Your Hospital Stay

• Do not remove your hospital identification bracelet.
• Call for assistance, especially at night, when you need to get in or out of bed.
• Report any problems with equipment or furnishings to the nurse. Any spills, broken glass, or other accidents should be reported.
• Wear slippers or shoes when you are out of bed.

You may notice health care workers use gloves, plastic aprons, gowns, masks or protective eye wear whenever they anticipate a possibility of exposure to blood, body fluid or body substances. These procedures are recommended by the Center for Disease Control and the American Hospital Association. They assist health care workers in preventing the spread of disease.

Due to the operation of our service, we do use products (alcohol beverages served with meals, formaldehyde, ethylene oxide) known to the state of California to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. We do closely monitor the use of these products to ensure workplace safety.

Occasionally, fire or disaster drills are announced over the paging system. Please stay in your room during the drill. Safety drills are routine in Kaiser Foundation Hospitals to help assure the safety of our patients and staff.

• Kaiser Permanente card
• drivers’ license / photo ID
• social security Card
• other insurance information
• photographs of loved ones
• co-payment / deposit
• Advance Directive (copy)

Pediatric Patients Bring:

• favorite blanket
• favorite stuffed toy
• pacifier or bottle

Arrange in advance your ride home on discharge day (our discharge time is 11 a.m.) Please verify with your nurse to confirm discharge time.

Do Not Bring Your:

• wallet
• checkbook
• cell phone
• jewelry
• electric or battery operated appliances (including shavers and VCR equipment)

Because the hospital cannot be responsible for valuables left in your room, we suggest that you leave costly items at home.

Hand hygiene (handwashing and waterless alcohol gel), by your health care provider and by you, the patient, is the best line of defense against germs that can cause infection. Once germs are on your hands, they can get inside your body through a wound or when you touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. You can also spread the germs on your hands to objects or people that you touch.

The best way to stop the spread of germs is to wash your hands. When you wash your hands, you remove most germs by using friction, soap, and water. Sometimes water is not available and you cannot wash your hands. The use of waterless alcohol products and cleaning wipes can help to control the spread of germs.

Clean your hands often. Wash your hands when they are dirty and at the following times:

• before you eat
• after you use the restroom
• after contact with blood or body fluid

The right way to wash your hands is:

• Wet your hands with warm water. Do not use hot water, hot water can make your skin dry and itchy.
• Put soap on your hands. It is better to use a liquid soap because germs can live on wet bars of soap.
• Rub your hands together for 10-15 seconds. Wash longer if you can still see dirt on your hands. Make sure that you wash in between your fingers, the backs of your hands, your thumbs and under your fingernails.
• Rinse your hands thoroughly with warm water.
• Pat your hands dry with paper towels.
• Use the towel to turn off the water.

Clean your hands often, and clean them the right way, and you can prevent infections in yourself and others close to you. Your healthcare providers have also been instructed to clean their hands during the provision of health care services to you, the patient.

The Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa is a smoke free campus. Please do not smoke while on the premises. (Smoking in private vehicles is permitted.) Advise your visitors, also, that smoking is not allowed.

Your Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program has established a uniform electrical standard which prohibits the use of personally owned electrical devices in the medical centers by patients, visitors, or employees.

The use of personally owned electrical devices in the medical center may threaten the well-being and even the life of critically ill patients.

Your personally owned electrical device may operate safely at home, but may interfere with the operation of sensitive life-support equipment used in the hospital. Even battery operated appliances, such as shavers, radios and cell phones may disturb the accuracy and performance of critical care medical equipment such as heart monitors.