All of the rooms at Palomar Medical Center Escondido are private to provide a quiet and restful place for healing. Your room includes a private bathroom and a family visiting area with a sleeper sofa for a loved one to stay with you through the night.

For your comfort and convenience, we provide body wash, conditioning shampoo, lotion, a toothbrush, toothpaste and mouth wash. If you need any of these items, please let your nurse know.

Every room has a bedside control panel that allows you to call your nurse, operate your flat-screen television, and control different features in your room. Free wireless internet is also available throughout the hospital.

• Bedside Controls
• Personal Items
• Telephone Usage
• Television

The bedside control panel, also called a pillow speaker or nurse call panel, looks like a large remote control and is plugged into the wall. This device allows you to operate many features of your room.

• TV – Use the buttons to turn the TV on and off, change channels, adjust the volume, mute the sound and enable closed captioning.
• Window Drapes – Use the buttons marked “Open Drapes” and “Close Drapes.”
• Lights – Operate both the reading light over your bed and the room’s overhead lights.
• Water – Press the “Water” button, to let a member of your health-care team know that you need a drink of water.
• Bathroom – Press the “Toilet” button to let a member of your health-care team know you need help.
• Pain – Press the “Pain” button to let your nurse know that you are in pain.

To call your nurse to your room, press the “Nurse” button on your bedside control panel. He or she will come to your room as soon as possible.

The buttons found on the inside of the railing of your bed, near your pillow, allow you to adjust your bed. Using the buttons, you can lay back or sit up and lift or lower your legs.

On your whiteboard, your nurse will write:

• The names of people on your health-care team and how to contact them
• Your treatment plan
• The phone number to your room so loved ones can call you

Your nurse will also ask what the most important thing for you is each day. Your answer will be written on the whiteboard, so we can make it happen for you.

You and your loved ones can put your personal items in the closet. Please do not bring valuables to the hospital. If you do have valuables with you, like jewelry, watches, money or credit cards, please ask your loved one to take them home.

Please let your nurse know if you wear dentures, glasses or a hearing aid and pay special attention to keeping these items with you at all times. By telling your nurse, both you and your nurse can be watchful of these items. Here are a few tips to keep your personal items secure:

• Put eyeglasses, hearing aids and dentures in a case when not in use. These items can be stored in the top drawer of your bedside table, in a case labeled with your name. (Ask you nurse for a label if you do not have one.)
• Be careful not to put your dentures on your food tray or in the bed linens.
• Keep personal items in your room closet, bedside table or suitcase.

If you lose an item during your hospital stay, our security department is here to help you. Call the Palomar Medical Center Security department at extension 881-2000 from any hospital phone to notify the department of your missing item.

We are pleased to offer a direct-dial phone number to your room. Your personal phone number is posted on your whiteboard. If you have any questions about your phone, please ask your nurse.

• To call within the hospital, dial the 7-digit extension.
• To call the (760), (442), (858) and (619) area codes, dial 9, then 1, the area code, then the 7-digit number.
• For long-distance, dial 9, then 0 for an outside operator or dial 9, then use your calling card. If you need assistance, dial 0 for the hospital operator.

A teletypewriter (TTY) or big-button phone with a hearing-aid adapter and volume enhancement is available and can be delivered to your room. Let your nurse know if you would like to have one in your room. There is also a TTY in the first floor lobby near Registration.

We ask that you talk to your nurse before you or a loved one uses a cell phone in your room. As a general rule, guests are asked to step in the hallway or to the family lounge areas to use their cell phone.

The television in your room has 70 channels through Cox Digital Cable. There are also six channels special to Palomar Health, including “Welcome to Palomar Medical Center,” “Relax TV” and “Room Service Information Channel.”

You can work the flat-screen TV in your room through the buttons in your bedside control panel. Use the buttons to turn the TV on and off, change channels, adjust the volume, mute the sound and turn on closed captioning.

The channel numbers are on a printed guide in your room. You can use the buttons on your bedside control panel to change channels and control the volume of the television.