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SPECIAL SERVICES
Flowers
Volunteers deliver flowers to your room. In the intensive care unit, please
check with the nurse regarding gifts/flowers for patients.
Newspapers
Newspapers may be purchased at the entrance of the hospital.
Interpreters
If you or your family need the services of a foreign language interpreter,
please contact your nurse who can arrange for one at no cost through the
Care Coordination Department.
For the Hearing Impaired
A telecommunications device (TDD) is available for hearing-impaired patients
or for patients who want to communicate with a hearingimpaired relative
or friend. Arrangements can also be made to have a person who uses sign
language help a hearing-impaired or deaf patient. Closed caption TV is
also available. Ask your nurse for assistance.
Blood Donor Program
Blood Donor Services, located in the St. John’s Mercy Doctors Building,
allows our patients and community the opportunity to donate blood without having
to go to St. Louis. The services offered include autologous blood donations,
directed blood donations, general blood inventory donations, platelet pheresis
and therapeutic phlebotomy. These are scheduled services but walk-ins are welcomed
for general blood donation. For more information, call 636-239-8751 or 1-866-37DONOR (373-6667).
Advance Directives
The Patient Self-Determination Act of 1991 requires health care providers to
inform you of your rights as recognized under Missouri Law to make decisions
concerning your medical care. This includes your right to accept or refuse
medical or surgical treatment and your right to write an advance directive.
Advance
directives are written instructions about how you want medical decisions made
if you can no longer communicate your wishes. The two most common types of
advance directives are a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare and a Health
Care Directive. A Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare allows you to
appoint someone to make health care decisions for you, if you are unable
to do so. These decisions may include, but are not limited to, decisions
to withhold or withdraw lifeprolonging procedures. A Health Care Directive
is similar to a Living Will. It allows you to state, in advance, your wishes
regarding the use of life-prolonging procedures.
During the inpatient admission
process, you will be asked if you have an advance directive. If you have one,
it is your responsibility to provide St. John’s Mercy with a copy so
it can be placed in your medical chart. Please discuss your advance directive
with your physician to ensure he/she has no ethical concerns about carrying
out your instructions.
If you do not have an advance
directive, but would like more information or would like assistance completing
one, please tell your nurse. She/he will contact someone from our Pastoral
Services or Care Coordination department to assist you.\
It is the policy
of St. John’s Mercy Hospital to honor your advance directive within the
limits of the law and the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health
Care Services (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, June 2001).
Comfort Management
All patients have a right to be comfortable. Assuring patient comfort is a
high priority at St. John’s Mercy Hospital. We believe that having
pain can sometimes slow healing and can keep people from doing the things
they want to do. Although it may not always be possible to relieve all
pain, we are committed to helping patients achieve a high level of comfort.
As
a patient in this hospital, you can expect the hospital staff to:
- Ask you often
about your comfort level.
- Believe you if you tell
us you have pain.
- Ask for your opinion
about how to make you more comfortable.
- Discuss pain treatments
with you such as medications and other options like relaxation and massage.
- Teach
you how you can manage pain if it occurs after you go home.
As a patient in
this hospital, we expect that you will:
- Help the staff set up
a plan for assuring your comfort.
- Ask the staff questions
about the pain-relief treatments prescribed for you.
- Tell the staff before
pain becomes severe, so that treatments can be started quickly.
- Tell the staff
if your pain is not relieved.
- Tell the staff if you
have any effects from the pain treatments that you don’t like (such
as constipation, drowsiness or itching).
- Help the staff “measure” your
pain frequently.
One of the ways we “measure” pain
is by ranking it on a 0-10 scale (0=no pain and 10=worst possible pain).
We want you to be as comfortable
as possible while you are in the hospital as well as when you go home. If
you have any questions or concerns about your pain management, please discuss
them with the hospital staff as soon as possible.
Ethics Consultation
An ethicist on staff and an Ethics Committee at St. John’s Mercy are
available resources if you or your family have questions about a medical ethical
issue. Call 636 239-8350 for an ethics consultation.
Protective Services
St. John’s Mercy supports the patient’s and family’s right
to access protective services, which may include Division of Family Services/Child
Protective Services, Division of Aging/Adult Protective Services, Order of
Protection, guardianship, conservatorship, the Long Term Care Ombudsman, and
consumer advocacy programs related to health care and health care reimbursement.
For more information about protective services and/or contacting any of those
agencies, please contact your nurse.
Mail
Mail will be delivered to your room. Letters and packages that arrive after
you go home will be forwarded to you. Stamps and stationery are available
in the Gift Shop. A mailbox is located at the front of the hospital for
outgoing mail.
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