In Response to COVID-19, LifeBridge Health Tightens Hospital Visitor Policy: No Visitors, with Some Exceptions

By BJLife Newsroom
Posted on 03/24/20

Baltimore – At LifeBridge Health, protecting our patients, visitors and employees is our responsibility and highest priority.

To proactively contain the spread of the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, we are tightening our hospital visitor policy, effective March 25, 2020 at 7 am.

These changes affect Sinai Hospital, Northwest Hospital, Carroll Hospital and Grace Medical Center.

Moving forward, there will now be no inpatient visitors with the following exceptions:

• One parent visitor for pediatric patients
• One significant other for labor and delivery patients
• One visitor for end-of-life care patients
• One visitor for heart attack or stroke patients
• One visitor for emergency surgery patients

All of the exempted visitors will be required to wear a surgical mask.  There is one designated visitor per patient, not just one visitor at a time.

There will be no visitors for patients who are considered “under investigation” for COVID-19.

Emergency Department  (ED) Visitation Policies

• Visitors for patients in the Emergency Department will be screened
• ED visitors will not be required to wear masks
• ED patients will be required to wear surgical masks

These tightened policies are in addition to previously announced visitor restrictions:

• General visiting hours will be noon to 7 p.m.

• All visitors must check in at a visitor information desk.

• No visitors under age 18 are allowed, unless they are the parent of a child in the hospital.

• Visitors may be screened for flu-like symptoms (runny nose, fever and cough) and will not be allowed to visit if symptoms persist.

• Visitors with international travel may not visit for 14 days after arrival in the United States.

• Given the rapid spread of Coronavirus in the United States, visitors who have had recent domestic travel should also share that information when they check in at a visitor information desk. Depending on the spread of the virus, we may need to restrict visitors who have traveled to specific states or regions, and those restrictions may happen quickly.

Specialty Hospitals: Levindale.

• At Levindale, NO VISITORS are allowed until further notice. Levindale is a long-term care facility and is following guidance from Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and the Maryland Department of Health for long-term care communities, issued March 10.

• There are also NO VISITORS at Northwest Hospital’s Sub-Acute Unit, due to same considerations as Levindale.

Final notes:

We appreciate that these visitor restrictions may be challenging for patients and families. However, given the rapid spread of COVID-19, we made this decision about visitors in the best interest of our patients, their families, our staff and our community.

LifeBridge Health will provide updates on its COVID-19 response plans at: lifebridgehealth.org/COVID19