Patient Information

Please press the red call button on your television remote control. The unit coordinator will answer, listen to your needs, share them with your nurse and get you help as soon as you want it.

We are committed to communicating with patients who are unable to speak English or who are hearing impaired. We want to explain things related to medical conditions or hospital visits in a way that all of our patients can understand. We offer free communication services, including interpreters, TTY devices and a language line.

No person will be denied equal access to services at our hospital based on his or her ability to communicate or speak English. Please know that if you are experiencing an emergency, we will not delay care. Hospital staff will assist you in communicating as effectively as possible.

Our team will make sure your room and bathroom are kept clean. Your housekeeper will clean your room once a day. If you see something that needs immediate attention, please dial 6377 (MESS) to reach our Environmental Services staff. Visitors also may call the MESS line. When calling, listen for prompts and press the number that matches your needs.

We want to keep you well fed during your stay, with satisfying meals that meet your doctor’s orders. To do this, a host from our Food & Nutrition Services team will visit you after your physician prescribes a diet. Your host can help you choose meals from our menu that correspond to your diet. A copy of the menu will be available in your room to browse at your convenience.

Visitors who would like to dine with you may purchase a guest tray from the cashier in our café. Food & Nutrition Services can deliver guest trays to your room with your meal. The cost of the guest tray will vary depending on the foods your guest selects.

Visitors also may eat in our Woodlands Café, located on the first floor, or buy snacks from our Jazzman’s Café and Bakery kiosks as well as from vending machines on the first and second floors. Please see the Hospital Services section of this booklet for hours and additional information on dining at Shady Grove.

If a nurse visits your bedside and has serious and immediate concerns about your health, he or she will call our Rapid Response team. This team includes a critical care nurse and respiratory therapist. Team members will come to your room quickly and check on you.

You or your visitors also can call the Rapid Response team if something is urgently wrong. To contact the team, please dial 4444 from any hospital telephone and turn on the room’s call light. An operator will ask for:

• The caller’s name
• The room number
• The patient’s name

We do all we can to make sure you don’t accidentally fall during your stay. Many things can cause patients to have problems with balance and stability — medications, age, recent surgery, chronic health conditions and more.

When you are admitted into the hospital, we’ll ask you questions about your balance and stability. We will monitor your risk of falling throughout your stay. We might note your balance and stability levels by having you wear armbands, by putting signs on your door to alert staff members or by giving you no-skid socks.

You might hear us use the phrase, “Call, don’t fall.” Never hesitate to ask for help. If you need help in getting to the bathroom, using a bedpan or moving around your room, we’d rather you call us for assistance than risk injury from a fall. If you are alone and at great risk for potential injury from falling, please know that we may use special equipment to ensure your protection.

If you have arrived with valuables such as a wallet, a purse or jewelry, please ask a loved one to take them home for you. If this is impossible, the hospital maintains a process for keeping money and valuables. We shall not be liable for loss or damage of any personal property that is not stored according to this process. You must claim all items at the time of your discharge. We dispose of items that are unclaimed after 12 months and are released from liability after that time.

The hospital does not accept responsibility for valuables that are not safeguarded in this manner.

Shady Grove Medical Center does not allow smoking or tobacco use anywhere on our campus, inside or outside. A physician can order nicotine substitutes for you.

If you’re trying to quit smoking, use your stay with us as a first step. Join our Tobacco Cessation Program for patients. You can receive one-on-one counseling; information on nicotine replacement therapy; free patches, gums and lozenges; plus, referrals for additional tobacco cessation support programs after your discharge. To enroll, call 240-826-6510.

Please use earphones with personal audio or video devices, especially if you are in a semi-private room.

To allow you a period of uninterrupted rest, we observe quiet hours twice a day from 3 to 4 a.m. and 3 to 4 p.m. During these times, we ask staff and visitors to keep the area around your room quiet.

If you need emotional or spiritual support during your stay, we encourage you to call upon our Mission Integration and Spiritual Care team. These interfaith professionals carry out our goal of whole-person care for our patients and their loved ones.

To request a chaplain’s visit, just dial “0” from any hospital phone.

For quiet reflection or prayer on your own, we have a chapel on the first floor of the hospital, to the left of the main entrance. Chaplains conduct a short, interfaith service in the chapel every third Sunday of the month at 8:30 a.m. Everyone is welcome.

Spiritual Care also offers grief support groups and a variety of other ministries and services. To learn more, please dial 6112.

Visitors can access our award-winning Barbara Truland-Butz Healing Garden from the second floor. You can enter through a door inside the family lounge on our oncology unit (2B). The rooftop garden provides benches for meditation and reflection amid greenery and flowers, a water feature, a Zen garden and a pathway of personalized stones donated in honor of loved ones. Many rooms in the hospital Garden Wing have views of the garden, which is maintained with gifts to our Foundation.

Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center is pleased to provide complimentary Wireless Internet (WiFi) access for our guests and visitors.

You can find a slot for outgoing mail on each floor near the elevators. Volunteers deliver patient mail Monday through Friday. The hospital receives no mail on weekends or holidays.