Patient Guide

We are committed to your care.

Our goal is to provide the best quality care. To do so, we ask for feedback from patients like you. You may be contacted by phone, email or text and asked to complete a confidential survey. Please take the time to complete the survey. Your feedback will help us know what we’re doing well and where we can improve.

 

Fast facts about your stay. 

Support for Caregivers

We encourage patients to pick a key person to support them during their hospital stay. Whether you are that primary support person, or just one of many people caring for and supporting your loved one, you can play an important role in making sure your loved one gets the safest and best care both here and beyond the hospital.

Patient and Family Care
We participate in patient- and family-centered care. We believe that family plays an important role in ensuring the health and well-being of patients of all ages. Our goal is to create partnerships among healthcare practitioners, patients and families that will lead to the best outcomes and enhance the delivery of safe, quality, efficient, effective, and timely care.

What to Know Before You Leave
Caregivers can help ensure the best outcome for their loved one after a hospital stay by getting the answers to these three questions:

  1. What is the next step for medical care (home or facility, follow-up with primary care physician or physical therapy, etc.)? Help your loved one arrange the details to make this happen—financial plan, transportation, scheduling, etc.
  2. What new and former medicines does my loved one need to take? Help your loved one understand the details—timing, dosing instructions, side effects, prescription refills, etc.
  3. What health warning signs do I need to watch for and what do I do if they happen? Help your loved one by writing these symptoms down as well as the name and contact number to call.

If you feel like you need a break or help, reach out to friends and family. And consult the resources listed here: National Alliance for Caregiving | Family Caregiver Alliance | Caregiver Action Network 


Facts About Your Stay

Bedside Shift Report

We want you to feel comfortable and cared for throughout your stay, so at each nursing shift change — about every 12 hours — your nurse will introduce your new nurse to you. The team will talk about your progress, medicine and tests scheduled for the day. Ask questions. The more you’re involved, the better and safer your care.

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Bedside Technology

During your stay, you may see your doctors and nurses using computers or tablets. These tools help them care for you by providing around-the-clock monitoring, a variety of resources and quick communication with the rest of your healthcare team. If you have any questions, ask your doctor or nurse.

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Cafeteria

The Oasis Café at Memorial Medical Center is open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays and weekends. The Café is located in the basement of the main hospital tower. Offerings for breakfast include hot cereals, entrees and sandwiches, while lunch features a variety of entrees, grill options, a pizza station, sandwiches, a signature salad, a soup of the day and assorted desserts.

Monday - Friday

Breakfast
6:30 am - 9 am

Lunch
11 am - 1:30 pm

Weekends

Breakfast
6:30 am - 9 am

Lunch
11 am - 1 pm

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Calling Your Nurse

Your room is connected to the nursing station via an intercom system. To call for your nurse, press the NURSE call button located at your bedside. If you have any questions on how to use the call button, ask a staff member to show you.

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Cellphones & Video

During your stay, you may see members of your care team using mobile phones. At Memorial Medical Center, our staff are permitted to use phones for work-related activities, such as communicating with doctors or other care team members. Employees are not allowed to use phones for non-work-related activities. There are many work related benefits of cellphones and other communication devices, including access to medical references, clinical tools and patient information.

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Channel Listing for TV

2   Mural Vision25   NBC Sports Network48   The Weather Channel
3   CBS (KDBC)26   ESPN49   Travel Channel
4   EVINE Live27   ESPN250   Animal Planet
6   PBS (KCOS)28   FS New Mexico51   Freeform
7   ABC (KVIA)29   FX52   Disney Channel
8   FOX (KFOX)30   truTV53   Cartoon Network
9   NBC (KTSM)31   USA Network54   Nickelodeon
10   Univision (KINT)32   TNT55   TV Land
11   Telemundo (KTDO)33   TBS57   AMC
12   Televisa (XHJCI)35   Comedy Central59   Syfy
13   UniMas (KFTN)37   E!60   Bloomberg TV
15   WGN America39   Lifetime61   Headline News
16   LIFE! CBN40   Food Network62   CNN
17   C-SPAN41   HGTV63   CNBC
18   C-SPAN242   Oxygen64   MSNBC
20   City of Las Cruces TV43   A&E65   Fox News Channel
21   EWTN44   History67   VH1
22   HSN45   TLC68   MTV
23   Galavision46   Oprah Winfrey Network69   BET
24   Golf Channel47   Discovery71   TV One

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Concerns About Your Care

Please speak with your nurse or nursing supervisor if you have any questions or concerns about your care. If your issue still is not resolved, then contact the administrator on duty. You also have the right to file your complaint with either:

New Mexico Department of Public Health
1.800.752.8649 (Toll Free)

Office of Quality and Patient Safety
The Joint Commission
One Renaissance Blvd.
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Website: www.jointcommission.org, then click “Report patient safety event”

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Electrical Appliances

For your safety, we reserve the right to inspect any electrical appliances brought into the hospital.

