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A Guide for Patients and Families

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During Your Stay


During your StayCommitted to Quality and Patient Safety
Ethics Consultation Service
Infection Prevention
Albany Medical Center is Tobacco-Free


Committed to Quality and Patient Safety
Albany Medical Center is committed to providing outstanding, high quality care in a safe and pleasant environment. We are accredited by both the Joint Commission and the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care for meeting or exceeding nationally recognized quality and safety standards.

To further ensure your safety, Albany Medical Center has designed a system with checks and balances to help improve patient safety and prevent medical errors. As part of this system, we will…

  • Frequently ask questions about your illness and other health care related issues and document them in your chart as a way of communicating to all members of your health care team.
  • In addition to an ID band, we use two “identifiers”—name and date of birth—and will ask you to verify them before the start of your care or treatment(s).
  • We carry out pre-procedure checks, which include reviewing your records and test results, and verifying your name and date of birth, the procedure you are having and the exact site of the procedure.
  • We assess patients for risk of falling and implement fall prevention activities as needed.
  • We work to ensure that you are on the right medication upon admission and after discharge.

Equally important is your active participation and partnership as a patient. We urge you to ask questions and request additional information if any of this is unclear to you. Report any concerns you may have about your care or safety right away so that we can help you.


Ethics Consultation Service
The Ethics Consultation Service assists patients, families and care providers in resolving the ethical dilemmas that modern medicine can present. At your or your family’s request, a specially trained and qualified medical ethics consultant will help explore the values and concerns of you and/or your loved ones as well as draw from the expertise of Albany Medical Center’s physicians, nurses, social workers, pastoral care representatives, hospital administrators and legal counsel to help to identify and address any complex issues that might arise. To request an ethics consultation (or for more information about the service), you can reach out to your physician or nurse, or call the Operator at 518-262-3111 and ask for the on-call Ethics Consultant. More


Infection Prevention:
You Can Count On Us to Come Clean! Can We Count On You?
Hand hygiene is the single most important infection prevention practice. While you are in our care, you can count on members of your health care team to wash their hands (either with soap and water or with waterless alcohol-based hand cleanser) before and after contact with you. If you remind them, the only response you should receive is “Thank you.”

Additional infection prevention precautions may be used if you already have an infection or your medical condition puts you at an increased risk of acquiring one. These precautions may include members of your health care team wearing gloves, gown and/or mask when providing your care.

There also are measures you can take to prevent an infection including:

  • Showering or bathing the night before and the morning of your surgery to kill any germs that may be on your body;
  • Washing your hands carefully with soap and water or waterless alcohol-based cleanser after handling any type of soiled material or body fluids (this is especially important after you have gone to the bathroom);
  • Letting your nurse know if your gown and/or linens are soiled; notifying your physician or nurse if wound dressings and/or intravenous catheter sites are loose, dislodged or wet; following your doctor’s instructions regarding breathing treatments and getting out of bed and;
  • Asking friends and relatives not to visit if they are ill.

It is also critical to follow all instructions regarding prescribed antibiotics and to be sure to finish the prescription completely, and contact your doctor immediately if you develop symptoms that may indicate an infection (unexpected pain, chills, fever, drainage, or increase redness of a surgical wound).


Albany Medical Center is Tobacco-Free
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. By making our environment completely smoke-free, we are addressing the number one health risk today. We strictly enforce our no-smoking policy in our buildings and on our grounds. And patients are not allowed to leave the units to smoke. We offer tools and resources to help you quit. Please ask your nurse if you are interested in learning more.