Security

Your baby's safety and security is one of our top priorities. We safeguard your baby using the following measures:

• We place an identification band on your baby when she is admitted and it will remain in place until she is discharged.
• We will give you a parent ID band to identify you as a parent.
• Anyone else visiting your baby will receive a visitor pass.
• Children's Hospital employees wear identification badges so you can easily identify the staff caring for your baby.

Communication

Parents may call 215-590-3083 at any time to get information about their baby.

Due to the large volume of calls we receive, we regret that we cannot forward calls to you while you are visiting. Please let your family and friends know this so they will not be frustrated by trying to call you here. You may want to set up a time when you can call them to provide updates on your baby's progress. There are parent phones located throughout the unit that you can use for outgoing calls while you are here. Local calls (immediate Philadelphia area) are free; other calls require collect calling or a calling card.

Visiting

Parents and legal guardians are welcome to visit at any time.

General visiting hours for friends and other family members are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. With the exception of your baby's siblings, all visitors must be 18 years old or older.

Parents

Please stop at the clerks' window each time you enter the unit so they can let your nurse know that you are here. We offer limited sleep accommodations to parents, so if you plan to stay overnight, please ask your nurse to help you make arrangements.

Before you enter the unit, wash your hands and forearms up to the elbow with warm water and soap for two minutes either at the sinks in the entry area or as soon as you enter the unit. Cover gowns are available but not required. If you have a cold, we may ask you to wear a face mask (in addition to washing your hands carefully) before touching your baby, to protect her from outside illnesses. If you have been exposed to a contagious disease (measles, chicken pox, TB), please talk with a nurse before visiting so we can be sure that our other patients will not be at risk.

Although we encourage parents to be with their baby as much as they would like, there are rare times when an emergency is occurring that we must ask you to wait a few minutes before coming into the unit.

Siblings and other family members

If you wish, you may bring your baby's brothers and sisters to visit. Please talk to your baby's nurse or the charge nurse to plan for this. We need to make sure that the plans for the visit will fit in with the unit's activity level and that your visiting child does not pose an infection risk to the babies. Please note that only brothers and sisters — no other children — are permitted to visit. An adult family member must supervise visiting children at all times.

Also, please work with your baby's nurses to plan for visits by other family members. Please ask family members who have a cold, fever or diarrhea not to visit until they are feeling better. Also anyone who has been exposed to a contagious disease (chicken pox, measles, TB) should talk with a nurse before visiting to be sure that they are not at risk for exposing our patients.

Before entering the unit, siblings and family members should wash their hands and forearms up to the elbow with warm water and soap for two minutes either at the sinks in the entry area or as soon as they enter the unit. Cover gowns are available but not required.

We allow only two people on the unit (past the security doors) per patient at any one time to avoid crowding and excess noise for the babies. Once your visitors are inside the unit, we ask that they stay at your baby's bedside for infection control and confidentiality reasons.