Hospitalists are hospital-based doctors
While you are in the hospital you may be cared for by hospitalists. Their only job is to take care of hospitalized patients. Hospitalists are internal medicine specialists with extra training and experience in managing serious illness and coordinating care. Hospitalists are in the hospital every day, 24 hours a day. Because they are in the hospital all the time, they can read test results promptly, coordinate care provided by a variety of specialists, keep a close eye on your progress and meet with your family. They also work closely with social workers and home health nurses to ensure the best possible support for you once you leave the hospital and return to the care of your own doctor. 

Pain control
Pain is both a medical symptom and a medical problem. Too much pain can slow healing. Pain is also very individual. If you are in pain, tell your nurse and be prepared to describe its location, sensation (dull, piercing), duration (when it started), and intensity on a scale of 1 to 10. Your caregivers want to treat your pain quickly and effectively.

Language interpretation 
Hospital staff members bilingual in Spanish or other languages may be able to provide in-person interpretation between patients and their caregivers. When a bilingual staffer is not available on site, language translation is still available. Talk with your nurse.

Food services for patients
An assortment of snacks, beverages, and condiments are available to patients at each nursing station at all times. Consult the menu in the Guide to Patient Services in your room.

Meals will arrive three times a day. A menu to select each day’s lunch and dinner and the next morning’s breakfast will come with your breakfast tray. Your doctor may order restrictions to your diet, and you may notice changes to your meal selections as a result. Your first meal may be pre-selected for you, but a menu to choose from is also available at each nursing station. Dietitians are available to discuss:

• Diets and restrictions.
• Your individual needs.
• Your needs at home.

For Your Safety and Security

We strive to provide a safe and secure environment for you and your visitors. We would like to recommend the following measures to keep you safe and your valuables secure.

• Please do not leave any items, even insignificant items like change, visible in a parked car.
• Please do not leave valuables such as jewelry, cash, credit cards or a checkbook in your room. Please ask a family member to take your valuables home. If that is not possible, notify your nurse, and your valuables may be secured in an envelope in the hospital safe. They will be returned to you upon discharge. The hospital does not accept responsibility for items of value unless they are kept in the safe.
• Please remind your visitors to not leave their possessions and valuables in their vehicles, waiting areas, dining rooms or your room.
• Our security officers will escort your visitors to the parking garages or lots on the campus. Please ask your nurse to call an escort for your visitors. After 8:30 PM they may stop by the Emergency Room security desk and ask the officer to arrange for an escort for them.
• If you are aware of a threat to you or concerned someone inappropriate may visit you in the hospital, please ask you nurse to contact Security. We will take steps to address the threat and keep unwanted visitors from contacting you.
• For everyone’s safety, weapons of any kind are not allowed in the hospital. The prohibition includes weapons covered by a concealed weapons permit.

If you have any concerns with security please don’t hesitate to ask your nurse or a staff person to immediately contact Security. 

Pastoral and Spiritual Care Services Are Available

PeaceHealth believes that health care includes not only the physical needs of patients but also the emotional, spiritual and human aspects of their lives. This commitment is expressed in many ways, especially in our spiritual care to patients and their families.

Crisis and struggles with health care often raise spiritual issues of meaning and hope for all people. Specially trained chaplains provide support to patients and families regardless of their spiritual beliefs or religious affiliation. They are available 24 hours a day for support, advocacy and prayer. Chaplains also partner with local ministers and clergy. If you are part of a local faith community and would like your minister to be notified, simply let us know. To reach Pastoral and Spiritual Care, call 686-7402 or ask your nurse to contact a chaplain.

Our chapel is on the main floor, just off the lobby, and is open to all daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for prayer and meditation. Mass is celebrated Monday through Friday at 12:30 p.m; the service is broadcast live in the hospital on TV Channel 50.

You may hear live music in our lobby or outside your room. Volunteer musicians regularly visit the hospital to help create a more healing environment. Every time you hear a harp playing a bit of Brahms’ Lullaby, a baby has just been born.

Our Bioethics Committee is available to meet with you 
While amazing advances in medical technology make it possible for us to live longer and healthier lives, these same advances can often present new choices and, sometimes, difficult decisions.

Such decisions may involve the use of artificial life-sustaining procedures, the right to accept or refuse life-sustaining treatment, decision-making for patients who are unable to make decisions themselves, and other related issues.

The Bioethics Committee, a team of health care professionals, is available to patients, families and their caregivers when help is needed to work through difficult treatment decisions. If you need assistance, please talk with your physician, nurse or other health care team member to request a consultation with the Bioethics Committee.

Advance Directives
You have a right to accept or refuse any treatment. You can protect this right for the future by completing an Advance Directive (sometimes called a “Directive to Physicians,” “Living Will,” or “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Decisions”). An Advance Directive is a form that allows you to state how, and by whom, you want medical decisions made if a time should ever come when you can’t speak for yourself. For more information, call Pastoral and Spiritual Services at 686-7402. 

You can download Advance Directive forms and get additional guidance from the Partners to Improve End of Life Care, a local community coalition dedicated to improving end of life care through education, advocacy, and support; click on “Important Decisions.”

Financial Concerns? Let Us Help!

Business Office
(541) 686-7191 or toll-free (800) 873-8253

Worry over finances does not speed your healing process. If you have questions about your hospital bill, please let us help. Our financial counselors work with patients and families to develop repayment plans. They also help patients access a variety of government programs and community resources that may provide financial aid.

We ask that you make anticipated co-pays at the time of each visit. If you need more information about the costs of your procedure, estimates are available by calling our Business Office. You may pay by check, cash, money order or bankcard at a variety of locations. Telephone payment by major bankcard is also accepted.

Sacred Heart is an outreach facility for the Oregon Health Plan (OHP). Specially trained staff can help you apply for OHP if you appear to meet the requirements. If you believe you can’t pay your hospital balance and you don’t quality for other programs, our Bridge Assistance Program may be an option. Bridge Assistance is a program that can reduce or eliminate your balance at all PeaceHealth facilities if your situation meets our hardship criteria. But please don’t delay. Many financial assistance programs, including OHP and Bridge Assistance, have an application and screening process. It is essential that you apply as early as possible for OHP. Please call the Business Office soon so we can move quickly to help you.

If you have any concerns about your ability to pay your hospital bill, please contact our financial counseling team. We can work with you over the phone or arrange to visit with you personally. Medically necessary hospital services will NEVER be delayed or denied based upon your ability to pay.