Infusion Center

What is the Infusion Center?

The Infusion Center is where your child gets medicines and treatments ordered by the doctor. (This area used to be known as the Medicine Room.) In the Infusion Center, your child may get:

• Chemotherapy drugs
• Blood products
• Special cellular infusions such as:
  • Donor lymphocytes
  • Stem cells
• Special procedures, such as:
  • Exchange transfusion
  • Therapeutic phlebotomy
• Monitoring 
• Teaching 
• Vascular access

Before your visit

• Please bring all the medicines that your child will need during the day. You might need to stay longer than you expect if your schedule changes.

• Your child needs an ID armband before going to the Infusion Center. Go to Patient Registration first to get your child’s armband and appointment schedule.

Your child usually has a clinic visit before going to the Infusion Center. The doctor will order medicines or other treatments. The time between your clinic visit and the Infusion Center visit will be 90–120 minutes. This allows time for staff to prepare medication or blood products and to do safety checks. When you arrive in the St. Jude Infusion Center, staff will complete a series of safety checks before working with your child.

The primary clinics and Acute Care Clinic close at 5 p.m. If your child has an urgent need after hours, please call the Infusion Center. A nurse and provider will review your child’s information and symptoms. They will then decide if your child should be seen in the Infusion Center or should go to a local emergency room.

Arriving for your appointment

Please let the patient representative at the Infusion Center desk know you have arrived. 

You can enjoy activities nearby while the staff prepares your child’s medicine or treatments. Activity areas are in the north and south lobbies of the Patient Care Center. You may also visit the gift shop, Kay Kafe, or Starbucks.

If you leave the Infusion Center waiting area near the fish tanks, please make sure the patient representative knows your phone number. 

Your time is valuable, and the Infusion Center staff try to stay on time. If it is 30 minutes past your scheduled time, please ask the patient representative or clinical staff leader for an update.

A nurse will call you to the Infusion Center when everything is ready. If you need a blanket, snacks, games, movies, or anything else to make your visit more comfortable, ask any of the staff. Feel free to bring your child’s favorite quiet toys.

Important things to know

• An adult family member must stay with your child in the Infusion Center. If you need to leave for a short time, ask your nurse if someone from the Helping Hands volunteer program can help.
  
• Any child younger than age 2 must stay in a crib. This is for their safety.
• Side rails must be up on all beds and cribs if you are not close enough to touch your child.
• If treatment area gets crowded, staff might ask you to put large items, such as wheelchairs, someplace else. Or, they might limit the number of family members in the room. 
• A nurse can only connect or disconnect medicine when your child is in the patient room or recliner.
• The Infusion Center has a playroom for patients. Please put toys in the “dirty toy bin” after use.
• Eating and drinking are allowed in the patient care areas, but not at the nursing stations or the playroom. Ask a staff member for help if you can’t get to Kay Kafe during meal times.

Your child’s schedule

It takes up to 2 hours to get medications, blood, and treatments ready after the doctor orders them in the clinic.

Medicines that your child takes at least 2 days in a row usually start around the same time each day. If your child gets GCSF or pegfilgrastim, they get the first dose in the Infusion Center at least 24 hours after the end of chemotherapy.

Ask your nurse about your child’s next appointment time before you leave the Infusion Center.