How to Send Flowers to a Hospital

The truth about hospitals is that they're for sick people, right? Wrong. The hospital is about healing people, and making them feel better. By sending flowers to a hospitalized person, you send a boost of support to help them in the healing process. The good feelings that come from having fresh flowers close by won't require a prescription, but the results can work like a little magic pill. But getting them to the people who need them can sometimes be hard to do.

Things You'll Need

• Patient's last name
• Patient's room number

Instructions

1. Call the hospital. It helps if you know what the reason for the hospital stay is. The maternity, surgery and emergency can be places where the patient was admitted, and the call center should be able to direct your call to the appropriate area, or offer the correct information to submit a request for hospital delivery from a floral delivery service.

2. Retrieve the current room number and hospital wing where the patient is staying so that correct information can be listed on the bill of lading. Ask about certain guidelines that must be followed for the delivery. Some hospitals require plastic enclosures and hand delivery of flowers to patients. Some areas of the hospital, like the Intensive Care Unit, cannot receive flowers.

3. Contact a floral delivery service that works in the area of the hospital. You can visit a local shop that will send them out from a local florist, or you use a telephone or internet company that works with florists who deliver to the hospital directly. Once you have chosen which service to use, make sure that you list the specifics of the order.

4. Describe the special needs of the delivery of flowers to this particular hospital. If the flowers need to be wrapped in plastic, then the service that delivers your gift of flowers must be able to do what the hospital asks.

5. Purchase the delivery of flowers to a hospital patient using your credit card. Enter or speak your credit card information, including billing address and security code. Purchased via credit card, the flowers are protected and insured for delivery.

Tips & Warnings

• Add protection against vendors who do not follow the directions you gave them. When working with out-of-town companies it is always a good idea to protect your purchases by using credit and check options that allow you an opportunity to stop payment for services that were not properly fulfilled.

• Do not use room numbers as identification. Patients get moved, and you may be sending flowers to someone you don't know.