With the COVID-19 pandemic not ending anytime soon, visitation policies have been modified somewhat at Newman Regional Health.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alana Longwell says the hospital is monitoring guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on visitation policy.
Newman Regional Health is currently in its Tier 2 visitation policy, meaning a maximum of two visitors in some situations and one visitor in others.
For the emergency room, Clinical Decision Unit, inpatient and outpatient surgery areas, there can be as many as two designated visitors between 6 am and 6 pm. Visitors must be screened as they enter and can be asked to leave if screening “indicates the potential” for a COVID-19 infection. Visitors must sign in and out and they must stay in the patient’s room as much as possible while at the hospital. Visitors must also wear procedure or cloth masks at all times while inside the hospital.
Visitors under age 18 will not be allowed.
Visits of confirmed, probable or symptomatic COVID residents are not allowed except for end-of-life situations and pediatric cases. In those cases, visitors must visit alone and wear masks. They may well have to wear personal protective equipment, including surgical masks, eye protection, gown and gloves. Visits by COVID confirmed, probable or symptomatic patients is not allowed unless for end-of-life situations. In these cases, visitors must be alone and wear masks.
For outpatient diagnostic and physician office visits, one person can accompany patients unless they are pediatric patients, in which case two people can accompany them. People screening positive will not be allowed to accompany the patients in these situations. They will be asked to leave their cell phone numbers and wait in their vehicles for the duration of the appointment. People accompanying patients and passing the mandatory screening procedure will need to wear cloth masks while in the hospital.
9:30 am Sunday: Staffing, patient flow keep COVID Care Unit at Newman Regional Health shelved as hospitalizations gradually increase
If the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it’s how to adapt — whether on short notice or for long-term planning.
That has been the case at Newman Regional Health, which used an eight-bed COVID Care Unit for much of last year but is not using that approach at this time despite an ongoing increase in patients and hospitalizations due to the delta variant. Chief Executive Officer Bob Wright says that decision was due to staffing shortages and also part of the learning process.
Nursing shortages and using the prior setup of care on two floors was “inefficient,” so Newman Regional Health moved the observation unit to the third floor and closed its Clinical Decision Unit outside the emergency room.
The COVID Care Unit was set up in early April 2020, shortly after the pandemic came to the area, to help offset the need at that time for patients needing isolation. The unit was deactivated in August and was reactivated briefly in November.
As of Friday, seven Lyon County residents were admitted for treatment due to coronavirus.
As public opinion about mitigation strategies, notably mask use, has ranged from general acceptance to increasing hostility, Wright says Newman Regional Health has to follow certain guidelines from the federal government, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Wright says the hospital won’t turn patients away from the emergency room, but they need to be masked. Patients also need to wear masks elsewhere at the hospital as well.
