Know Our Policies for Holiday Decor and Gifts

As the holiday season approaches, office buzz turns to holiday gifts, treats, and of course, decorations. As each department may be faced with gifts from vendors and others embark on deciding their appropriate level of decoration, we ask that you keep these guidelines in mind for the upcoming season.  

Decorating Your Office and Workspaces 

As you decorate for the holidays, please keep in mind the following safety policies. 

• You CAN have traditional store-bought ornaments, garland, beads, battery powered lights, etc. 
• You CAN be creative (but not excessive) in decorating the trees. Branches must be visible. 
• You CAN enjoy the holiday season with your co-workers. 
• Carilion provided Christmas trees and lights are permitted to be used in all areas of the hospital. 
• NO decorations can obstruct exits and/or inhibit normal operations of the door. 
• NO decorative material is to be placed on a door in a patient care area. This includes office doors within patient care areas. 
• NO decorative material may be suspended from the ceiling. 
• NO live greenery including hay, leaves, branches, etc. 
• NO combustible decorations, e.g. telemetry paper as garland, paper decorations, paper snowflakes, cardboard, etc. 
• NO open flames, wax warmers, or plug-in air fresheners. 
• NO plug-in electrical decorations including but not limited to tree lights and miniature village statues. 

If you have questions, contact Emergency Management and Life Safety at Emergency_Management_and_Life_Safety@carilionclinic.org or 540-524-8165.

Guidelines for Holiday Gifts 

We have several documents available on PageCenterX that provide guidance about gifts:

• Vendor-provided Gifts, Courtesies, Meals and Products policy
• Gifts from Patients/Family Members policy
• Code of Excellence

Some best practices are listed below: 

1. Never accept cash or cash equivalents (gift cards, vouchers, lottery tickets, etc.) from patients, vendors, or non-Carilion physicians. 
2. Carilion Clinic employees may not solicit or request gifts. 
3. Vendors are not permitted to provide food or beverages at any Carilion Clinic location. 
4. Acceptance of perishable items of modest value from patients is permitted if it is shared with the department or group. 
5. If it is not possible to decline a gift without offending or embarrassing the gift-giver, then the gift should be forwarded to the Carilion Clinic Foundation. 

If you have questions, contact Compliance at compliance@carilionclinic.org or 540-510-4600.