Any ward, any hour
Patients
Before surgery, after a diagnosis, or on the fourth week of a long stay when the visitors have thinned out.
Six Cleveland hospitals · 24 hours
Ask for a chaplain to come and sit with you.
For a patient, for the family waiting in the corridor, or for a nurse at the end of a long shift. Tell us where you are and we will come.
- A chaplain usually arrives within the hour, day or night
- Any faith, or none. We ask what you would like before we pray
- No cost to patients or families, ever
- Nothing you tell us goes in the medical chart unless you ask
Would rather talk? On call all night (555) 014-3300
A chaplain is on the way. .
The on-call chaplain will text you within ten minutes to confirm. If it can't wait, call (555) 014-3300.
Who we are
Twenty-two chaplains and one phone number
We started in 1994 with two Methodist ministers who noticed how many people died at Cleveland hospitals without a visitor. Today there are six paid chaplains and sixteen trained volunteers, from nine Christian traditions, who sit with anyone who asks.
Most of what we do is quiet. We listen, we pray if you want us to, we find a priest, rabbi or imam when that's who you need, and we stay when nobody else can.
Who we sit with
Anyone in the building who asks
About a third of our visits are to people who aren't the patient.
ICU and emergency
Families in the waiting room
Coffee, a phone charger, a quiet room, and someone who knows which questions to ask the doctors.
Three hospitals
New parents in the NICU
Blessings for tiny babies, and company for parents on the long nights between feeds.
After a hard shift
Nurses and staff
A debrief after a code, a prayer in the break room, or ten minutes with somebody outside the chain of command.
Heart and cancer units
People far from home
Patients who came to Cleveland for specialist care and don't know a soul in the city. We visit, and we help their own pastor stay in touch.
Bedside vigils
Patients near the end
Through our No One Alone volunteers, nobody in our hospitals dies without someone in the chair beside them.
After you ask
From your message to the bedside
Median time from request to arrival last year: 41 minutes.
Step 1: You ask
Through the form, the phone, or a nurse paging us. Any hour.
Step 2: We text back
Within ten minutes, from the on-call chaplain, to confirm the room and ask what you would like.
Step 3: A chaplain comes
Wearing a lanyard and a plain jacket. They'll knock, introduce themselves and ask before they sit.
Step 4: We stay in touch
Only if you want us to. A second visit, a call to your own pastor, or a card after you go home.
From families and staff
What people remember afterwards
She didn't try to fix anything. She just asked what my father was like when he was forty, and let me talk for an hour.
We lost a fourteen-year-old on my shift. Chaplain Odell was in the break room before I got there. That's the only reason I came back the next night.
I am Muslim. They found an imam at two in the morning and brought him to my husband's bed.
He sang my mother's confirmation hymn in Polish. Badly. She laughed for the first time in a week.
I didn't want prayer. I wanted someone to sit while I signed the forms. That's what I got.
The NICU at 3 AM is the loneliest room in the world. Then Sun-Hee knocked.
On the chapel door at Fairmount
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Questions
What families ask us first
Do we have to be religious?
No. About a quarter of the people we visit tell us they don't believe in anything in particular. We are happy just to sit, talk or keep you company.
Can you bring a Catholic priest for last rites?
Yes. We keep an on-call list of priests from four parishes and will find one at any hour. Tell us on the form that time may be short.
Does the hospital charge for this?
Never. Bedside Chaplains is funded by gifts from churches and individuals. You will not see us on a bill.
My mother is at a hospital not on your list.
Call us anyway. We know the chaplaincy teams at most hospitals in Northeast Ohio and will put you in touch the same day.
It's 3 AM and you need someone.
The on-call chaplain answers (555) 014-3300 every hour of every day. You will reach a person, not a menu.