Here to Safely Care for You | Huntington Hospital

Last updated:1/25/2021

Together, we can keep our community safe.

COVID-19 Vaccine at Huntington Hospital

Huntington Hospital is vaccinating our frontline caregivers and support staff; at this time we cannot offer vaccine to the public.

We are happy to share that Los Angeles County residents 65 years old and older can now register for COVID-19 vaccination appointments through Los Angeles County.

In addition, the City of Pasadena is also providing vaccinations to healthcare workers and those 65+ who reside or practice in the city.

Learn more on our COVID-19 vaccine page.

We Need Your Help Keeping Our Community Safe

While this vaccine brings us hope for the future, today we are dealing with a record breaking number of COVID-19 patients at our hospital. We have seen a large surge of COVID-19 patients, undoubtedly related to holiday travel and gatherings. We are pleading with the community to help us stop this surge today by continuing to wear a mask and physical distance as you leave your home for essential work and activities only, and refrain from traveling or gathering with anyone outside of your household.

We are proud to be here for our community during this pandemic, and are grateful for everyone who is helping us stop the spread. Your support means everything to us right now.

For anyone wanting to support Huntington Hospital during this time, please check our How You Can Help page.

Please consider this page a resource for you and your family on safe care and hospital operations.

COVID-19 VACCINE

COVID-19 TESTING

HUNTINGTON HOSPITAL FAQs

SURGERY UPDATES

VISITOR POLICY UPDATES

DONATE ANTIBODIES TO THE RED CROSS

Important Phone Numbers

COVID-19 general line (626) 397-3777
Donations line at (626) 397-5448

Hospitalized COVID-19 Positive Patients

Huntington Hospital has been testing for COVID-19 along CDC guidelines to include high-risk individuals, those who are very ill and require hospital care, healthcare providers and other high-likelihood individuals due to known exposures. The number of positive patients may not indicate overall prevalence of COVID-19 in the outside community.

Our Community Says Thank You to Healthcare Providers

We love all the wonderful messages of thanks we have received from the community.

For formal media engagement with our hospital, or if you are considering including us in a story, please refer to our Media Policy here.

COVID-19 FAQs

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and answers from our Huntington Hospital experts.

Huntington Hospital is open and we have protocols in place to care for you safely. We’re here with safe hospital services and rigorous screening efforts in advance of your visit and COVID-19 testing for every patient.
We are responding to a record-breaking surge of COVID-19 patients and we urge the public to follow health orders and help us stop the current surge. Learn more about how Huntington Hospital is managing the challenges of this surge.
We are vaccinating our employees but cannot provide vaccines to the public at this time. Los Angeles County residents 65 years old and older can now register for COVID-19 vaccination appointments through Los Angeles County. Learn more on our COVID-19 vaccine page.
COVID-19 has impacted elective surgeries. Please contact your physician for information about your surgery.
We strongly advise you to continue in social distancing as appropriate, following updated instructions from Pasadena, LA county and other officials as they become available.
In addition, continue to wash your hands thoroughly, cover your mouth with your elbow or tissue if you sneeze and do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth, especially with unwashed hands.
Should you begin to feel sick, please call your physician who can advise you on next steps. We also encourage you to consider telehealth services through Huntington Health Physicians or our affiliate Exer Urgent Care.
If you do come to our Emergency Room for severe COVID symptoms, we are asking that you please leave all valuables/belongings at home and to wear a face mask, per update from the state of California. For the safety of our patients and staff, we will not be returning any clothing or other fabric items (e.g., blankets, pillows) that were in isolation. We will hold all other belongings for pick up for 30 days. Please contact Patient Relations at (626) 397-5211 with questions. We appreciate your understanding during this unprecedented health crisis.

Yes, we are happy to be vaccinating our caregivers; at this time we cannot offer vaccine to the public.
We are happy to share that Los Angeles County residents 65 years old and older can now register for COVID-19 vaccination appointments through Los Angeles County. Learn more on our COVID-19 vaccine page.
We will share information and resources as they become available.

