Blood Donor Center
Columbia University Medical Center relies on voluntary blood donors and extensive testing to maintain safe blood supplies. Please speak with your surgeon well in advance of surgery regarding blood banking and the possibility of donating blood for yourself or having family and friends donate blood before surgery. There is no blood donor center located at Columbia University Medical Center.
Social Services
Social workers are available to help you with a range of concerns you may have about the hospitalization and discharge arrangements.
Social workers are trained to understand the impact of heart surgery on the lives of patients and their families. Social workers speak with patients about what to expect before and after surgery and help patients prepare for post-surgery rehabilitation and readjustment. Social workers are an integral part of the cardiac surgical care team, and our goal is to ensure our patients' return to the highest possible level of health.
Social work services sponsors a number of ongoing supportive services, including individual, group, and family counseling. They focus it on health-related issues specific to the patient's heart disease. We encourage patients to take advantage of these services.
Social workers also coordinate discharge planning. They can arrange home-care services, help patients apply to long-term care facilities, if needed, and provide information and assistance with rehabilitation programs. They also help patients apply for insurance benefits and entitlement programs.
The Cardiac Social Worker can be reached directly by calling 212.305.1969.
Patient Relations and Advance Directives
New York State Law requires that you consider filling out an Advanced Directive. An Advanced Directive is verbal or written instructions made by you in advance of illness that communicate your wishes regarding treatment. Advance directives include, but are not limited to a health care proxy, a living will and a consent to a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order recorded in your medical record. Patient representatives are available to provide patients and their visitors with Health Care Proxy forms and organ donation cards.
Health Care Proxy: New York State has a law that allows you to appoint someone you trust, (a family member or close friend) as your Health Care Agent, to decide about your treatment if you lose the ability to decide for yourself. You can appoint a Health Care Agent by signing a form called a Health Care Proxy.
A Living Will is a written document that expresses in advance your specific instructions/choices about various types of medical care. Living wills are recognized as evidence of your wishes if you are seriously ill and not able to communicate.
Food
Streets of New York Express Stop Café— Located on the 1st and 2nd floors of the Milstein Hospital Building
Garden Café— Located on the 1st floor of the Presbyterian Hospital, entrance off of Broadway and 168th Street
Windows on the Hudson— Located on the 9th Floor of the Milstein Hospital Building
Jou Jou's— Located in the lobby of the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian on 165th and Broadway.
There are also numerous neighborhood restaurants located in the immediate vicinity of the hospital (1-2 blocks).
Parking
Parking is available for a nominal fee at the parking garage located at the corner of 165th Street and Fort Washington. Speak to your surgeon's office for a reduced rate pass.
Accommodations
The McKeen Pavilion
9th Floor, Milstein Hospital Building, Columbia University Medical Center, 177 Fort Washington Avenue (between 165th and 168th Streets), New York, NY 10032-3784. Includes complimentary high tea, concierge service, telephone, television and room service availability—$225-250 per day.
To reserve accommodations, please call 212.305.4820.
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Englewood
401 S. Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ 07631—Located off Route 4 and Interstate 80. Includes cable, indoor heated pool, exercise room and lounge. Rooms start at $135 per night.
For Reservations call 800.315.2621 (toll-free number) or 201.871.2020 (local number). Car service is available for $22 plus toll/tip (~$35) each way to and from the hospital.
Holiday Inn Fort Lee
2339 Route 4 East, Fort Lee, NY 07024
Includes Wi-Fi Internet, refrigerator, microwave, voicemail, hairdryers, fitness center and free parking. Breakfast Buffett: $9.95 all you can eat. Rates $115 single/$125 double.
For reservations call 201.944.5000. Transportation to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital $8 per person each way.
Bookstore
The Audubon Book Store is Located in the Malcolm X building on Broadway between 167th and 168th Streets.