Support Services

In order to help ensure that your stay at Stony Brook goes smoothly, shortly after you are admitted, an RN care manager or a social worker will meet with you and possibly with your family to coordinate your care and plan for your safe discharge. A stay in the hospital is much shorter than in the past. Improved treatments, the use of home care and rehabilitation services, and stricter insurance rules have all played a part in reducing the time you stay in the hospital. Although discharge times will vary, our goal is to have patients discharged by 11 am. We will work with you and/or your family to make sure that when you leave, your after-hospital care needs are addressed.

Depending on your needs, we can help to:

• Give your insurance company the information needed to access your covered benefits
• Facilitate admission to rehabilitation centers, adult homes, assisted living centers, skilled nursing facilities, substance use disorder treatment programs, psychiatric centers and group homes
• Arrange for home care, medical equipment, dialysis and home IV therapy
• Provide information related to social determinants of health needs, such as food insecurity, transportation and housing
• Provide emotional support to help you deal with an illness, loss or a crisis while in the hospital
• Refer you to community agencies and services
• Provide referrals to community agencies for benefits and entitlements
• Provide assistance with advance directives
• Arrange hospice and palliative care services
• Provide information and support if you are involved in an abuse or maltreatment situation
• Provide you with information regarding treatment if you have substance abuse problems

Care Managers and Social Workers are available seven days a week during the day. After working hours, Social Workers can be paged with urgent issues.

To speak with someone from the Care Management Department:

Call (631) 444-2552, or 4-2552 from a hospital phone
Monday to Friday: 8 am to 5 pm.
Saturdays, Sundays and after hours: Please leave a voicemail message, and a staff member will return your call the following business day.

If you need to speak to a Care Manager or Social Worker urgently, please ask your nurse to assist you.
 

Stony Brook University Hospital offers free interpreter services to you and your family during your stay or when visiting our hospital. Interpretive services include dual handset telephones, on-site Spanish interpreters, American Sign Language interpreters and video interpretation.

Please call Patient Advocacy at (631) 444-2880, or 4-2880 from a hospital phone, or Language Services at (631) 444-9864, or 4-9864 from a hospital phone to make arrangements, or speak with your nurse. 

Learn more.

Stony Brook University Hospital provides many resources for our patients with hearing impairments.

Please contact Patient Advocacy at (631) 444-2880, or 4-2880 from a hospital phone, or Language Services at (631) 444-9864, or 4-9864 from a hospital phone for assistance, or ask your nurse.

Learn more.

Stony Brook Medicine provides voluntary HIV testing, based on patient request and/or medical recommendation. In addition, we follow the New York State mandate to advise all patients age 13 and older of HIV testing, who seek medical care through our Emergency Department, inpatient hospital units and outpatient primary care settings.

As per New York State requirements, patients are provided with basic information about HIV/AIDS prior to testing, and given the opportunity to refuse the test. All HIV tests are confidential.

Fourth generation routine diagnostic HIV testing occurs in-house at Stony Brook Medicine. In addition, the Emergency Department and some specialty areas offer rapid HIV testing, where results are obtained in less than 60 minutes.

All patients testing positive for HIV are provided an appointment for medical services within our adult, maternity or pediatric outpatient HIV departments, if desired. Linkage to care services to other locations are available. Anyone seeking further information on HIV testing at Stony Brook Medicine can call (631) 444-3592, or 4-3592 from a hospital phone, or visit stonybrookmedicine.edu/HIV. If you are interested in medication to reduce your HIV risk, Stony Brook offers HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) screening and case management services.

For more information on PrEP, call (631) 559-6138, or visit stonybrookmedicine.edu/PrEP. 

Stony Brook University Hospital has a fully equipped Blood Bank. Our Blood Donor Center collects many different types of blood donations, such as whole blood and platelet donations. Also certain patients may be eligible to donate their own blood ahead of a scheduled surgery (autologous donation).

Directed donations are where friends and/or family donate blood for a specific patient (if the unit is suitable for the intended recipient).

Please note that screening tests are performed on donated blood to ensure blood safety. It may take up to a week from the day of donation before it can be used for transfusion. For more information about transfusion and for anyone wishing to donate the gift of blood, please call the Blood Bank/Blood Donor Center at (631) 444-3662 (DONATE), or 4-3662 from a hospital phone, or visit Blood Donor Center. 

To see your medical record, you can access it from your patient portal. To access your portal visit stonybrookmedicine.edu/MyHealtheLife. If you have other medical record requests, please call (631) 444-1300, or 4-1300 from a hospital phone, or visit stonybrookmedicine.edu/patientcare/medicalrecord. 

