The second thing to know is that hospitals are the one delivery address where the flowers themselves can be refused, and the rules are clinical rather than arbitrary. Oncology, bone-marrow transplant and protective-environment units frequently bar fresh flowers entirely, and they bar potted plants even more firmly, because soil carries fungal spores that a neutropenic patient cannot afford to meet. ICU, CCU and NICU floors commonly refuse flowers for a mix of infection-control, space and allergy reasons - there is no room on an ICU bedside for a vase, and there rarely is a bedside table at all. Many floors and whole hospitals run scent-free policies for the sake of patients and staff, which rules out heavily fragrant designs. And lilies get named specifically on a lot of unit guidelines: oriental and stargazer lilies shed aggressive pollen that stains and irritates, and the scent carries down a corridor. Two practical corollaries. Latex balloons are banned in most hospitals because of latex allergy, so anything we send with a balloon goes mylar. And glass vases are discouraged on some units, which is why a designer will use a sturdy low container when we tell them the delivery is a hospital room. Say the floor and the unit on your order and the bench will build to it - lily-free, low-pollen, low-scent, compact enough for a tray table.
Third: what you need to hand us, and what we cannot do for you. A hospital will not tell us whether a patient is there. Federal privacy rules mean a driver cannot walk in with a first name and a hopeful guess. Give the patient's full legal name, the hospital, and the room or unit if you have it - and if you do not have the room, give a mobile number for the patient or a family member so the bench can call before the run rather than after a refusal. The second hazard is discharge. Hospital stays are short, and a delivery that arrives an hour after the patient has gone home is returned to the shop, not forwarded. If the stay is winding down, or if you are hearing about the illness a few days late, send to the home address instead - and in Milpitas that usually works better anyway. This is a city of multigenerational households, so somebody is generally home to take a delivery, and a recovery that runs for weeks at home is far more common than a long inpatient stay. All of Milpitas is a single delivery ZIP, 95035; 95036 is PO Boxes and needs a street address before a driver leaves.