During Your Stay
Advance Directives
An advance directive is a written document that expresses the individual's wishes for medical care if he or she becomes incompetent or incapacitated. Advance directives may include living wills, health care agents, or durable powers of attorney. When you are admitted to the hospital, a staff member will ask you if you have already prepared an advance directive. If you have an advanced directive, and a copy is available, it will be placed in your medical record. More information and sample forms are available in Making Medical Decisions in Advance. If you would like information about writing advance directives or making decisions about life-sustaining treatment, please ask your doctor.
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Bank Machines (ATMs)
There is an ATM on the first floor near the Lobby.
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Cell Phones and Wireless
Please read and follow all posted signs in the hospital regarding restrictions on the use of cell phones, wireless computers, and other wireless devices that transmit radio signals. Restrictions may exist in hospital areas such as operating rooms, transplant intensive care rooms, and radiology imaging rooms. Do not use cell phones or any wireless devices within six feet of medical equipment in patient care areas.
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Condition Help
Condition Help was created to increase the safety of patients while in the hospital. It is a resource to call in an emergency or when a patient cannot get the attention of the health care team. You can call Condition Help for a concern about a noticeable change in the patient’s medical condition that the health care team is not recognizing. You can also call Condition Help for concerns about a breakdown in how care is given or confusion over what care is needed. Either the patient or a family member may call.
Each hospital has a special Condition Help phone number to dial. Give the operator your name, the room number, the patient’s name, and the patient’s concern. The operator will immediately activate Condition Help. This alerts a team of medical professionals to come to the patient’s room to assess the situation.
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Discharge Planning
Your nurse will work with you and your family to make your discharge as smooth as possible. Before you are discharged from the hospital, your nurses will review with you any special instructions for your at-home care or medicines.
Clinical social workers can help arrange for discharge to another facility, such as a nursing home or rehabilitation facility. They can help arrange for home nursing care or home health care equipment or supplies, if needed.
Your attending doctor will decide when you are ready to be discharged. Most attending doctors make the final decision to discharge patients in the morning. If you disagree with your doctor’s decision and wish to appeal the decision, tell your nurse.
Discharge time is usually 11 a.m. or earlier. Check with your nurse for your discharge time. You should arrange for a family member or friend to take you home from the hospital.
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Food Services
The hospital Snack Bar operates Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. It is closed on Sundays and Holidays. The Snack Bar is located on the first floor next to the Lobby.
You or your visitor may request that a guest tray be delivered to your room. You will be charged for this service. To place an order, contact your nurse.
Vending machines are available on the ground floor and in the Emergency Department Waiting Room on the first floor.
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Gift Shop
The gift shop is part of the Snack Bar on the first floor.
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Hearing Assistance
If you have impaired hearing, amplified phone receivers and TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) are available. We also offer printed educational materials, closed captioned television, and sign language interpreters. Please ask your nurse for assistance.
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Infection Precautions
To safeguard the health of all patients, our staff uses routine protective measures, such as wearing gloves and other protective clothing, for many aspects of your care. These precautions protect patients and health care staff against many types of infections that are carried in blood and other body fluids. Many infections are not spread by casual contact. However, contact with an infected person’s body or body fluids can pose a risk if the blood or body fluid enters an opening in the skin, or comes in contact with the skin that lines the eyes, nose, or mouth.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all health care workers take precautions when they come in contact with a patient’s blood or other body fluids. If you have any questions about infection precautions, please ask your nurse.
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Language Services
We provide language interpreter services either through volunteer language interpreters (staff and community members) with varying degrees of fluency in certain languages, or access to professional language interpretation services. Ask your nurse about language interpretation services, or call the nursing supervisor at 814-623-4740.
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Lost and Found
You are responsible for your personal belongings and valuables. Please leave all valuables — such as jewelry, large amounts of cash, and sentimental items — at home. If it is absolutely necessary to secure your belongings until someone can take them home for you, we strongly advise you to deposit them in the hospital's safe. To make arrangements to do this, please speak with your nurse.
Any personal items found throughout the hospital are turned over to Purchasing for safekeeping until claimed. To inquire about a lost and found item, call 814-623-3511.
