estén disponibles para todas las personans en la comunidad.
Incluyendo las personas que no tienen seguro médico y que no pueden pagar las facturas de un hospital, y los pacientes que tienen seguro médico pero que no tienen medios para pagar la porción que su seguro médico no cubre (co-pagos).  

En algunos casos, es posible que los pacientes que califican no tengan que pagar por los servicios. En otros casos, puede que solo tengan que pagar una parte del cobro.  Solicitud para ayuda financiera

Si usted considera que puede calificar para nuestro programa, tiene preguntas sobre los requisitos de elegibilidad o necesita ayuda con la aplicación para cualquier programa del gobierno (MediCal, MSI, Healthy Families o Medicare), por favor comuniquese con uno de nuestros representantes de servicios financieros al teléfono: (760) 946-8100.

Valuables 
We recommend that all jewelry, important papers, credit cards, keys, wallets, rings and cash in excess of $10 be sent home. If you are unable to do so, please tell your nurse who can arrange for your valuable to be stored in a safe until your discharge. St. Mary Medical Center assumes no responsibility for personal property retained by the patient.

Eyeglasses, contact lenses, dentures and hearing aids are an important part of your life, therefore they require special care. Tell your nurse that you use these items. Please take care not to leave any of these items on your meal tray or lying on your bed, as they may be inadvertently disposed of or lost.

Visiting Information  
Visiting Hours
Visiting hours vary from one patient care area to another. In some cases, visiting hours may be limited or expanded in accordance with the physician’s treatment recommendations. Family and friends brighten your day and may help speed your recovery. During your stay at SMMC, our goal is to provide an environment that promotes healing and reinforces a positive experience for you and your visitors. As such, the following guidelines have been established:

• Cellular phone use inside the facility is not permitted at any time, as the signal may interfere with the operation of lifesaving patient-monitoring equipment.
• We encourage family visits; however, small children should be held by their hand for their safety.
• To protect our patients and staff, adults and children with communicable disease should not visit.
• Please get nursing approval prior to bringing any food from home for patient consumption. We ask this in order to prevent any food-drug interactions or possible complications with treatment.
• Some visitors may have special circumstances that do not enable them to follow our visiting hours policy. Special needs are considered a priority. Please tell the nursing staff or unit manager or your request and every effort will be made to meet any special needs that may arise.

Volunteers
SMMC volunteer members provide countless hours of voluntary service to help make your stay comfortable. They devote themselves to extending services that might not be otherwise available, thus providing the "heart" that makes our hospital such a caring and compassionate place. Our volunteers accomplish these special services with a spirit of friendship and loyalty.

In addition to fostering the welfare of patients, the St. Mary Volunteers financially assists SMMC by managing the staffing the hospital's gift shop and holding fundraising events. For information on our volunteers, call extension 8256.

Your Opinion
Your satisfaction is so important, we measure it. After your discharge you will receive a patient satisfaction survey from our survey company Intelligent Survey Avatar International, Co. You will be asked to rate your satisfaction with SMMC. Our goal is to meet your needs and expectations during your stay with us. To evaluate the quality of care we offer, we would appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete this survey and return it in the postage-paid envelope provided. Please note that a “Strongly Agree” on the survey doesn’t mean perfect, it means that we did our absolute best to assure that you had an excellent experience.