Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center Has a New Phone Number

Having grown to the point of needing three different prefixes for phone lines at Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, the decision was made earlier this year to purchase the “996” phone prefix and use it for all hospital-related phone numbers.

Effective immediately, callers may begin dialing 996-2345 for the hospital’s main number, which replaces 482-2345.

Memorial’s new prefix remains a local number for everyone who previously could call the hospital without a long distance toll. The hospital’s toll-free number (800/852-7279) remains in effect for regional callers outside the local zone.

Callers wanting to dial a patient’s room directly without going through the hospital’s switchboard will now dial the patient’s room number with the prefix “996.” For example, if there were a patient’s room number of 2601, the phone number would be 996-2601.

Most of the hospital’s 4-digit departmental phone and fax extensions will remain the same and may be direct dialed by using the 996 prefix. For example, the Community Relations departmental phone number has been 481-2399, but is now 996-2399.  It is expected that the transition to the “996” prefix will take nearly a year to complete. Members of the hospital staff are working on updating all printed materials with the new prefix.

Rita Howell, Director of Community Relations, said, “We estimate that it will take at least 6–12 months to update all of our printed materials as well as the public phone directories. While hospital-related phone numbers with the 481, 482 and 634 prefixes will continue working for several months, we encourage everyone to get in the habit now of using the ‘996’ prefix to call any phone within Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center.”

For more information, please call Rita Howell at 996-2323.