Visiting Hours & Guidelines

Rest is an important part of the patient treatment plan. However, we welcome and encourage visits from friends and loved ones. For our patient’s security and safety, visitors must check-in with security and obtain a visitor badge.

Visiting Hours
To promote an atmosphere of rest and healing, general hours of visitation are limited from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but can vary depending on the unit and the patient’s condition.

Visitors should use good judgment when determining the length of their visits. Children under the age of 12 are generally not permitted in patient care areas, but in some cases, exceptions can be made. Please do not leave children unattended. Please ask your nurse about specific requirements or restrictions.

Here are a few suggestions to make your visit more pleasant for both visitors and patients:

• A brief visit generally is best. Let the patient guide the conversation.
• If the patient's door is closed, or if a sign is posted, please check at the nurses' station before entering.
• Visitors may not store personal belongings in patient rooms or visitor lounges.
• Do not sit on the patient's bed.
• If you wish to bring a gift, consider a book or puzzle or something to help pass the time.
• Flowers and small potted plants are popular, although flowers are not allowed in intensive care units.
• Please limit visits to two people at a time.
• Do not bring food for the patient unless you have checked with the nurse.

Critical Care/ICU, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Visitors in the Critical Care / Intensive Care Units (ICU), please refer to the Critical Care Services – A Guide for Families, which is given at the time of admission to the Unit.

• The visiting hours for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) are 8 a.m. to8 p.m. One parent may spend the night with a child in the PICU.
•  The visiting hours for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are 24-hours-a-day for parents and grandparents, except between the hours of 6 to 7:30 a.m. and 6 to 7:30 p.m. to allow for the nursing shift change.
• Siblings of the newborn may visit 10 minutes per day, after completing a health screening.
• The visiting hours for Labor and Delivery are 24-hours-per day, 7-days-per week. Postpartum visiting hours are from 11a.m. to 8 p.m. (Fathers or significant others with an ID band may visit 24-hours-per day, 7-days-per week.)

Visiting Guidelines for All Other Units

• People with colds, sore throats or any contagious disease should avoid visiting.
• Special visiting arrangements may be made for families of surgical patients on the day of surgery and families welcoming a new baby. Please ask the unit nurse for additional information.
• Visitors in semi-private rooms should be considerate of the other patient.
• Visits should be short and quiet. Unnecessary noise should be avoided.
• For the privacy of the patient, visitors may be asked to leave the room during tests, treatments or when the doctor or nurse needs to see the patient.
• Visitors should not use the patient’s restroom. Visitor restrooms are located at the nursing station and in the lobby of all units.
• If the patient’s door is closed, or if a sign is posted, please check at the nurses’ station before entering.
• Visitors who wish to bring gifts to patients can consider a book, puzzle or something to help them pass the time.
• Visitors should not bring food for the patient unless they have checked with the nurse.

Parking
Please do not leave personal belongings inside your vehicle in open view. Although our Security Officers patrol all areas of the hospital campus, Northridge Hospital is not responsible for loss, damage, fire and/or theft to any vehicle parked in a hospital parking lot.

Please observe the “Handicapped Only” signs and park in designated patient/visitor locations only.

With validation, patients and visitors may park in the parking structure for a flat fee of $1.00 per day. You may also purchase a 5-day pass for $5.00, which will allow you to enter and exit the facility as often as you wish.

Parking validations can be obtained from Admitting or the Information Desk in the Main Lobby. Without validation, parking is free for the first 10 minutes, $1.00 for each half-hour up to a maximum of $5.00 per day.

Language Services
We provide healthcare services to a diverse community. For that reason, we offer interpretation services in more than 140 languages to patients who have difficulty reading or speaking English as well as a service for deaf and visually impaired patients. Our blue Cyracom translator telephones allow us to contact an interpreter in nearly any language any time of day.

A telecommunication (TDD) unit for hearing or speech impaired patients is also available. Please ask a hospital staff member for assistance if you require these services.