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Fire Safety

We conduct fire drills from time to time. If you hear an alarm, stay where you are. In an actual emergency, hospital staff will tell you what to do.

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Flowers

Flowers are delivered to patient rooms by individual florists or may be purchased in the Gift Shop. Please note that flowers are not allowed in Intensive Care Units.

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Gift Shop

Voted Best Gift Store in the 2022 Best of the Best of the Mesilla Valley Reader's Choice Awards.

The Memorial Auxiliary Gift Shop is located next to the main hospital lobby and provides a wealth of interesting and unique gifts for all ages. We also have a selection of snacks, flowers, personal care items, and greeting cards. Some of the lines that are featured in the gift shop are Fossil leathers and watches, Demdaco Willow Tree Angels, Ty, Burt's Bees, New Mexico Pecans, Andele's chips and salsa, Davinci, Forever in My Heart, and Treska Jewelry.

We also provide flower delivery to patient's rooms, Monday-Friday from 9 am - 5 pm.

Purchases can be made by coming into the shop or even over the phone with a credit or debit card.

The shop is open:

Monday- Friday
9 am – 5 pm
Closed on Weekends

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Hearing Impaired

We have services available for people who are deaf or hearing impaired. If you need these services, please contact your nurse.

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Hourly Rounding

A nurse will visit you every hour during the day and every two hours at night to check on your comfort, help you change positions in bed, assist with trips to the bathroom, and make sure you can reach your phone, call light, and personal items easily.

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Housekeeping Services

Throughout your stay at Memorial Medical Center, we promise to keep your room fresh, clean and comfortable with daily cleaning service.

For fresh linens, bed sheets or towels, please contact the nursing staff.

If there is anything else we can do to make your stay more pleasant, please call Housekeeping at 6350.

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Interpreters and Translation Services

Interpreter services are available for patients. Please contact your nurse for assistance.

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Lost and Found

Security keeps all lost valuables, and individual care units keep all lost clothing items.

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Medicines

Please do not bring any prescription or over-the-counter medicines to the hospital. All medicines you take in the hospital need to be prescribed, filled and given to you by hospital staff. Tell your doctor about any medicines you regularly take. If you still need them, hospital staff will give them to you.

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Parking

Visitor parking is available in the area outside the Main Entrance. Please refer to the map below.

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Pastoral Care

Memorial Medical Center is committed to the compassionate care of the whole person: body, mind, and spirit.  Our Pastoral Care Department provides emotional and spiritual support for patients, their families, and our team members. 

The coordinator of Pastoral Care is a full-time bilingual (English/Spanish) Chaplain available Monday through Friday. On-call Pastoral Care support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Pastoral Care is available for all patients, regardless of faith background. The Memorial Medical Center Chapel is open as a place of peace and reflection at all times to patients, families, and team members.

To contact our Pastoral Care Department, please call 575.521.5579.

Memorial Chapel Worship Services

Services are open to our patients, their family and friends and Memorial employees. Please come and join us as we pray for our patients, their families and our team.

  • On Saturdays from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. by the Seventh Day Adventist
  • Catholic Mass every other Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. by a Roman Catholic Priest

Meet Pastoral Care Coordinator, Deacon Leonel Briseno

Deacon Leonel BrisenoLonnie, as most people call him, joined the MMC team with 23 years of ministry to children, youth, and their families as well as 14 years as a licensed social worker to our community’s most vulnerable populations.

Hoping to build on the outstanding ministry and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Margaret Short, his focus is to strengthen the spiritual and emotional support offered to our patients, their families and team members of Memorial. He hopes to do this by keeping an open door where all are welcome, increasing the number of worship services in our chapel, and increasing the number of community volunteers and clergy who minister to our patients.

A native of Southern New Mexico who is bilingual, Lonnie previously worked in church ministry, a local mental health agency, school social work and most recently a skilled nursing facility. He graduated from New Mexico State University with a Bachelor’s in Social Work and received a Master of Science in Religion and Religious Education from Fordham University in Bronx, New York. His most rewarding ministry has been sheltering and serving asylum seekers who have traveled through our area.

His ordination prayer was, “God give me a servant’s heart with which to love your people.” He has a passion for listening to the sacred and holy stories of those he encounters along the way, who now are our patients, their families, and our team members. He aspires to bring God’s love, mercy, compassion, healing, and forgiveness to all he encounters in the halls of Memorial. When not serving at MMC, he enjoys camping, fishing and spending time with his five sons and 14 grandchildren, along with his wife Lucille of 35-plus years.

