Write letters and send food! I'm from a small town and my mom sent letters to hospital administration and also wrote a letter to the editor of the paper mentioning how great the team had been and praising a couple people in particular.

My dad spent a month in ICU and loved his nursing staff so much. He regularly brought them lunch and visited after he was discharged. When he passed almost a decade later, they were still there caring for him but crying along with us.

nurse here... food is always appreciated, but the unfortunate thing is that only the people working at the time you bring it get to enjoy it (meaning nightshift and those with the day off won't even know you brought it).

I agree with the PP to write a letter, but send it to the unit director. If you recall the names of any nurses who stood out, be sure to include them. It's pretty likely this will also make it to the breakroom for everybody to see. Be sure to include an update on your father- we always love to hear how people are doing after they leave us.

While physical gifts are nice, what the staff would REALLY appreciate is a nice note sent to HR or similar entity saying how fantastic you thought they were. Things like this go into their files and can make a difference when it comes to review time/raise/performance reviews. Panera/espresso/etc are awesome too, but if you're feeling up to it, please consider sending some notes.

What about An espresso machine with a bunch of those little pods?

Bring in lunch from Panera or something.

My father will be discharged today from a hospital after a 4.5 week stay - it's not in DC but is about the size of Sibley and located just outside an East Coast city. Apparently he's been here as long or maybe longer than any other patient that the staffers can recall. His prognosis isn't great, but the people at the hospital have been fantastic throughout the process - doctors, nurses, therapists, aides, palliative care specialists, the list goes on. We'd like to do something to thank the floor. I figure they see enough flowers, baked goods, etc - but I don't know what else we could do that would be appreciated. It's got to be something that can be given en masse - we couldn't even begin to track all the different people he's interacted with over all this time to do something like individual Starbucks gift cards or something like that.

Thanks for any ideas!