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Organ Donation
UPMC is a part of a national effort to raise awareness about the need for organ and tissue donations. To raise awareness, staff members ask patients who come to the hospital, or their designated family members, if the patient would be willing to serve as an organ or tissue donor. Some people may have incorrect ideas about the donor program. As health care professionals, we can help answer your questions about organ and tissue donation so you can make an informed decision. Thousands of people are awaiting organ and tissue transplants.
You have the power to save lives and improve the quality of life of those in need of organ and tissue transplants by becoming a donor. If you have questions about becoming an organ or tissue donor, please ask your doctor. You may also call the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) at 1-800-DONORS-7 (1-800-366-6777).
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Pain Control
We recognize that pain control is essential to good health care. As a patient you can expect:
- Information about pain and pain relief measures
- A concerned staff committed to pain prevention and management
- Health professionals who respond quickly to your report of pain
- That your report of pain will be believed
- State-of-the-art pain management
- Dedicated pain relief specialists
In turn, we expect that you will:
- Ask your doctor or nurse what to expect regarding pain and pain management
- Work with your doctor or nurse to develop a pain management plan
- Ask for pain relief when pain first begins
- Help your doctor or nurse assess your pain
- Tell your doctor or nurse if your pain is not relieved
- Tell your doctor or nurse about any worries you have about taking pain medicine
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Palliative Care
Palliative care services are offered for those who are dying, and also those whose death is not known to be close. The service emphasizes relief from pain and other distressing symptoms; integration of physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of patient care; and development of a support system, both to help patients live as actively as possible until death and to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in bereavement.
To request palliative care services, ask your doctor or nurse.
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Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care arranges pastoral visits for patients who want spiritual support. To arrange for a visit from your pastor or the hospital chaplain, please ask your nurse.
A nondenominational chapel is located on the first floor, past the front desk at the end of the hall on the left.
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Patient Relations
Concerns may arise during a hospital stay. Your nurse and the nursing unit director are available to address your concerns and should be your first point of contact. When other departments are involved, they can reach the appropriate director to resolve the issue.
The patient advocate is available to assist when resolution of an issue cannot be accomplished with the nurse or unit director; the patient advocate can be reached at 814-623-3585. Written complaints can be addressed to Patient Advocate, UPMC Bedford Memorial, 10455 Lincoln Highway, Everett PA 15537.
Billing questions and issues requiring clarification of the billing process are managed by Patient Business Services. For questions or comments about your bill, call Patient Business Services at 1-800-854-1745.
Concerns may be submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Division of Acute and Ambulatory Care, Health and Welfare Building, P.O. Box 90, Harrisburg, PA 17108-0090. The phone number is 1-800-254-5164. Or locally submit to the PA Department of Health, Division of Acute and Ambulatory Care, 184 Donald Lane, Suite 2, Johnstown, PA 15904. The phone number is 814-248-3129.
UPMC Bedford Memorial is accredited by The Joint Commission. If the patient believes his or her concerns about care or safety have not been addressed by the hospital, the patient may contact The Joint Commission’s Office of Quality Monitoring by phone at 1-800-994-6610, or by e-mail at complaint@jointcomission.org.
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Smoking Policy
To protect our patients, visitors, and staff from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, smoking is not permitted anywhere on UPMC property. All UPMC hospitals, facilities, and grounds, including parking lots and garages, are smoke-free. UPMC has no designated smoking areas. If you choose to smoke, you cannot do so on the UPMC campus.
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Telephone and Television
All television and local telephone services are provided free of charge.
Local calls may be made by dialing “9” followed by the seven digit telephone number.
Long distance or toll calls must be made collect, third party, or charged to a calling card. To reach the operator, dial “9” then “0”.
If you have impaired hearing, amplified phone receivers and TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) are available. Please ask your nurse for assistance.
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Wireless Internet Access
Free wireless Internet — Wi-fi — is available at UPMC hospitals. Patients and visitors can access the Internet from laptops or other computer devices.
To access the wireless network, open “Network Connections” on the laptop and connect to Guest Internet Access (GIA).
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