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Your Safety

Your safety is our number one priority. If you have any safety concerns, please let your caregiver know immediately or ask to speak to the department manager.

Care Communication

Bedside report during shift changes

When a nurse comes on duty, we make sure to share the details of your plan of care, including medications, tests and progress. This is done in a meeting in your presence, called a bedside report. This keeps you informed. It also is a chance for you to ask any questions and to meet your new nurse.

If you have visitors in your room and are uncomfortable discussing personal details at the time of the bedside report – or at any other time – please tell your nurse. We will protect your privacy.

If you happen to be asleep during a shift change, a nurse will check on you but the report will done elsewhere so you can rest. Please tell us if you want us to wake you for the report.

We know the bedside report will benefit you by keeping you informed about your care. It also helps us maintain the high quality of care you expect as a patient at UM Health-West.

Rounding – nurses are here for you

As part of our mission to provide the best patient experience, the nursing department has a program that promotes safety and customer service with frequent and consistent staff visits to the patient bedside. This is called rounding. 

Ensuring your safety and comfort

On each visit, staff will check on patients by focusing on “the three P’s”:

  1. Personal: Ensuring you are safe and personal needs, such as using the bathroom, are met.
  2. Pain: Checking to make sure your medication is managing any pain.
  3. Position: Making sure you are comfortable and helping you sit up or re-position if necessary.

ID Wristbands

You will receive a patient ID wristband upon admission. This wristband should be checked and information verified by a nurse or physician before any procedures are performed on you. If your wristband is not checked, please refuse treatment and notify a staff member immediately.

Infection Prevention

Infections are not caused by dirt but by viruses or germs called bacteria, which naturally occur around us. They are on our skin and in our mouths and noses. Most of them don’t do us any harm. But when we are ill or recovering, our bodies’ natural defenses are weaker, so more care is needed to protect us. Getting an infection in the hospital might mean staying longer for treatment.

UM Health-West takes hand hygiene seriously. It is our goal to provide you with a safe place to recover from your illness or surgery. We expect all staff and physicians to clean their hands before and after touching each patient. There are two main ways to do this:

  • Using alcohol hand sanitizer – these kill about 99% of germs and are very convenient. We especially encourage staff to use these hand sanitizer rubs. Sanitizer is located in the hallway or in your room.
  • Washing with soap and water – this removes germs and should be used when hands look dirty.

All health care workers who enter your room are required to wash their hands with either soap and water or alcohol hand sanitizer. Remember, if you are worried we have forgotten, it is OK to remind us! Just ask, “Did you remember to clean your hands?” Or call extension 6272. 

Newborn Security

Newborns are protected by a security system that utilizes a tiny transmitter placed on the infant’s ankle. This system alerts Security and Childbirth Staff when a baby is carried outside the Childbirth Center. The transmitter is removed just prior to discharge.

Valuables & Personal Items

UM Health-West Hospital is not responsible for money or items of value kept in your room. Please follow these precautions to keep your items secure.

  • Cash: We suggest you bring only a small amount of money – enough to purchase newspapers or magazines.
  • Personal items: If you wear dentures, glasses or hearing aids, please put them in a container when not in use and store them in your over-the-bed table. (Do not put them on your food tray or wrap them in tissue, paper towels or bed linen.)
  • Medications: During your stay, take only medications and foods prescribed by your physician and administered by hospital staff, unless your physician orders otherwise. The nursing and pharmacy staffs must keep a record of the medications, vitamins and herbal/natural products you are taking.
  • Electrical appliances: Please do not bring personal appliances to the hospital. Men’s personal shavers are permitted.
  • Lost items: If you lose something, let your nurse know immediately and we will make every effort to help you find it. Although UM Health-West Hospital does not accept responsibility for missing items, to inquire about lost articles, call the Security Office at extension 7330.

Wheelchairs

Wheelchairs are available on all nursing units, but getting in and out of them without assistance may be hazardous. Please ask for help from a member of the hospital staff or a trained volunteer.