During Your Stay at UPMC Shadyside

During your stay at UPMC Shadyside, you will meet many members of our care team. These include:

Physicians

We have the primary responsibility for your care while you are in the hospital. We also may consult a specialist if needed.

Nursing Staff: RNs

We are responsible for your overall care. We perform many skills to help you get well and will teach you about your medicine and other important information. Please ask us if you have any questions about your care. You may notice nurses using electronic devices, such as smart phones and computers. Rest assured they are reviewing clinical information about your care and are not conducting personal business. We wear ceil (sky) blue and/or white scrubs.

Patient care technicians and nursing assistants

Our primary function is to assist in your care. We will help you to the bathroom, take your vital signs, draw your blood work, and perform other special tasks with you. We wear hunter green scrubs.

Mid-Level providers (Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and others)

We support the work of your doctors by assisting them with treating patients, performing procedures, and documenting your care. We may accompany your doctor or see you separately. In either case, our goal is to provide you with great care.

Housekeeping

We are responsible for cleaning your room each day. Our goal is to ensure that every patient room is kept clean at all times. If you have any special requests, please feel free to contact Housekeeping directly at 412-623-2112. We wear grey tops and black pants.

Health Unit Coordinators (HUC)

We provide clerical support by answering call bells and phones, and we use the computer to assist with your care. We wear business casual.

Respiratory Therapists

We give you breathing treatments and oxygen therapy if needed. We wear navy blue scrubs.

Technologists and Technicians

We serve a variety of roles at UPMC Shadyside that include providing you with x-rays, imaging exams, and some cardiac testing. Many of us wear royal blue scrubs, although this can vary by department.

Social Workers

We work with care managers, your nurses, and doctors to coordinate your plan of care before admission, during your stay, and after you leave the hospital. We wear business attire that may be accompanied by a white lab coat.

Care Managers

We are responsible for coordinating your care, working with your insurance company, and planning for your discharge needs to assure a safe transition out of the hospital. We wear business attire that may be

Patient Relations at UPMC Shadyside provides concierge services — by request — for nonmedical needs, such as:

• Personal items not available on the patient care unit.
• Fax and copy services.
• Cultural, ethnic, or religious items.

Please call 412-623-2014 for concierge services.

UPMC created Condition Help to increase the safety of patients while in the hospital.

It is a resource for UPMC Shadyside patients or family members to call:

• In an emergency.
• When a patient can't get the attention of the health care team.
• With a concern about a noticeable change in a patient's medical condition that the health care team is not recognizing.
• About a breakdown in how the team is giving care or confusion over what care a patient needs.

Each UPMC hospital has a Condition Help phone number to dial. While in UPMC Shadyside, dial 3-3131 on one of our telephones. When you call, please give the operator:

• Your name.
• The patient's name.
• The room number.
• 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 issue.

To protect the health of all patients, the staff at UPMC Shadyside wears gloves and other protective clothing for many aspects of your care.

These routine safety measures help shield patients and health care staff against many types of infections found in blood and other body fluids.

Casual contact will not spread many infections. 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 makes contact with the skin that lines the eyes, nose, or mouth.

If you have any questions about infection precautions, please ask your nurse.

Cards and letters are delivered to patient care units on weekdays. Friends and relatives should address mail as follows:

Patient's Full Name
Patient's Room Number and Floor
UPMC Shadyside
5230 Centre Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

If mail comes to the hospital after discharge, we will forward it to the patient's home.

Give outgoing mail to your nurse or drop it off at the nurses station.

The U.S. Postal Service picks up outgoing mail Monday through Saturday. Public mailboxes are located in the lobbies of Posner Tower and the Shadyside Medical Building. Postage stamps are available for purchase in Lori's Gifts at UPMC Shadyside.

UPMC Shadyside provides palliative care services for patients who are dying or have life-limiting illnesses.

The palliative care service:

• Offers relief from pain and other distressing symptoms.
• Integrates physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of patient care.
• Provides a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death, and to help families cope during the patient's illness and in bereavement.

For a consult, call 412-623-3008.

Learn more about dining options for patients.

At UPMC Shadyside, our goal is to meet our patients' nutrition needs and food preferences. Each day, you may choose food much like the comfort foods you eat at home, unless your doctor says otherwise.

