Adena Health System announced Monday that it is making a return to full visitor restrictions to help limit the spread of the Coronavirus.
“Given the recent surge in positive cases both statewide and locally, we are implementing the strictest measures to ensure the health, safety and protection of Adena’s patients and staff,” said Chief Clinical Officer Kirk Tucker, MD. “We are seeing outbreaks throughout our communities and an increase in patients to our COVID-19 unit. This indicates we have a high probability to experience a large surge over the next four weeks.”
He added, “From the onset of this pandemic, we have learned to be proactive and nimble in our decision-making to safely protect those coming to us for care or working in our facilities. For the safety and well-being of everyone, we will continue to monitor state and local health data and will make adjustments to our visitor policies when appropriate.”
Effective immediately, at Adena Regional Medical Center in Chillicothe, visitor access will be limited to:
- No visitors in clinical care areas, inpatient units and the emergency department.
- Visitors are not permitted for patients confirmed or suspected of COVID-19.
- Visitors under age 13 are not permitted.
Visitor exceptions will be for the following:
- End of life situations – requires approval of the patient’s provider
- Labor and delivery – includes the infant’s mother and one support person.
- Minor patients (under 18) – two visitors, limited to only parents or guardians
- Patients having major surgery – one support person on the day of and day after surgery
- Patients with significant physical disabilities – one support person.
·Visitor expectations during this phase also include:
- All visitors require an Adena caregiver escort to and from the unit they are visiting
- All visitor waiting areas are closed.
- Visitors are not to be loitering in the hospital.
Visitor restrictions remain at Adena’s two critical-access hospitals - Adena Greenfield Medical Center and Adena Pike Medical Center - Adena Cancer Center and all urgent care and walk-in clinic locations. No visitors are allowed in clinical care areas unless deemed absolutely necessary by the patient’s care team.
Patients, staff and visitors are required to be screened at entrances and must follow Adena’s universal masking requirement throughout the course of their visit or shift. People should also maintain social distancing guidelines while on premises.
Current visitor policy information can always be found on Adena’s website, adena.org