Everything the appointment letter did not tell you

Getting here and parking

Every site has free patient and visitor parking. At the Balboa Drive campus the visitor structure is behind the main building off Ardmore Street; the first ninety minutes are free and validation at any reception desk covers the rest of the day. Clinic sites have surface lots with no charge at all.

Accessible bays are nearest each main entrance and are not counted in the ninety minutes. If every accessible bay is taken, the valet stand at the main entrance will park for you at no cost; that is what it is for.

The information desk is directly inside the main entrance and is staffed whenever the building is open.

Public transport

• Routes 14, 31, and 88 stop on Balboa Drive outside the main entrance.
• The trolley station is a nine-minute walk; the route is level and lit.
• A free shuttle runs between the Balboa Drive campus and the Mission Hills and Ocean Vista clinics every thirty minutes, 7am to 7pm on weekdays.

What to bring

• Photo identification and your insurance card, if you have them.
• A current list of your medications, including anything over the counter and any supplements.
• Referral or appointment letter, if you were sent one.
• A list of your own questions. Write them down; they evaporate in the room.
• For an overnight stay: comfortable clothes, non-slip footwear, glasses, hearing aids, and a charger.

Leave valuables at home. We cannot be responsible for belongings kept at the bedside, and the bedside locker is small.

Coming with someone, and staying with them

Anyone you choose can come with you to an appointment. Two people can be in the room at once, more if the room allows and the clinician agrees.

For inpatients, one adult may stay overnight in most units and the chair folds flat. Two parents or guardians may stay with a child, and in the NICU parents are not visitors at all: you may be there at any hour, including through handover.

Ordinary visiting hours, unit by unit, are on the visiting hours page.

While you are here

• Food

  Main cafeteria 6:30am–8pm. Coffee bar in the atrium from 6am. Vending on every inpatient floor, all night.

• Wifi

  Join Winterfield-Guest. No password, no registration, no time limit.

• Interpreting

  Free, 200+ languages including ASL, at any hour. Ask at any desk.

• Quiet rooms

  A multi-faith room and a quiet room on the second floor, both open around the clock.

• Pharmacy

  Ground floor, 8am–8pm weekdays and 9am–5pm weekends. Balboa Heights has its own, downstairs.

• Cash machine

  In the atrium, next to the coffee bar. No fee.

If something goes wrong

Tell the charge nurse or the clinic manager first. Most things are fixed in the building, on the day, by someone standing in front of you.

If that does not work, or you would rather not, patient relations will assign an advocate to you and follow it up on your behalf. Reach them on (619) 555-0184 or at patientrelations@winterfieldhealth.com. Raising a concern does not affect the care you or your family receive, and we would rather hear it than not.

What you are entitled to

• To be told what is wrong with you, in language you understand, and to have it repeated.
• To refuse any treatment, and to be told what that means without being lectured.
• To see your own record, and to have an error in it corrected. See medical records.
• To an interpreter, free, rather than a relative doing the interpreting.
• To know what something will cost before it happens, wherever that can be known. See billing and insurance.
• To be treated the same regardless of who you are, who you love, what you can pay, or where you were born.