A dietary host or hostess can help you plan your meal and answer any questions you have. You may also call the UPMC Shadyside Food and Nutrition contact number at 412-623-1659.

For a fee, patients or their visitors may order a guest tray for the patient room. To place an order call 412-623-0028.

The Hillman Pharmacy is located on the Ground Floor of UPMC Shadyside.

Learn more about Hillman Pharmacy.

UPMC Shadyside is happy to provide our patients with phone and TV services.

To call an outside number from your hospital phone:

• Dial 9
• Enter the area code
• Enter the telephone number

We close the phones to incoming calls from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

If you have any problems with the phone, please call Shadyside Patient Relations at 412-623-2014.

If you have impaired hearing, we have amplified phone receivers and TDD (telecommunications devices for the deaf). Ask your nurse for assistance.

We have courtesy phones for local calls located throughout UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at UPMC Shadyside:

• Ground Level — At the lobby Information Desk and outside the Gift Shop (by the bank machine).
• Level One — On the wall across from the elevators.
• Level Two — On the wall by the reception area.
• Level Three — At the reception desk.

To ensure the safety of patients, visitors, and staff, please comply with staff members' requests regarding UPMC policies. Follow hospital rules, and ask your visitors to do the same.

Security service is available 24 hours a day. You can reach Security at 412-623-2990 if you need assistance.

At UPMC Shadyside, we strive to meet all of our patients' and visitors' special needs or physical challenges.

For people with impaired hearing or communications needs, we offer:

• Sign language interpreters.
• Amplified phone receivers and TDD (telecommunications devices for the deaf).
• Closed-captioned television.
• Language interpreters.
• Printed educational materials.

If you have any concerns, please talk with your nurse or the head nurse on the nursing unit.

Visit the UPMC Disabilities Resource Center for more about our special needs services.

UPMC Shadyside has chaplains of the Protestant and Catholic faiths at the hospital. They are available for ordinary pastoral care and in emergencies.

You can arrange for a visit or ask about religious services by calling the:

• Minister — 412-623-1691
• Priest — 412-623-1692

If you prefer, you may arrange to have your own clergy visit you. At our interfaith chapel, located in Posner Tower on the 1st floor, you can request:

• Prayer books
• Bibles
• Electric Sabbath candles

The Hulme Meditation Area is a quiet place for reflection and relaxation. It's located near the Hopwood Garden and atrium on the ground level of Hillman Cancer Center at UPMC Shadyside.

View our Jewish Patient and Visitor Guide (PDF).

Please leave valuables — such as jewelry, large amounts of cash, and sentimental items — at home.

Shadyside hospital security has a limited number of safe-deposit boxes. To secure valuables in a safe-deposit box, or to ask about lost and found items, call 412-623-2990.

UPMC Shadyside is not responsible for lost items that you decide to keep with you during your stay. These include:

• Clothing
• Money
• Jewelry or other valuables
• Dentures
• Glasses
• Hearing aids

UPMC will not replace any property lost, broken, stolen, or brought to you while you are a patient.

You can have visitors during your stay at UPMC Shadyside to provide emotional support.

You (or your representative, when appropriate) have the right — either verbally or in writing — to receive the visitors you appoint. You may also withdraw or deny consent for visitation at any time.

Visitors may include, but are not limited to:

• Spouses
• Domestic partners (including same-sex domestic partners)
• Family members
• Friends

Please talk with your nurse to arrange visiting hours that work for you, your care team, and your family.

General visiting hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily for most inpatient units.

Some specialty care units observe different visiting hours. Check with your loved one’s nurse for more information.

For information about your condition by phone, choose one family member or friend to call the patient care unit. That person can then relay the information to others as you wish.

Visit our general UPMC patient resources section to help you prepare for your stay at UPMC Shadyside.

• Patient Rights and Responsibilities: Please take a moment to review our system-wide Patient Rights and Responsibilities, adopted to protect the interests and well-being of our patients.
• UPMC Patient Relations: You may have concerns during your stay. To reach UPMC Shadyside Patient Relations, call 412-623-2014.
• Pain Control: Your nurses and doctors will work with you to help relieve or control your pain levels during your hospital stay.
• Discharge Planning: Your nurse will work with you and your family to plan your discharge from UPMC Shadyside.
• Organ Donation: Learn more about becoming an organ or tissue donor.