A wide variety of support services and staff are available to help you throughout your stay in Minneapolis.  They include:

Nurse Coordinators
BMT nurse coordinators will work with you throughout the entire BMT process.  They will:

• Help you understand the purpose of BMT and the BMT process, including complications.  Work with the other healthcare team members to coordinate your plan of care on an inpatient and outpatient basis.
• Communicate with referring physicians.
• Prepare you to leave the transplant center and return home.

Financial Representatives
Upon referral, a patient financial representative is assigned to each patient through hospital admissions. The patient financial representative identifies sources of payment for the BMT.

Social Work
Social workers support patients and families and help them to cope with issues such as: separation from family, friends and home, illness and disability, physical, social, emotional and financial changes caused by illness, day-to-day problems resulting from stress and change and adjustment issues of children and family members. Individual and family counseling and support groups are provided throughout your stay in Minneapolis. Our social work department also coordinates interpreter services and accommodation assistance, and is a resource for transportation assistance information.

Child Family Life
Child Family Life specialists are specially trained in how illness and hospitalization affect children’s coping and development. Some of the services they provide for pediatric BMT patients and their families are:

• Hands-on medical play to teach a child about his or her illness, BMT, a test or procedure or basic daily routines such as dressing changes or mouth care. This gives children opportunities for asking questions, developing coping techniques and gaining mastery over their experiences.
• Therapeutic activities to help children adjust to the hospital, make their room their own, create memories of their stay, express their feelings and worries and still be kids while in the hospital.
• Emotional support around transitions such as admission, hair loss, waiting for counts, taking oral medications, discharge from the hospital and discharge home.
• University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, Fairview (formerly Fairview-University Medical Center) live television show that kids can take part in from their rooms by playing bingo, sharing an item for show-and-tell, reading the weekly news or starring as “Kid of the Day.”
• Support for family members through lunch outings for parents/caregivers, weekly coffee hour, playroom and teen space for visiting children, evening family parties and weekly group of siblings and children of adult patients.

Spiritual Health Services
Through interfaith ministry, our chaplains are dedicated to offering spiritual and emotional support to patients and families. The chaplains regard patient and family cultures, beliefs, values and spiritual and faith practices as important resources for healing and well-being. Our chaplains offer a listening and caring presence, spiritual and emotional support and counsel and prayer, blessing services, rituals, worship experiences and sacraments. They also help in ethical decision-making, coordinate leaders of various faiths and offer complementary therapies such as meditation.

The Meditation Place, on the hospital’s seventh floor, is designed to embrace and support many faith traditions; it is available for personal prayer/reflection 24 hours a day. Ecumenical Christian and Catholic worship are offered as well as Muslim Jumah prayers.

School
A hospital-based teacher from Minneapolis Public Schools is available for patients in grades K-12 during their treatment and recovery. Children are encouraged to use materials and lesson plans from their own schools; if this isn’t possible, hospital teachers will provide materials. These services are offered free of charge in the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital Academy classroom or as patient bedside or outpatient tutoring in clinic and/or apartment until you and your child’s doctor feel he or she is ready to return to school/home.

Nutrition
Nutrition is an important component of your care. Physicians, nurses, dietitians, dietetic technicians and pharmacists work together to ensure your nutritional care is optimal while you are a patient. A dietitian will answer questions about nutrition and food requests while you’re in the hospital and after you go home.

Physical, Occupational & Speech Therapy
Rehabilitation Services provides a full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient services for infants, children and young adults. These services include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, orthotic services and assistive technology. Our therapists have extensive experience treating metabolic disorders including neurologic diseases, leukodystrophies, anemias, leukemias and other forms of cancer.

• Physical therapy provides assessment and treatment for developmental delay or developmental regression, strength, movement, endurance or coordination and functional mobility (transfers, standing, walking).
• Occupational therapy provides assessment and treatment for developmental delay or developmental regression, activities of daily living and self-care, strength, range of motion, endurance, coordination, cognitive, sensory, visual-perceptual deficits, adaptive and assistive equipment and vocational (school/work) and avocational (leisure/play) activities.
• Speech-language pathologists evaluate and treat various speech production, language and feeding disorders that may occur after intubation, surgery, prolonged or frequent hospitalization, prolonged tube or IV feeding, or as a result of disease. Services include evaluation and treatment of oral motor weakness, swallowing dysfunction, oral aversion, language development delays, voice problems and language disturbances.

Care Partners
University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview is the only hospital in the country with Care Partners volunteers available for patients and families. Care Partners, a support service funded by Children’s Cancer Research Fund, brings dedicated and specially trained volunteers together in a friendship and encouragement role with patients and their families who are far from home, family and friends. Volunteers can:

• Be a friend--someone who can be there to listen.
• Stay with the patient so family members can take a break.
• Provide transportation for shopping, airport runs or other appointments.
• Bring in a home-cooked meal periodically.
• Provide diversional supplies and activities, such as books, crafts, games, movies, etc.
• Occasionally assist with siblings or other children.
• Help with laundry or chores at place of stay.
• Take a family member out to lunch or for a walk.
• Help patient or family member write letters or respond to calls.

All volunteers have been screened, trained and receive ongoing support from the Care Partners staff. As volunteers, they receive no reimbursement other than your friendship.

Home Healthcare Services
After being discharged from the hospital, you may need to have a nurse come to your home or temporary residence to answer questions or establish care routines. Some patients, for example, receive IV medications after they leave the hospital, which may require a home care nurse to assist with administration and other care issues.

Home care services include: help administering medications, transfusion of blood products, pain management, IV nutrition or tube feedings and drawing blood or obtaining samples for lab tests, then monitoring test results.

Patient Relations
It’s important to us that your experience at our medical center is a positive one. Patient representatives work to resolve any problems patients may have if the hospital is not meeting their needs. They also assist patients with information regarding advance directives and in resolving an ethical dilemma.

Transportation
To receive information on discounted airfare and bus fare for BMT patients receiving treatment from Fairview-University BMT Services, ask one of our social workers.

Parking
Our patients and their families receive discounted parking rates in our patient/visitor parking ramp near the hospital. Also, special parking arrangements are available for long-term patients at University of Minnesota Medical Center and its clinics.

Accommodations
Our Accommodations Services operates 22 furnished housekeeping apartments for long-term (minimum one month) rental for patients and/or family members. BMT families also receive special discounted rates at nearby hotels. 

Also, the nearby Ronald McDonald House provides a home-away-from-home for families with children who have life-threatening illnesses. It serves families of children ages 19 and under who are being treated for cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and live more than 45 miles outside the Twin Cities area. Located at 621 Oak St., Minneapolis--just two blocks from University of Minnesota Medical Center—the House has 48 rooms with private bathrooms, refrigerators and TV/VCRs. There is also a large, community kitchen giving families access to cooking appliances and their own private cupboard for food storage. Families also have access to the House’s gym, exercise room, game rooms, play areas and the Family Resource/Computer room. Families are asked to contribute $15 per night for their stay if they are financially able. In addition, staff can arrange to bill insurance companies, counties and state agencies directly.