Patient Information
Preparing For Your Stay
Ring your Insurance Provider
Prior to your admission, it is important to ring your insurance provider to ensure your coverage and clarify any excesses or shortfalls on your policy. Depending on your policy, some insurers will seek an “excess” payment on arrival to hospital. An excess is a contribution you are required to pay towards a claim you make on your insurance policy. Policy holders may opt to make this contribution in an effort to lower the cost of the premium. This is a contract between you and your insurance company, and as such the hospital cannot intervene. In addition, you will be liable to cover any charges not covered under your insurance plan.
Convalescence
If you have private health insurance, your insurer may pay towards the cost of convalesence in an approved nursing home after a stay in hospital. If you have been recommended convalescence by your consultant or wish to arrange it, please do so prior to your admission.
Bring All Medications With You
You required to bring your medication to hospital with you, in their original containers. In addition to the actual medication, please bring a list with you. The list should include all prescription medication, vitamins or other food supplements, complementary medicines, nicotine replacement and herbal remedies you make take. Your community pharmacist will help you with this. We advise to seek assistance from your pharmacist to ensure that all the medication, dose and frequency are recorded to ensure continuity of the correct medication and brand during your hospital stay. Prior to certain procedures it may be necessary to discontinue some medications (e.g. warfarin, aspirin) for a period of time. Please follow the advice provided by your consultant. If you are unsure of anything, please contact your consultant
Please Remember To
- Take medications as instructed by your consultant/preadmission nurse with a small sip of water
- Follow all instructions re fasting given to you by your consultant/ pre admission nurse, i.e no food/ fluids (incl. water) from 12 midnight
- If you are undergoing a procedure that requires sedation, please click here for additional important information.
- If you are undergoing a procedure that requires anaesthesia, please click here for additional information as to how you will need to prepare.
You may find the following checklist useful to help you prepare for your hospital stay.
What to Bring With You
- All your medications in their original containers, including herbal or over the counter medicines and nicotine replacement therapies. Also bring a list of your current medication from your community pharmacy or GP.
- Nightwear, dressing gown and non slip footwear/slippers.
- Underwear
- Toiletries
- Change of clothing
- Anything you use on a daily basis - e.g. glasses or lenses, hearing aid and batteries and cochlear implants and batteries, dentures, zimmer frame etc.
- Contact details for your next of kin
- As there is no ATM we would suggest that you bring a small amount of cash with you
What Not to Bring With You
- Valuables
- Jewellery
- Large amounts of cash
- Too much clothing (space is limited)
- Electrical equipment
- Tobacco products
- Alcohol
- Illegal substances
- Food
During Your Stay
Checking In
When you arrive at the hospital please go to reception and you will be directed to the Admissions Department to complete your registration. We will ask you personal questions such as your name as it appears on your Birth Certificate/Marriage Certificate. People often have “known as names”, abbreviated names or even nicknames, but for safety we ask that all patients are registered as their name appears on their Birth or Marriage certificate. You will also be asked for your Next of Kin details and insurance details.
Admission
Once you have completed the admission process you will accompanied to your room if you are an inpatient or to a pre-op area if you are having a procedure as a day case.
Your Room
Your room will have been booked in advance by your consultants secretary according to your insurance policy coverage and availability. Where many of the rooms are single occupancy there are some double and triple rooms. Where you have requested a particular room type, we will do our best to accomodate this request but it may not always be possible.
- Each room has a television with a wide range of cable channels available.
- A telephone is provided at your bedside and calls are charged to your account.
- A nurse call system is installed in your room and can be activated from your bedside or in bathroom areas
- The mobile shop visits wards each morning where you can buy Newspapers and magazines or alterantively they can be purchased from the shop on the ground floor
- Any incoming mail will be delivered daily to your room.
Meals / Dietary Requirements
At the Bon Secours Hospital Dublin we recognise the value of good food in aiding recovery form surgery or illness. As an inpatient, each day you will be given a menu so you can choose what meals you would like on the following day. If you have a particular dietary requirement, please let the catering / ward staff know. Allergens are listed on the menu card.
If you have been advised by the healthcare team to fast or to avoid certain foods, please adhere to these guidelines.
Only food supplied by the hospital should be eaten by patients staying in hospital. The Hospital will not accept any responsibility for food eaten by patients that has not been produced by the hospital.
