LOCAL HOSPITALS ARE PLAYING IT SAFE
After a year of strict rules that forced many people to leave their loved ones at the hospital entrance, new guidelines from the California Department of Public Health are loosening up visitation restrictions for hospitals and long-term care facilities
across the state.
Most California counties moved to less restrictive tiers this month prompting new guidelines for hospitals. Now hospitals in 50 counties — home to more than 93% of the population — are eligible to open up to two visitors per patient, with some caveats.
The new state guidance for hospitals increases the number
of visitors recommended in non-purple counties to two at a time per patient, provided they’re from the same household and “social distancing can be accomplished.” For all tiers, the number of visitors recommended for children, women giving birth and patients who are dying, undergoing surgery, or have disabilities increased to two.
While some hospitals immediately adopted the new guidelines, others remain cautious. The guidance doesn’t have the force of law, but a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said “hospitals are licensed by CDPH and should comply.” Counties may implement stricter standards if the local public health officer or
ders them.
When asked how Humboldt Public Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman would implement the new guidelines Public Health spokesperson Meriah Miracle told the Times-Standard, “Questions about nursing facilities and hospital policies should be directed to those entities.”
Both St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata plan to err on the side of caution and “open the door slowly.”
“Up until this point we have not allowed visitors within Mad River Community Hospital unless it’s an end-of-life situation or it’s a minor,” spokesperson Pamela Floyd told the TimesStandard. “As we’re still in the red tier, we’re moving ahead to one visitor per patient. It’s easier for us to open the door slowly instead of just pulling it open and then someone tells you you have to close it again.”
Floyd said Mad River Community Hospital is taking a more conservative approach while still serving its patients and their family. The new visitation
policy will go into effect on Tuesday, March 30.
“(CDPH) said we can allow up to two visitors according to how your county’s doing and we’re still in the red tier. There are quite a few counties down south that are already in the orange tier which is where we hope to be in a couple of weeks,” Floyd said. “The health and well-being of our patients and our staff is always our first concern and we want to make sure that they don’t feel like they are alone in the hospital.”
St. Joseph Hospital spokesperson Christian Hill said St. Joe’s is taking a similar approach.
“Early on in the pandemic, we followed CDC guidelines which advised hospitals to restrict hospital visitation to a few crucial circumstances. As the number of cases stabilized in the county and with the vaccination of our caregivers and physicians, we were able to adjust our visitation policy to allow for one visitor per patient,” Hill told the Times-Standard. “In the event a patient is in a private room, the care team will determine whether that patient may have two visitors.”
Because many of St. Joseph’s rooms are semi-private
with two patients per room, Hill said St. Joe’s adopted the one visitor per patient policy “to avoid the potential of more than two visitors in a single room which is not conducive to physical distancing.”
“We understand the value of having loved ones visit our patients and have needed to make decisions which balanced the top priority of safety of patients and caregivers with the desire to have visitors,” Hill said. “It is important to have a standard approach so the care team can focus on our patients rather than the implementation of a complex visitation system. By limiting visitors into our facility, we can provide an opportunity for visitation with appropriate social distancing while mitigating the risk of spread of COVID-19.”
Hill added that St. Joe’s visitation policy “may be adjusted at the discretion of the facility to promote the safety of caregivers, patients, and visitors” to maintain physical distancing.
Although both hospitals screen each person that walks into the hospital Floyd fears someone could unknowingly walk into the hospital and bring the coronavirus with them —
or contract the virus there and walk back out with it.
“This last year has been such a struggle and a burden because so many people have been admitted to the hospital and they haven’t been able to have their family members there,” Floyd said. “When a patient is admitted they go through a lot of emotions. They are frightened and the best thing that can help them along is usually family.”
As program manager for the Area 1 Agency on Aging’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program Suzi Fregeau works as an advocate for residents in nursing homes. She told the TimesStandard limited visitation opportunities have devastated many of the residents she works with.
“These residents have pretty much been isolated from their family and friends for a year. It’s taken a horrible toll on those in nursing homes. We’ve seen weight loss and confusion, it’s been catastrophic for seniors,” Fregeau said. “Some of them have memory issues, so it’s explained to them why they can’t see their daughter or their son or their grandchildren. Today they may understand but tomorrow they might not. They need to see their
loved ones and family, they just need to.”
Fregeau said many of the local long-term care facilities are working on new visitation policies that are in line with Humboldt County Public Health.
“The nursing homes are now allowing visitors outdoors and they are going to allow inside visitors but they’re still working on their protocol,” Fregeau said. “The residential care facilities will allow inside visits as well as outside visits, including residents being able to have people in their room, being able to leave and visit family members if they limit it to three households, which is standard for everybody.”
Visitors will still be required to mask and abide by social distancing guidelines.
“Being able to have their family and friends back, even if they can’t hold hands and touch — which is something that the nursing homes are working on — they can see each other again,” Fregeau said.
More information on the updated visitation guidelines for hospitals and longterm care facilities can be found at cdph.ca.gov.
CalMatters reporter Rachel Becker contributed to this report.