Convalescent Plasma (Antibody) Donation

If you are interested in donating convalescent plasma, please visit the Red Cross website to sign up and learn more. We cannot accept donations of convalescent plasma at Huntington Hospital.
If you test positive for antibodies, please consider donating plasma to the Red Cross. Antibody plasma can help treat the most severe COVID-19 cases.
Please download this informational PDF on COVID-19 convalescent plasma.

Antibody Testing

Huntington Hospital does not offer antibody testing to the general public.
Our partner, Exer Urgent Care, provides antibody testing. Please call the number on the Exer site to make an appointment. Also check with your physician.

We have a surge plan ensuring all beds at the hospital are available to care for the sickest patients. We are also collaborating with local public health departments as well as other hospitals via the Hospital Association of Southern California and the California Hospital Association.
During this unprecedented health crisis, we are doing all we can to be able to provide care to everyone who needs it. This includes:
- We have licensed physicians to call upon should we need them.
- We’ve had to create double occupancy rooms in some areas of our hospital to help speed up access to beds for patients waiting for care. Since private rooms might not be available during this COVID-19 surge, we ask for your understanding as our healthcare teams make every effort to ensure we have the capacity to care for our community.
- We have erected tents for patients with non-life-threatening conditions.
- We have increased our staffing and procuring additional equipment.
Like all hospitals in our area, and as the largest Level II trauma center in the San Gabriel Valley, we are at a critical point in the pandemic as we assess our ICU and overall capacity to provide care when it’s needed most. We reconfigure and reimagine our facility daily to meet patient needs as outlined in our surge plan. We are exhausting all measures to respond to this unprecedented patient increase.

Yes, our outpatient services are open and here to safely care for you: Get a full list of available outpatient services on our Outpatient Services page.

Yes, we are performing elective surgeries and procedures using enhanced safety protocols.
The recent surge of COVID-19 in the community has impacted some elective surgeries. Please contact your physician for information about your surgery.

Learn more on our Surgical Services webpage.

At this time we are testing every patient in the hospital.
Get more information on our COVID-19 Testing page.
Most people who suspect they have COVID-19 will not need to come to the hospital.
- If you are feeling unwell but not experiencing a medical emergency, you should stay home and avoid contact with others. You should call your physician, too.
- If you are experiencing symptoms that include a fever, dry cough and body aches, please call your physician immediately. Your doctor will advise next steps.
- Patients who do not exhibit COVID-19 symptoms or aren’t ill enough to seek care in an emergency setting should please call their primary care provider with requests to be tested.
- If you do not have a primary care physician, we strongly urge you to look for one. You can also call urgent care when you are too sick to stay home but not sick enough to require emergency or hospital care.

We have closed once again to in-person visitation and resumed virtual visitation.

Based on our risk-scoring matrix, which considers community and hospital infection rates and more, we are adjusting visitation as per our policy to reflect the current high risk.

We have very few exceptions to our no in-person visitation policy, including:

All patients at the end of life. Learn more about end of life visitation.
Maternal Child Health patients:
- Labor and Delivery, Maternity : One healthy birth partner and one certified doula for labor, delivery, postpartum and recovery units.
- Pediatrics: One healthy parent at a time for pediatric patients.
- Neonatal Intensive Care Unit NICU: One healthy parent at a time for NICU patients.
Procedural patients: one healthy visitor to drop off and pick up all patients having procedures, including outpatient surgery, GI lab, radiology, Cancer Center, and catheterization lab.
- Once the patient has arrived in the admitting area of the main lobby, the visitor must leave the hospital campus.
- Upon completion of the patient’s procedure, the family will be called and notified of next steps related to when the patient will be ready to go home and instructions for how to reunite with the patient at the hospital so they may go home.
Emergency Department: one healthy visitor to drop off a patient in the emergency department.
- Upon patient drop off, visitors must leave campus and wait for a phone call.
- Visitors may wait in their cars or at an off-campus location.
- The only exception to this is that one healthy parent of a patient under the age of 18 will be allowed back into the care area with their child.

