Visitor information | Providence Health Care

Overview

From getting a parking spot to finding a specific clinic, hospitals and other health care sites can be difficult places to visit and navigate. We’ve pulled together useful information to help you prepare for your visit and know what to expect in advance. That way, you can focus all your energies on visiting, comforting and helping care for your loved ones.

Visiting our hospitals

Each hospital provides support and guidance for its visitors. Learn about what to expect when you visit our hospitals:

Visiting our clinics

Find a clinic and learn about what to expect when you visit:

Find a clinic

Visiting long-term care and assisted living

Learn about what to expect when you visit our long-term care and assisted living homes:

Visiting hospices

Learn about what to expect when you visit our hospices:

Parking at PHC sites

Search our location hub to find specific transportation, parking & wayfinding options for each of our sites.

Find a location

Travel & accommodations

If you are travelling from out of town to visit someone, here are some resources to help you travel to the location and find accommodation for an overnight stay. Please also check the individual locations and visitor guides for more travel and accommodation resources.

You may need to travel outside your community for a specialist non-emergency medical service. TAP helps cover expenses when traveling elsewhere in BC for medical treatment. TAP is run by the Government of British Columbia.

For more information about who is eligible and how to apply, visit the Travel Assistance (TAP) website.
The Government of BC’s Medical Travel Accommodation Listing program helps BC residents who need out-of-town medical services or themselves and family members find discounted accommodation.

Visit the Medical Travel Accommodation Listing to search for accommodation near the location of your medical appointment. When you book a room, request the medical rate.

Health care decision-making

You may need to help someone make a health care decision when you are visiting them in the hospital. You may also need to speak for them if they are unable to speak for themselves, or even make a hard decision about their care. Providence health care professionals will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision.

Often these decisions are extremely complex and hard to make. These decisions could be around the use of life support or medical interventions (treatments) to keep someone alive. For example, you might decide if someone should use a ventilator or feeding tube. You might also have to decide if someone needs CPR, an emergency technique that can save someone’s life if they have stopped breathing or their heart has stopped beating.

Advance care planning is about making sure your health care preferences are known. It involves talking about or writing down what you want for your future medical care. You will outline your beliefs, values and wishes that must be respected when future decisions are made for you.

Learn more about Advance care planning
A family spokesperson can be very important. They will act as the point of contact for friends and family. This involves speaking with the doctor or nurse about the patient’s condition and updating family. A spokesperson cannot make any medical decisions for the patient unless they are also the Temporary Substitute Decision Maker (TSDM).
A Temporary Substitute Decision Maker (TDSM) is appointed when a person cannot make medical decisions for themselves. This could be because they are unconscious or critically ill. In these cases, a Temporary Substitute Decision Maker (TDSM) is required by the Health Care Consent Act.
- Consent to Health Care: Information for adults, families and health care providers
The TSDM signs for medical procedures, provides additional information to the care team and advocates for the patient’s care wishes.
- Public Guardian and Trustee Guide to being a TSDM

Sending well wishes

If you want to send a message to a friend or family member in one of our hospitals, long-term care homes or hospices, please visit our well wishes page to find the relevant location’s information for families and visitors.