Patient Health and Safety

Smoking

• For the safety of our patients and visitors, smoking is not allowed in any buildings throughout the network. Please check with staff at the nursing station or at the front desk for directions to outside smoking areas.
  
• As a patient, if you think it is in your best interest to smoke while you are hospitalized, you must talk with your doctor. If the doctor agrees, he/she must write an order giving you permission to smoke. However, please understand that you must go to a designated patient/visitor smoking site outside of the building. If you are given permission to smoke, you need to let your nurse know when you are leaving your room to go outside to smoke.
  

Valuables

Please do not keep valuables such as jewelry, watches, cash money, checkbooks or credit cards with you in the hospital. If at all possible, please send your valuables and personal belongings home. If you are unable to send them home, please tell the staff. The hospital will make arrangements to have your valuables secured by the hospital's police. The hospital will not assume liability for damage or loss to valuables that are not secured by the hospital's police.

Personal Property

Please keep personal aids such as dentures, eyeglasses and hearing aids in a safe place when you are not using them. It is recommended you do not place any of these items on your meal tray.

Security

• It is prohibited to possess and/or carry any weapons onto the hospital's property.
  
• The possession and/or use of illegal substances or alcohol is prohibited.
  
• If there are circumstances in which you feel you need to have extra security precautions taken when you are in the hospital, please let your nurse know and request he/she to contact the hospital's police so you can discuss the situation with them.
  
• If you have any questions or concerns regarding safety, please call the Safety Line at 343-4535.

Electrical Safety

• It is important to make sure all electrical devices that are used in the hospital meet safety standards.
  
• Personal electrical items that are not to be used in the hospital include: clothes irons, coffee pots, electric blankets, fans, hot plates, tea pots, space heaters, personal televisions, electric toys and friction type toys.
  
• Personal hygiene devices such as electric shavers and blow dryers are allowed. However, none of these devices is to be used in the critical care units without permission from the charge nurse. Please make sure these devices are in good condition.

Domestic Violence

Because violence is so common in people's lives and because there is help available for individuals being abused, we now ask every person about domestic violence.  Please be assured that whatever you say will be kept confidential, though we are required by law to report incidents that involve weapons or grave bodily illness or harm.  If you are abused, or have been in the past, we would like to give you a chance to talk about it.

HIV (AIDS) Testing

Because of the nature of the work done in the health care setting, employees may be exposed to blood and body fluid.  North Carolina law states that we must inform the patient if an employee has been exposed to a patient's blood or body fluid, such as through an accidental needle stick.  If this occurs, the patient's blood will be tested for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.  This is necessary to treat the injured employee appropriately and quickly.  The patient's doctor will also be notified of this incident.   Testing will be at no cost to the patient.  Those test results will be kept confidential in Employee Health Services and a copy will also be sent to the patient's doctor.  He or she will inform that patient of the test results when received.  A representative from the hospital will contact the patient to answer any questions.

Cellular Telephones

Safety Questions