End of Life Visitation:

Patients receiving end-of-life care may have a one-time visit from a loved one upon approval from the house supervisor.

Non-COVID patients may have two visitors, for up to four hours.
- All visitors must sign waiver related to exposure risk.
COVID-19 positive patients: Guidelines for end of life visitation for COVID-19 positive and rule-out patients are based on health authority recommendations related to exposure and include:
- Two visitors per patient only, for up to 30 minutes.
- Visitors must sign waiver related to exposure risk.
- Visits will need to be staggered based on unit activity, visitor must be flexible to that changing and unpredictable nature.
- Visitors must agree to follow all policies and requirements for visitation, including successful completion of illness screening at entry point and proper use of PPE while on campus
- Upon clearing screening, visitors will be escorted to the unit and, upon conclusion of visit, be escorted directly out of the hospital to minimize exposure to others.
- Visits are restricted to be no more than 30 minutes in length to reduce exposure.
- Visitors must remain in patient’s room during the visit (no in-and-out of the unit, this is to help preserve PPE)

Guidelines for Visitors

Approved visitors must follow these visitation guidelines:

You must wear your mask properly and stay six feet from others at all times.
No in / out – once you are settled into the patient room, you must stay there for the duration of your visit.
For your safety, patients must have test results that indicate it is safe for them to have a visitor.
You must sign a COVID-19 Liability Release and Waiver for Visitors.For your convenience, you may print and sign the waiver at home and present it when visiting your loved one.

PRINT ENGLISH VISITOR WAIVER

PRINT SPANISH VISITOR WAIVER

Any visitor who exhibits signs and symptoms of illness will not be granted entrance.
No food from the outside is permitted out of an abundance of caution.
Children under the age of 15 may not visit the hospital because of infection prevention concerns.
We reserve the right to ask permitted visitors to leave at any time. Disruptive individuals will be asked to leave campus immediately.

Connecting with Loved Ones

Staying connected outside of visiting hours, or when you are unable to visit:

If your hospitalized family member is able to communicate on their own, we ask that you please contact them directly.
If you would like to speak with the care team, we ask that families of hospitalized patients please designate only ONE family member to call the hospital. This helps limit the number of phone calls and keeps our focus on providing direct patient care.
We ask that the designated family member kindly refrain from calling during shift change (6:30 a.m. – 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.), as this is when care teams are sharing important patient information with the incoming shift.

You can find this visitor policy and more visitor information on our Visitors page.

While we hope continued social distancing measures will help avoid a large surge of COVID-19 patients, we have developed a surge plan, when needed, to ensure care for the sickest patients.
In early March, the hospital began instituting measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help flatten the curve, such as cancelling elective surgeries and restricting visitors to the hospital.
Huntington Hospital also uses the following infection prevention measures, including:
- Universal masking and symptom screening for everyone entering our facility. This includes taking each person’s temperature and enforcing our mask policy.
- We test every patient in the hospital for COVID-19. This includes pre-surgical and pre-procedural screening (COVID-19 testing) efforts.
- Enhanced cleaning facility-wide.
- Dedicated COVID-19 units with enhanced air flows, traffic flows, and work flows.
- Limiting visitors to the campus and the ongoing suspension of our volunteer program, based on risk-scoring matrix.
- Suspension or limitation of non-essential services.
- Staff and physician training and education.

The hospital is still offering many virtual support groups for the community during this time, as well as services from the Senior Care Network.
- In addition, many of Huntington Hospital’s outpatient facilities have reopened with enhanced safety measures. Check our Outpatient Services page for a complete list of these facilities and contact information.

The hospital has experienced the good fortune of being the recipient of thousands of donated N-95 masks, surgical masks, gloves, gowns and other crucial items to ensure the safety of our caregivers and patients.
- Thanks to this overwhelming response and generosity of our community, Huntington has decided to temporarily suspend its donation center while we continue fighting COVID-19.
- While that facility will no longer be the site for donated medical supplies, the hospital is still accepting handmade masks and surgical caps only. If you would like to donate these items, please mail your donation to Huntington Hospital, c/o Volunteer Services, 100 W. California Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91105
- We continue to work with local health and other government authorities to ensure supply of critical items.