MyHealtheLife is a patient portal that provides you with secure, online access to your personal health information at Stony Brook Medicine powered by CernerHealth. The portal permits you to review details of your own health records and medical history, as well as exchange health-related messages with your doctor.

Don’t have an account? Patients 18+ can self-enroll at stonybrook.info/enrollme. If you’re not eligible to self-enroll, during your hospital or office visit, let the Registration or front desk staff know that you would like to create a MyHealtheLife patient portal account. You will receive an email invitation to register. Click the link in the email to fill in security questions. You will be taken to the registration page to create your username and password. You will have 90 days to claim your invite.

Ethics consultants are available 24 hours a day to offer supportive counsel to help clarify and resolve ethical problems that might arise. Dial “0” for the hospital switchboard to request a consultant or visit stonybrookmedicine.edu/patientcare/hospital-ethics-committee

What is an advance directive? Advance directives are written instructions about healthcare treatment made by adult patients before they lose their decision-making capacity. In New York State, the best way to protect your treatment wishes and concerns is to appoint someone you trust to decide about treatment if you become unable to decide for yourself. This person can be a family member, close friend or same-sex partner. By filling out a form called a healthcare proxy, this person becomes your “healthcare agent.”

Before appointing a healthcare agent, make sure the person is willing to act as your agent. Discuss with your agent what types of treatments you would or would not want if you were in the hospital and had a life-threatening illness or injury. Make sure your healthcare agent knows your wishes. Some patients also express specific instructions and choices about medical treatments in writing. A written statement can be included in a healthcare proxy, or it can be in a separate document such as a living will.

If you are interested in completing a healthcare proxy or would like to have a discussion about healthcare proxies, please request to see a social worker or case manager.

The Chaplaincy Department recognizes the importance of an individual’s emotional and spiritual needs, as well as their impact on wellbeing.

Often in times of uncertainty, worry, crisis, illness or grief, many turn to their faith and/or belief systems as a method of coping and strength. Chaplains are clinically trained to care for the human spirit and engage those they encounter by assessing their spiritual and emotional needs, serving as advocates, listeners and counselors, among other roles.

Chaplains are available to assist patients and their families to access their own inner sources of strength, find meaning and assist with ethical decision making. They also provide sacramental and sacred services upon request. Stony Brook University Hospital Spiritual Care providers are a diverse group: Catholic, Jewish, Islamic and Protestant chaplains who are available and able to assist in connecting individuals with other faiths and traditions.

To reach a chaplain, call the hospital operator or ask a member of your healthcare team to page the chaplain. The team can also arrange a visit for you. The Interfaith Chapel is located on Level 5 near the main entrance, and all are welcome. A schedule of services can also be obtained from the hospital operator or the announcement board directly outside the Chapel.

Learn more about Spiritual Care Services at Stony Brook.

The Palliative Care team is a supportive service that can help you and your family by assisting with pain management and other difficult symptoms and challenging decision-making related to serious illness, even when first diagnosed. The palliative care team works closely with your primary care team to address the specific palliative needs that can arise when being treated for a serious illness. A team of specialists from medicine, social work, nursing and chaplaincy services provide compassionate care and guidance for physical, emotional and spiritual needs. The Palliative Care team is available for inpatient consultation for patients facing serious illness. Patients and families can contact the Palliative Care team through any member of the primary treatment team.

Palliative Care Information Act

New York State requires that healthcare practitioners offer information and counseling to patients and their families with serious illness. This includes information about prognosis, the range of options appropriate to the treatment, the risks and benefits associated with those options, and comprehensive pain and symptom management related to a serious illness.

Stony Brook Telehealth enables and improves access to health care services in your community for many different conditions. Our wide range of Telehealth services can be accessed safely and privately from wherever you are.  Find out more. 

HealthConnect®: Provides telephone access to a professional staff member who can help with healthcare questions and assist with appointment scheduling and physician referrals.

Monday to Friday: 8:30 am to 6 pm

Call: (631) 444-4000.

Cancer Helpline: A telephone service staffed by oncology nurses who can provide information and help answer questions.

Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 6 pm

Call: (800) 862-2215.

Your health and wellness are important to us! Our online video and resource library is available for you to browse for accurate, reliable health and wellness information. To access and visit our site go to sbuh.healthclips.com.

Pre-Operative Services prepares all patients for surgery, whether your surgery will take place
at our outpatient Ambulatory Surgery Center or at the main hospital.

Our phone and fax numbers have remained the same: 

Phone: (631) 444-9404

ASC Fax: (631) 444-9673

ASU Fax: (631) 444-8826

SDA Fax: (631) 444-1211

Link for directions and more information.