What a hospital will and will not accept is the part people get wrong, and it is worth two minutes before you order. Flowers travel through a hospital's receiving or volunteer desk and then upward, which means the order needs the patient's full legal name and, if you have it, the room number and unit - front desks cannot look up a nickname and will not guess between two people with the same surname. Beyond that, three restrictions come up constantly in this metro. Bone marrow and transplant units generally refuse anything growing in soil, because potting mix carries fungal spores, so send a cut arrangement there and save the flowering plant for the recipient's house. Oncology and infusion suites, including the Frauenshuh Cancer Center and the Piper institute, want low-pollen and no perfume - lilies are the usual offender, and a thoughtful order simply leaves them out rather than hoping the nurse trims the anthers. On the pediatric side at Children's Minnesota and Masonic, latex balloons are out and the sensible move is a small, sturdy design that survives a stroller, a wagon and a shared room. Intensive care is the strictest case: many ICUs keep the bedside clear entirely. If that is where the patient is, send to the family's waiting area or straight to the house, where the spouse sleeping in the recliner will actually see it.
Traffic matters more here than on any other page, because a hospital delivery has a window and a kitchen table does not. France Avenue at 66th Street - the intersection funneling Southdale, the Galleria and the hospital ramp through one set of lights - slows badly through the middle of the afternoon, and the Crosstown eastbound stacks up from about three o'clock, which is precisely when a driver would be heading for Abbott Northwestern or HCMC. So a morning window is the reliable one for anything past the city line, while a mid-day window is fine for Fairview Southdale because the Valley View Road shop is minutes from its doors either way. Two more things help. If the stay is for a new baby, put the mother's name on the order rather than the baby's, since that is the name the unit has on its board. And if the patient is going home in a day or two, consider scheduling the delivery for the day after discharge, to the house - that is the moment when the visitors thin out, the food stops arriving, and a plant on the counter earns its keep. Then write one specific line on the card instead of get well soon, because the specific line is the part that gets reread.