Pastoral Care

What is Pastoral Care?
Olean General Hospital recognizes the importance of an individual’s emotional and spiritual well-being and how these effect a person’s overall healing. Working in cooperation with your priest, minister, rabbi, or spiritual leader, the hospital‘s pastoral care team will be available to you for prayer, counsel, support, and assistance in your healing process. Emotional and spiritual health is vital to healing which is more than a physical process.

Here to Help You

Pastoral Care Chaplains offer caring and committed pastoral support. They provide spiritual support to patients, their families and our staff in illness, conflicts and tragedies. The Chaplains at Olean General Hospital are an important part of your integrated health team. In times of need, hospital chaplains offer non-judgmental compassion, understanding and sensitivity to spiritual, cultural, ethnic and individual needs.

To accomplish this goal, we provide services including:

Patient visitation and pastoral support

Pastoral support for families of inpatients and outpatients

Prayer resources such as bibles and other spiritual literature

Communion for patients at the bedside

Assistance at family conferences

Assistance in decision making

Crisis intervention

Information and assistance with Advance Directive and Health Care Proxy

Call pastor/priest/spiritual leader at patient’s or family request

Grief Support

To Request a Chaplain
A Chaplain is in the hospital Monday through Friday. A Chaplain is on-call evenings and weekends for emergencies. To request a pastoral care visit with a hospital chaplain ask your nurse or physician to call for a chaplain. You may call the Pastoral Care Department (716) 375-6970, or the hospital operator (716) 373-2600 for pastoral care visit.

To Contact Pastoral Care
Phone (716) 373-2600 Hospital Operator

To contact a Hospital Chaplain
Phone (716) 375-6970 Pastoral Care Office

To leave a message or prayer request
E-mail dhollis@ogh.org
Sister Dana E. Hollis, OSF - Manager, Pastoral Care

Locations:
Pastoral Care Office is located on the second floor in the West Wing of the hospital.

Meditation Room is located on the second floor across from the Patient and Visitor Atrium between the East and West Wings of the hospital. The Meditation Room is designed to provide patients and family members a place of retreat for prayer and meditation.

You Can Also Make a Difference
You are invited to join current employees, retired employees and volunteers to participate in the “Compassionate Companions” Program. Volunteers are asked to sign up to be available during one or more days a month of their choosing.  To provide 24-hour coverage, a team of “Compassionate Companions” will be on call each week, ready to serve at the bedside.

For details call the OGH Volunteer Office at (716)375-6119 or e-mail sgaughn@ogh.org. All volunteers must first take part in an orientation session where they will learn the simple art of being compassionately present at the bedside of patients during their time of need.