Prepare for a Visit

Before You Arrive

Packing

We want you to feel as much at home as possible during your hospital stay...without bringing home with you. Pack "smart," using these few suggestions:

• The hospital provides nearly everything you need for your stay. You may wish to bring pajamas or a nightgown, robe, slippers, toothpaste, deodorant or other personal toiletries articles and a list of medications you are taking. We ask that you wear a bathrobe whenever you leave your room.
• We expect you will want to bring items such as dentures, hearing aids or eyeglasses. The nurse can give you a protective container to hold dentures. Please avoid wrapping your dentures or hearing aids in a napkin or tissue or placing them on your meal tray, under your pillow or in a tissue box. They may be mistaken for trash and thrown away.
• For safety reasons, we ask that you not bring any plug-in electrical appliances to the hospital. This includes shavers, radios, cassette players, hair dryers and rollers. You may bring battery-operated appliances, but you will need to provide your own batteries.
• All jewelry and other valuables—significant amounts of money, credit cards, personal checks— should be left at home. You may want to bring a few dollars for the lobby cart or to make incidental purchases. If you do bring valuables into the hospital, we ask that you give them to our security staff.
• The hospital is not responsible for loss of dentures, eyeglasses, hearing aids, other personal items or cash.
• Your doctor will prescribe any medications you need while you are in the hospital. Please do not bring any medications from home, except eye drops or birth control pills.
• For patients with a legal guardian, conservator or power of attorney, a copy of that document should be brought to the hospital when admitting a patient. If you have an advance directive, such as a living will, a health care agent or power of attorney, bring a copy with you. Find out more about advance directives.

If You Have A Problem Hearing

To ensure effective communication with Patients and Companions who are deaf or hard of hearing, we provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services free of charge, such as: sign language and oral interpreters, TTY's, notetakers, computer-assisted real time transcription services, written materials, telephone handset amplifiers, telephones compatible with hearing aids, assistive listening devices and systems, closed caption decoders and open and closed captioning of most Hospital programs. Please ask your nurse for assistance in obtaining any of these. If you have questions regarding our program, contact the information office at (860) 442-0711, extension 0 (voice) or 860-444-5135 (TTY).