New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
As COVID cases surge, some hospitals ban visitors
As eastern Connecticut experiences its biggest COVID-19 surge of the pandemic, some hospitals there are reinstating visitor restrictions while officials at facilities are monitoring the outbreak’s path.
On Monday, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London became the latest facility to ban visitors, announcing in a statement it was “restricting visitor access except under extenuating circumstances.”
“Rare exceptions to this policy may be made at the discretion of the patient’s clinical team and we will do our best to accommodate exceptions where possible, but our first priority is to protect the health of our patients, visitors and staff,” according to the hospital’s statement.
According to the hospital, New London County has seen a 267 percent increase in the number of people testing positive with COVID-19 over the past two weeks. As of Monday, there were 143 new cases reported across the county from over the weekend.
Lawrence + Memorial’s announcement came days after Hartford HealthCare announced Backus Hospital in Norwich, Windham Hospital in Windham and Natchaug Hospital in Mansfield, were reinstating visitor restrictions at all inpatient and outpatient locations.
The restrictions followed the state Department of Public Health issuing a COVID-19 alert for Norwich. The New London County municipality saw 58 new cases over the weekend. Last Thursday, Norwich recorded 27 new cases — the city’s highest single
day total.
“Last week, we noticed a trend of rising positive rates and increasing hospitalization,” said Dr. Ajay Kumar, Hartford HealthCare’s chief medical officer. “It made sense for us to include an additional layer of scrutiny.”
Hartford Health has a total of seven hospitals —
including St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport — and it isn’t expected to institute tougher restrictions there any time soon, Kumar said. But he and other officials will continue to monitor cases and hospitalizations to see if more restrictions are warranted.
Kumar said most of the hospitals have a limit of one visitor per patient, unless there are extenuating circumstances. He said hospitals do not want to ban visitors unless the COVID numbers drastically rise.
“We believe strongly that families’ interaction with patients is vital for their healing,” he said.
At Nuvance Health system — which includes Danbury, Norwalk, New Milford and Sharon hospitals — the \policy allows for one visitor per day for up to four hours for most inpatients.
The policy is reviewed weekly by leaders from various sectors of the hospital, including nursing, infection control and quality, said Steve Meth, Nuvance’s chief experience officer.
“The health, safety, and well-being of all patients, staff, and visitors is paramount and guides our decision-making about how many visitors we allow in our hospitals and facilities,” Meth said. “We balance this with ensuring we meet the emotional needs of our patients by allowing loved ones at the bedside.”
The Nuvance hospitals have nine or fewer COVID patients. New Milford Hospital has none.
“I wouldn’t call this yet a surge of any kind,” said Dr. John Murphy, president and CEO of Nuvance Health. “We’re very carefully monitoring it.”
Stamford Hospital also has refrained from reinstating full visitor restrictions, though visitors are still limited to one per patient per day, between 1 and 5 p.m., said Audrey Wise, Stamford’s executive director of marketing and communications.
Like other officials, she said the policies are subject to change though “there is no specific trigger” for changing the rules.
While the spike in eastern Connecticut is troubling, it’s not unexpected, Kumar said.
“We expected to see some spikes and hot spots happening across Connecticut,” he said. “(But) we’re not as panicked as were in March that there would be a surge in patients.”