Our new main hospital, with its large private rooms and family waiting areas, allows us to offer our patients and visitors an open visiting policy, unless otherwise noted for specific departments below. We know that visits from loved ones can contribute to the patient’s healing. Families can also help identify and respond to patient concerns. In addition, open visiting results in more positive relations between families, patients and staff.
Our nurses and other caregivers are committed to maintaining a patient-family centered environment here at El Camino Hospital, and they will make every effort to accommodate visits to our patients.
Some nursing units may have unique visiting guidelines because of the type of patients being cared for there, or the size of the patient care areas or rooms. The nurse will discuss this with you when the patient is admitted.
Also, at certain times or in certain situations, staff may need to limit visiting hours for the patient due to:
• A patient’s medical condition
• The family’s health and safety
• A patient’s wish for privacy or
uninterrupted rest time
• A non-private room
• The need for a sterile environment
Again, ask the nurse about these guidelines when the patient is admitted.
For your convenience, you may download a PDF file of our Mountain View Visitor's Guide. This guide contains most of the information listed on this web page; it also includes maps of the floors in the Mountain View main hospital.
For our patients' comfort, we ask that you follow these guidelines when visiting one of our hospitals:
- Assure a restful atmosphere by limiting visitors to two at a time.
- Observe the visiting hours listed below or posted in the hospital.
- Refrain from bringing latex balloons into the hospital to minimize latex exposure for patients and staff who may be at risk for latex allergies.
We maintain a smoking-free and tobacco-free environment in our facilities and on our campuses. Tobacco use by staff, patients and visitors is prohibited. We are committed to providing a safe and healthy environment that also encourages positive health behaviors. Being a smoking-free and tobacco-free campus supports that commitment to the health and well-being of our community, patients, staff and volunteers.
El Camino Hospital offers the Staying Free Smoking Cessation Program and Ash Kickers Classes for those who want to kick the smoking habit. For more information, call 650-988-8225.
To Obtain Information About a Patient
To reach a patient by telephone at El Camino Hospital, dial the main hospital number--650-940-7000 for the Mountain View campus or 408-378-6131 for the Los Gatos campus--and ask for the patient by name or room number. (See visiting hours for Mountain View and Los Gatos below).
To protect private medical information, visitors will be given information about a patient's location in the hospital and/or medical condition only if we have permission to do so from the patient.
The Mountain View hospital maintains an open visiting policy, unless otherwise noted for the specific departments listed below. Visiting hours are subject to change.
Behavioral Health Services
Mountain View: 650-940-7291
Please limit visitors to two at a time.
Visitors must be 16 or older.
Visiting permitted 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Holiday visiting hours: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Critical Care Unit
Mountain View: 650-940-7175
Before you visit, please stop at the critical care unit waiting room desk. Check with the volunteer, or use the phone to dial 7175, to ask if it is an appropriate time to visit.
Visiting hours are flexible and subject to the discretion of the patient’s nurse. The decision to allow visitors is based on a combination of factors that may vary from hour to hour.
Please limit the number of visitors to two at a time. All visits are allowed at the staff's discretion. Children under the age of 12 are not allowed unless special arrangements have been made
with the patient’s nurse. Children older than 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
Flowers and plants are not allowed in the critical care unit. Pictures and cards are welcome. Food for the patient may only be brought in with prior approval by the patient’s nurse. See our Critical Care Unit Visitor Information brochure.
Maternity
Mountain View, Orchard Pavilion: 650-940-7150
Visiting is permitted from 12:00 p.m. to 8 p.m., but fathers and partners may visit anytime.
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Mountain View, Orchard Pavilion: 650-940-7163
Visitors must be 16 or older. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) staff encourages parents of NICU babies to schedule visits at any time with a few exceptions: Mondays at 1:00 p.m. and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. during Multidisciplinary Plan of Care Rounds, the change of shift reports (7 a.m., 3 p.m., and 11 p.m.), and if there are special procedures being performed on the unit. Grandparents are allowed to visit; however, only two visitors are allowed at the bedside at one time, one of which must be a banded parent.
Progressive Care Unit
Mountain View: 650-940-7135
We have a quiet time for patients between 2:30 and 4:00 p.m., but we do not restrict visitors during that time. Visiting guidelines are subject to the discretion of the patient’s nurse. The decision to allow visitors is based on a combination of factors that may vary from hour to hour.
Before entering the progressive care unit, call the nurses’ station from the waiting room
(ext. 7135) to find out if it’s an appropriate time to visit.
Please limit the number of visitors to two at a time, unless a nurse has approved additional
visitors beforehand.
All children under 10 must remain in the waiting room with adult supervision.
When sitting in a patient’s room, please use the chairs; do not sit on or use any of the beds.
Other restrictions:
- Pets are not allowed, except Seeing Eye or therapy dogs.
- As a courtesy to others, please restrict the use of
- cell phones to the waiting room.
- Food is not allowed in the waiting room.
- To protect patient confidentiality, information is not given to friends or co-workers.
Please designate one family member as your “point person” to receive patient updates. Please keep visitors in the waiting room to a minimum; when the waiting room is crowded,
the staff may ask some members of large families to wait in the main hospital lobby. See our Progressive Care Unit visiting policy.
Visitors must be 16 or older in all units. Visiting policies may differ from one department to another, and visiting hours are subject to change; please note the visiting policies and hours for each department listed below.
Medical, Surgical and Post-Partum: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Labor and Delivery: Designated by patient
Nursery: Restricted to parents and grandparents
Operating Room, Recovery: Restricted
Outpatient Surgery: Restricted
Critical Care Unit: Permitted at staff's discretion at most times, except:
6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Communicating with Family and Friends
There are many on-line services that can help you update family and friends during a hospital stay or illness. El Camino Hospital provides the following links to these services for your convenience.