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Patient Meals

Nutrition Services can be reached by dialing 3635.

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Personal Belongings and Valuables

Personal care items such as contact lenses, eyeglasses, hearing aids and dentures can be stored in your bedside stand when not in use. Please do not put them on your bed or food tray to help avoid them being lost or damaged. Leave valuables like jewelry or cash at home, or give them to a trusted relative or friend to watch over. If this is not an option, valuables may be locked up by Security at your request. Memorial Medical Center cannot be responsible for replacing personal belongings.

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Public Restrooms

For everyone’s health and safety, we ask visitors not to use patient restrooms. Public restrooms are located throughout the hospital. Ask hospital staff to direct you to the nearest one.

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Rapid Response Team

You can call a critical-care response team to respond if your condition worsens and you do not get the immediate care you need. Dial 66 on bedside phone and tell the operator your name, room number, patient’s name and your concern.

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Smoking

Given the serious health hazards of tobacco use, we have chosen to become a 100 percent tobacco-free campus. No smoking or tobacco products may be used while on Memorial Medical Center property, parking lots, associated buildings and vehicles. Patients and visitors are asked not to smoke during their hospital visit.

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Telephone

Your friends and family can call your hospital room directly. If you are in a private room, your direct phone number is 575-521 + 5 + your room number. For example, if you are in room 225, the phone number would be 575-521-5225.

If you need to make a phone call, dial 9 + area code + the phone number you want to call. To reach your nurse, use your call button or call the nurse directly using the phone number listed on the whiteboard.

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TV

Each patient room has a television. Please be considerate of others by keeping the volume down and turning off your TV at bedtime. Ask a staff member if you have any questions on using your TV.

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Vending Machines

Here you can find beverages and snacks 24 hours a day. They are located in the sitting area near Special Services.

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Visiting Hours

At Memorial Medical Center, we believe that visitors are an integral part of our patients' experience and that visits contribute to positive outcomes. 

General Visitor Guidelines:

  • Visiting hours are from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. daily (except where indicated in unit-specific visitation guidelines listed below). These times allow flexibility for our patients and their loved ones, while respecting quiet hours for our patients.
  • Visitors to our patients are limited to two people at a time. Additional visitors are welcome to wait in designated waiting areas or public areas during visiting hours.
  • Those visitors under the age 18 are only allowed in public areas and waiting rooms, and may not visit patients.
  • We ask that our visitors please maintain a quiet and respectful environment at all times.
  • We ask that visitors not come into the facility with symptoms of communicable illness, such as fever, cough or rash. Thank you for your understanding, as our top priorities are the health and safety of our patients, visitors, team members, volunteers and providers. 

Unit-Specific Guidelines:

  • Emergency Department
    • Visitation is limited to one person at a time, unless the patient is a minor. If the patient is under the age of 18, additional visitors may be allowed with approval of the nursing team.
  • Intensive Care Unit/Cardiac Care Unit
    • Limited to two visitors per patient at a time.
    • Visitors under the age of 18 are not allowed in the ICU/CCU areas.
  • Maternal/Child Units (Labor & Delivery, Mother/Baby and NICU)
    • Patients in labor may be visited 24 hours a day. 
    • Visitation in the mother/baby recovery rooms is from 8 a.m.-8 p.m.,  with the exception of a designated caregiver who may stay with the mother and baby outside of normal visiting hours.
  • Observation Unit (Fifth Floor)
    • Visitors are limited to one at a time as patient care and conditions permit.
    • Overnight visitors are not allowed on the Observation Unit.
  • Pediatric Units
    • Other than one parent, one adult designated by the parent of a pediatric unit may stay overnight.
  • Behavioral Health/Psychiatric Unit
    • Visitors are limited to one at a time and for one hour at a time. 
    • All visitors are subject to search, and no purses, bags and cellphones are allowed on the unit.
    • At the discretion of the clinical staff, visits may be modified or ended if deemed un-therapeutic for the patient.
    • Due to the patient population this unit services, no one under the age of 18 is allowed to visit with or without adult supervision.
  • Surgical Services (ASU, PMC, PACU, OR, Endoscopy, Cath Lab)
    • No relatives of the patient will be allowed in the Operating Rooms or Cath Lab.
    • One adult family member is welcome to be with the patient in the PACU recovery area. Both parents are allowed in the recovery area when the patient is under the age of 18.

*Exceptions or changes to all guidelines may be made at the discretion of the hospital administration, nurse or department leader.

If you have additional questions about our visitor guidelines, please call 575.522.8641.

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Wifi

Please ask your care team for assistance and we will get you connected to wifi.

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