Welcome families!

Elizabeth saw HER own name on the sign for the hospital!

Even though we do not have YOUR name on our medical center, we welcome you and want to make sure your stay with us is as pleasant as possible.

When you need the kind of care only a hospital can give--- we welcome you at Saint Elizabeth Don’t forget you can bring your favorite stuffed animal, toy, hand-held game, or book along with you.

You will go into a room to talk with a nice person who will ask a lot of questions of your parents and enter information into a computer

That nice person will also give you your very own wrist band. This makes you an OFFICIAL patient!

If you look closely, your name and address are on the wristband but there is also a bar code---those small black lines with different spacing between them---like you see at a grocery store.

This bar code has your information tucked secretly inside of it. Your nurse will scan your barcode and the barcode on the medication to make sure everything matches.

Your nurse will give you a funny hospital shirt to wear. It ties in the back. You also get slippers to wear and a nice warm blanket when you crawl into your bed.

You will receive medication that will help you relax and fall asleep during your surgery. When you wake up back in your room---your parents will be there right by your side.

While you are in surgery, you will be falling asleep, and everyone will be wearing blue clothes! They also wear shower caps and small masks---that’s all to protect you from getting any germs from them. A surgery room is super clean! No strange germs allowed!

While you are in surgery, your parents will wait for you in a nice room. There are free beverages for them to drink and magazines to read. They can also get a pager. This will help them know exactly when your surgery is finished and when they can talk to your doctor.

Your parents can also check a big TV screen to see exactly where you are---in surgery or on your way up to your room. These TV screens are in the Hospitality Guest Lounge and in the cafeteria.

When you wake up after your surgery, your parents will be in your room, right by your side. All patient rooms at Saint Elizabeth are private rooms---with only one patient in them---so just you and your parents can talk about how you feel and make phone calls to your friends and family.

You might feel sore or kind of groggy for a while when you first arrive at your room. Your nurse may give you some medication to help you feel better

Saint Elizabeth has special chairs in your room that turn into beds so your mommy or daddy can sleep right in your room all night long.

You will have some medical people visit you in your room. You might need an x-ray like Ethan does. If you do, a person will come up to your room and give you a ride in a wheelchair to the part of the hospital where we give x-rays. They will take you back to your room afterward. Mommy and Daddy get to go along---but only YOU get to ride!

You may also have people come into your room who need to do some laboratory tests on you. They will always tell you what they are going to do. Some of them have stickers for you!

Your doctor will visit your room to check and make sure you are doing OK. Sometimes he will spend extra time talking with your parents.

You can ask your doctor questions like: “What are you looking at?” or “How am I doing?”

As you get better you might want to watch the TV in your room. You have a remote control so you can find the program you want to see.

You will eat right in your bed! Saint Elizabeth makes special kids food and brings it right up to your room. We have mac n’ cheese, hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches---even pudding and ice cream! There are a lot of things you can choose from.

We have toys and games you can play with and maybe even one you can take home with you!

You may have a special way to deliver medicine to your body. It’s called an I-V. There is a bag filled with water and medicine. It’s on a tall stand. The bag has a tube that connects to your arm so the medicine gets right inside your body. It keeps dripping the medicine into your body all day and all night.

You can move around---but you will take your I-V with you.

When it’s time for you to go home, you will get a ride in our special red wagon!

You might ask mommy and daddy to take a picture of you riding in it! It’s awesome!

Bigger children, who don’t fit into the red wagon, will get another ride in a wheelchair.