Pastoral and Spiritual Care
If you need a Chaplain from Pastoral Care for spiritual or emotional support, prayer, sacrament or just to sit and listen, the team is available to help. The in-house team comprises of one Roman Catholic Priest, a Bon Secours Sister and three lay Chaplains. The Pastoral Care team is on duty daily and can be contacted on 01 8065327 or through the wards or main reception. A Catholic priest is available on request for the administration of sacraments according to the needs and wishes of Catholic patients, families of patients and staff in the hospital. Ministers and Leaders of other faith/ spiritual traditions can also be contacted to visit on request.
The hospital Chapel is located on the ground floor of the hospital at the end of St Laurences ward and is open 24 hours a day. Mass is celebrated daily in the hospital chapel at 11 am. Eucharist (Holy Communion) is distributed in patients' rooms to those to those who wish to receive after 11am mass. All services are transmitted from the Chapel to the patients' rooms on the T.V. Channel 13
Privacy / Patient Information
The Bon Secours Hospital Dublin is committed to respecting your privacy and we will do everything we can to ensure that this is achieved. If you do not wish people to know that you are a patient in the hospital or if you would like to restrict your visitors or phone calls, please inform our reception team or a staff member on your ward.
General limited information is available to your family from the Clinical Nurse Manager / Staff Nurse. Where possible, we would urge you to nominate a family spokesperson to relay information to other family members and friends. Detailed medical information is confidential and may only be obtained from your consultant.
We would also like to remind you to be aware of other patients' right to privacy and would caution against taking photos or voice / video recordings with fellow patients in the background and posting on social media sites.
Going Home
Discharge
Discharge time from the hospital is by 11am and we ask that you make arrangements with your family / escort to bring you home no later than this time.
On your discharge you would normally receive the following:
- Discharge letter to give to your GP in the community
- Follow up instructions
- A prescription if needed
- If you have a wound, what care is needed? Have you stitches or clips that need to be removed and when?
- Do you need an outpatient appointment or follow up care?
Please also carefully ready any information leaflets relevant to your condition/procedure and ask your discharging nurse or doctor any questions or queries you may have about how to care for yourself at home.
Discharge Checklist
- Do you have your own medication that you brought in to hospital?
- Have you got your discharge prescription? Please note that discharge medication is not supplied by the hospital.
- Do you have a way of getting the prescribed medication before you arrive home?
- Do you know what the medication is for, how often and how long you should take it for? If you are unsure, ask your doctor before you leave
- Do you have house keys, clothes and is there food available?
- Have you got all your belongings? (Including new and old medical aids such as your glasses, dentures or walking aid).
- Do you need a visit/help from the Public Health Nurse, Home Help or Family?
- Do you need a letter for your doctor or Public Health Nurse?
- Do you need a medical certificate for your employer?
Your doctor will give you a new prescription when you are discharged from hospital. A copy of this prescription will be sent to your GP as your medications may have changed while in hospital. To avoid taking the wrong medications ask your community pharmacist to check any medication you have at home and destroy those you no longer need. There is an outpatient pharmacy service available at the hospital should you wish to have your prescription dispensed before you go home. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 9am - 4.30pm and Saturdays 9am - 12. A list of local pharmacies are also available in the Hospital Facilities section of the site.
Making a Comment, Compliment or Complaint
Bon Secours Hospital Dublin welcomes comments, compliments and complaints from our patients and their families. These are an opportunity to inform service provision and to continuously improve the quality of care and service provided to the service user. All patients have the right to complain about any aspect of their care and to have the complaint investigated. Patients will be informed of the outcomes and resolutions where possible. All complaints, criticisms or suggestions, whether verbal or written are taken seriously, handled appropriately and sensitively and will be treated with the strictest of confidence. Please write to Ms Sharon Morrow, Hospital CEO, Bon Secours Hospital Dublin, Glasnevin, Dublin 9 or email dublininfo@bonsecours.ie
Reporting a Quality and Safety Issue/concern
A patient or staff member may report any quality or safety issue to the Hospital CEO as above or to our accrediting body the Joint Commission International by email to jciquality@jcrinc.com or by post to Quality and Safety Monitoring Joint Commission International Accreditation 1515W. 22nd Street, Suite 1300W Oak Brook, IL60523, USA.