Yes, and due to patient privacy laws, we cannot comment further about individual patient specifics.
We have a public daily dashboard on this webpage (above) with general patient testing and hospitalization data.
As with all communicable diseases, we have a well-defined process in place to ensure the health and safety of our patients, physicians, nurses, employees and volunteers, which reflects best practices and necessary precautions.
This process has been successful in preventing the spread of such diseases, and we will continue to draw upon our extensive expertise dealing with communicable diseases to serve our community.

Yes, we are still the safest place to have your baby. We have strict protocols in place to support infection prevention measures, following best practices and necessary precautions.
Safety protocols include temperature screenings at the entrance of our hospital, and enhanced cleaning and sterilization processes. Further, the architecture of the maternal-child unit is naturally separate from the rest of the hospital. Labor and Delivery as well as our post-partum maternity units sit are a separate annex (similar to a wing), with a secure entrance.
Safety is our top priority for our expectant mothers. As a result, we have restricted the visitor policy and allow only one healthy birth partner to accompany the patient.
For more information, please visit our Huntington Baby webpage.

Our hospital is providing free online childbirth preparation and breastfeeding classes to our expectant mothers.
We are working to make sure you receive the necessary resources to have a comfortable pregnancy and feel ready for delivery.
For more information, please visit our Huntington Baby page.

We are proud to share a number of telehealth service options available to our community: Huntington Health Physicians Telehealth Services and Exer VirtualCare.
Huntington Health Physicians (HHP), our partner physician network, is now offering telehealth services to provide our community with access to quality healthcare from the convenience and safety of their homes.
- HHP offers easy setup for new patients, a private and secure connection, and coverage by most major insurances, including Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
- For current HHP patients: For more details, call your Huntington Health Physician’s office or visit their website.
- Not a current HHP patient? While HHP physicians are offering this service to all of their current patients, new patients may be able to sign-up, though availability is limited. If you do not already have a primary physician, please visit our HHP Locations page to determine the most convenient office for you. Speak with their office staff for a referral to a physician currently accepting patients.
Additionally, Huntington Hospital has an affiliation with Exer Urgent Care Pasadena and La Canada to support access to care when community members can’t wait to see their primary care doctor but aren’t in need of emergency care. Exer is now offering similar telehealth services for their urgent care patients. Built and staffed by Huntington Hospital’s ER physicians, these locations offer an ER alternative to our community.
- To learn more about their Telehealth services, please visit the Exer webpage.

Due to overwhelming response and generosity of our community, Huntington has received an abundance of medical supplies. We have decided to temporarily suspend our donation center.
Visit our How You Can Help page here.
Please note that we cannot accept donations of food. We know that feeding people is a powerful expression of caring, and our community generously wants to care for those who are caring for others – for example, our wonderful employees and physicians. Unfortunately, donations of perishable food cause infection prevention concerns.

Due to storage space limitations and safety issues, we are asking patients entering the hospital for COVID-19 illness to leave all valuables/belongings at home.
- For the safety of our patients and staff, we will not be returning any clothing or other fabric items (e.g., blankets, pillows) that were in isolation.
- We will hold all other belongings for pick up for 30 days.
- Please contact Patient Relations at (626) 397-5211 with questions.
We appreciate your understanding during this unprecedented health crisis.

In the absence of being able to visit, families have been calling in more to check on their loved ones. This has proven difficult for our nurses, as they are exceptionally busy at this time caring for patients.
- If your hospitalized family member is able to communicate on their own, we ask that you please contact them directly.
- If you would like to speak with the care team, we ask that families of hospitalized patients please designate only ONE family member to call the hospital. This helps limit the number of phone calls and keeps our focus on providing direct patient care.
- We ask that the designated family member kindly refrain from calling during shift change (6:30 a.m. – 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.), as this is when care teams are sharing important patient information with the incoming shift.