Help booking a hospital visit
Thirty minutes on the phone with a named guide. Which location, which entrance, where to park and what the admission desk will ask you for. No charge, and the same guide takes your next call.
How the call works
Mill Street, Unit B. The door opens fifteen minutes before each class.
Care is closer than the next town.
A named patient guide in Austin works out which door you need, helps you book the hospital visit and sends the paperwork list before you leave the house. Small classes for parents, caregivers and patients run next door, twelve seats at most.
Book a visit-planning call
The planning call costs nothing.
Class fees run from $15 to $140.
Or ring +1 (779) 555-3858
What the desk does
A patient guide service in Austin, and a classroom next to it.
The network is large and its doors are many. Most people who call us have an appointment letter in one hand and no idea which building it means. That is the job. One guide keeps your case, and you get a plain answer about where to go and what to carry.
Patient education classes, twelve seats
Hospital stay preparation, new parents, CPR and first aid, and a weekly movement class for people over sixty. Every timetable and fee is published before you ring.
See all six programsA skills course for the person at home
Three Saturday mornings on a training bed. The last one is spent on a written daily schedule that the next helper can pick up and follow.
The caregiver courseWork on the desk or in the classroom
We hire patient guides, class instructors and front desk staff. The application is short and a person reads it, usually within the week.
Open rolesRoom 2, Mill Street
What a class morning looks like
This is a Saturday caregiver session, but every class follows the same clock. Nobody is asked to perform in front of the group, and nobody leaves without the sheet.
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08:45 / Arrival
The door opens fifteen minutes early.
Coffee and water on the side table, coats on the rail by the window. The front desk checks your name against the list and hands you a folder with your first name already on it. If you drove, the parking answer is on page two of the letter we sent, and yes, the lot behind Unit B is the one you want.
1 / 4
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09:00 / Names and the room
Twelve seats. One instructor.
The instructor goes round the circle and learns every name before the first break. Then the room: where the exits and bathrooms are, and which chair to use if standing gets tiring. Five minutes, no longer.
2 / 4
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09:20 / Hands-on practice
Most of the morning is your hands, not our slides.
Pairs work at the training bed or on the manikins, depending on the class. The instructor moves between pairs and corrects grip and posture quietly. You repeat each step until you can do it without looking at the sheet. There is a ten-minute break at 10:00.
3 / 4
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10:30 / Questions and the take-home sheet
Questions, then a single printed page.
Questions about the class are answered in the room. Questions about a person's health are written down and handed to a guide, who helps you take them to your own doctor. You leave with a one-page sheet of the steps you practiced and the desk number at the bottom.
4 / 4
Visit planning, step by step
From first call to the right door
A guide answers on the third ring on weekdays. After six, you get a voicemail and a call back before ten the next morning. The steps below are the same whether you want a class seat or help booking a hospital visit.
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01
You call or write.
Phone, email or the form further down. Tell us the appointment or the class and the name on the letter. Nothing else is needed yet.
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02
A named guide calls back.
Same working day if you reach us before four. That guide keeps your case until you are through the door, so you never explain it twice.
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03
We confirm the location and the paperwork.
Which building, which entrance, which forms. If your clinician's office has to send something first, we tell you who to ring and what to ask for.
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04
A letter with directions and the checklist.
By email or post, two pages. Bring your insurance card, a list of what you take each morning, and the name of whoever drives you home.
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05
A check-in call the day before.
Five minutes. Has the time moved, and do you still have a ride home? If nobody picks up we leave a short message and try once more.
What it costs
No charge to ask.
Visit planning is free and always has been. The classes carry a fee because they need an instructor and equipment that gets cleaned after every session and replaced when it wears. We print the fee next to the timetable so nobody finds out at the door.
$0
Visit planning call, 30 minutes with a named guide
Timetables and fees for all six
- Hospital stay preparation class $25 Per household, 90 minutes. Indicative, confirmed when we book you.
- New parents class $140 Per couple, four evenings. Indicative, confirmed when we book you.
- Family caregiver skills course $120 Per person, three Saturdays. Indicative, confirmed when we book you.
- CPR and first aid course $85 Per person, four hours. Indicative, confirmed when we book you.
- Steady movement class, 60+ $15 Per class, or $110 for a block of 8. Indicative, confirmed when we book you.
Fees are in USD. Nothing is paid on this site. A guide confirms the fee, the date and the seat by phone or email, and the terms explain refunds when a class is cancelled on our side.
Why the ceiling is twelve
Small enough that the instructor sees every pair of hands.
Every class stops at twelve seats. The new parents evenings stop at six couples. We have held that line since the first class ran, and we turn people away rather than add a thirteenth chair.
The reason is practical. One instructor can watch twelve people practice a step and correct the three who have it slightly wrong. With twenty in the room, the three who have it wrong go home with it wrong. We tried larger groups in the first year and stopped.
The desk started in 2011 as a phone line for people who could not work out which of the network's doors to walk through. The classes came later, when guides kept hearing the same practical questions: what to pack, how to fit the car seat, how to move someone in bed without hurting your own back.
Most people call us about parking. That is a fair question, and the answer is on page two of the letter we send.
Before you book
Who this is not for
Two situations where we are the wrong call. We would rather say so here than on the phone.
Anything urgent
If someone is in danger right now, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. Our guides cannot book an emergency, cannot send anyone to you, and will hang up to let you call 911 if that is what the conversation needs.
The phone line is staffed on weekdays. Evenings and weekends go to voicemail, and a voicemail is the wrong place for anything that cannot wait until morning.
Questions about a symptom or a medicine
We do not tell you what a symptom means, and we do not give second opinions. We do not change or interpret medication. Guides pass those questions to your own clinician the same minute and help you get the appointment where they can be answered properly.
The steady movement class needs a signed clearance from your physician before the first session. Read the terms of use and booking for the full wording.
Book a call
Ask for a guide by name next time.
Leave a phone number and a line about what you need. A guide rings back, and from then on that guide is yours for this visit or class.
- 01Weekdays before four, we call back the same day.
- 02After four, before ten the next morning.
- 03What you type in this form is never passed to an ad platform.
Prefer email? Write to [email protected]. For every field and a program picker, use the contact page.