Swine flu fears prompting California hospitals to bar children, limit visitors
Alarmed by the spread of the H1N1 flu, local hospitals restricted visitors this week, barring children and capping the number of visitors a patient can see at once.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center this week raised the minimum age for visitors from 12 to 18 and restricted the number of visitors for patients at greatest risk of becoming infected with H1N1, including those in labor and delivery, or in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, according to Dr. Rekha Murthy, medical director of hospital epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai.
Murthy said restrictions on younger visitors make sense because children are at greater risk of catching the H1N1 flu, and may infect others before they show symptoms.
“This epidemic is different from the typical flu season, and we’re having to respond in a different way,” Murthy said. “It’s spreading like wildfire in the community and we need to protect the patients who are most vulnerable.”
Cedars-Sinai had restricted visits to at-risk patients during the spring outbreak of H1N1 flu, and the change was appreciated by patients’ families, Murthy said.
She said many area hospitals are considering similar visitor restrictions, especially those that serve transplant patients and others with compromised immune systems at risk of infection.
“Every hospital has to weigh their own populations at risk,” she said. Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys has barred children under 16 from visiting inpatient units or being left unattended in lobbies, waiting rooms or other common areas.
Hospital officials have asked those with flu-like symptoms not to visit, and have limited patients to two visitors at a time. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has limited patients to two visitors at a time. Within the next week, UCLA Medical Center will bar children under 16 from pediatric, perinatal, neonatal and child life areas unless preauthorized by hospital staff, spokesman Enrique Rivero said.
Hospital officials have already started telling would-be visitors who have had the flu not to enter the hospital until 24 hours after their symptoms disappear, Rivero said.
Staff will be screening visitors at hospital entrances in coming days, posting the new guidelines on the premises and talking to patients and their families about the guidelines during admission and treatment in the pediatric clinic, he said. Hospital groups said the new restrictions are spreading statewide.
On Monday, Stanford Hospital & Clinics officials announced they had barred visitors under 16 except in the emergency room, where visitors will be asked to wear masks. Officials at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and UC Irvine Douglas Hospital are warning visitors with flu-like symptoms to stay home, but have not imposed any new restrictions, although that could change as they evaluate the spread of H1N1 in the community, spokesmen said.
“Every hospital is absolutely looking at its visitation policies,” said Jan Emerson, a spokeswoman for the California Hospital Assn., which represents more than 400 hospitals statewide. Emerson said the changes hospitals are making to their visiting policies have varied based on a hospital's size, whether the population they serve is urban or rural, and the size of local H1N1 outbreaks.
Los Angeles County has seen more flu cases and hospitalizations than this time last year, with 34 outbreaks during the week of Oct. 4 to 10, the most recent period with available data, according to the county’s Department of Public Health. The department reported 16 severe pediatric flu cases this season, including four deaths. Los Angeles County’s three public hospitals — County-USC, Harbor-UCLA and Olive View — have not restricted visitors, although officials plan to meet Friday to review visitor guidelines, said spokesman Michael Wilson.
-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Photo: A nurse prepares the injectable version of the swine flu vaccine. Credit: Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press.
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EDITOR'S PICKS:
Hospitals should not allow children to visit in patient rooms at any time. A hospital is not an amusement park. There's not enough staff to adequately take care of patients. Nursing staffs don't have the time to be chasing after visitors under the age of 18, to see if these children are sick with a cold, flu, mumps, measles, whopping cough, etc.
Sick patients don't really want more than 2 visitors (adults), as visits tend to tire a sick person.
Keep the dogs out of hospitals. Fleas are not friends to anyone with allergies or autoimmune illnesses.
No wonder that the hospitals of today (loosy-goosy regs.) make so many patients sick with infections.
Posted by: An Adult | October 20, 2009 at 08:49 AM
This is a GOOD move. In the U.S. an estimated 50,000-80,000 (some scientists believe the figure is higher) die from nosocomial infections (infections picked up at a healthcare facility) during a NORMAL year. Some are patients, many are visitors.
With young people apparently much more susceptible than older people to H1N1 complications, this restriction will save lives.
If you do not have a medical requirement to go to a healthcare facility...don't.
Posted by: jack | October 20, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Hey, the laws protecting your constitutional rights are secondary to the needs of spies aka law enforcement. Did you not get the memo?
Posted by: Sara123 | October 20, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Close the public school virus factories, people. Parents, you are responsible for exposing your children to a dangerous virus which the hospitals are not recognizing in policy. Wake up and take charge of yourself and your kids!
Posted by: Sara123 | October 20, 2009 at 12:53 PM
My child came home from school saying that they learned to cough and sneeze into their elbow with Germy Wormie, and I was totally taken aback. I always covered with my hands. But I went to the website and now I get it, hands touch, elbows don't!! Kids can touch 300 surfaces in 1/2 hour and they hate to wash their hands. This is a simple thing that can make a huge difference. There is also an entertaining DVD that teaches them in a fun way the elbow cough, as well as other important hygiene habits.
Posted by: Mary | October 20, 2009 at 03:41 PM
When I was a child my parents never took me to a hospital to visit somebody sick, warned me not to drink from somebody's else cup or eat with the utensils alredy used by others,prepared real chicken soup when I got sick, bought fresh eggs from a farmer who came to Naples to sell them, had my nails always trimmed and smacked me when I put my fingers or my pen in my mouth. My parents exercised preventive health care because they were wage workers and could not afford the luxury to take days off from work.They barely made it to the 5th grade, had to work different shifts so one of them stayed home with us. I wonder why is it that the most basic rules to prevent disease like not have children visiting hospitals have to be implemented only for fear of a new widespread type of flu? Are we in America or in a 3rd world country? Have we all lost our common sense?
Posted by: carmen orsi | October 23, 2009 at 09:32 AM
I'm a travel RN and curretnly working in a pediatric hospiotal in Norfolk,VA. They have already started to restrict visitors so this is nothing new. WHat each and every one of us need to start doing is the following: Don't go anywhere without having a small container of hand sanitizer, WASH WASH WASH your hands, if they get chapped but hand lotion and use that. When you use a public bathroom, grab a paper towel and use that to open the door. If you have to touch the door handle, then use the alcohol sanitizer. It is truly unbelievable the number of people/parents that go outside their home when they should never leave it to begin with. Ther are sick. Why are some doing that? They are doing nothing but spreading the germs and the H1N1 flu. We see this every day I work. Yes it hits the kids hardest. Come on parents, please use some common sense and keep your kids at him. If you sick, stay home and out of the public.
Posted by: Connie | October 24, 2009 at 10:59 AM