New York's Maimonides Hospital Opening to Visitors for Limited Time in Pilot Program

By Boro Park 24 News
Posted on 05/27/20 | News Source: MATZAV

Bowing to pressure, Maimonides Medical Center in Boro Park is allowing patients to have visitors and be accompanied by relatives for a limited pilot program.

Boro Park’s premier hospital on Tuesday rolled out a visitors’ protocol, days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that family members must be allowed to visit relatives and visually monitor their medical progress. It comes after patients reported horror stories of neglect and not being adequately fed and cared for. Hospitals across the state have barred any visitors out of concern they could spread the coronavirus.

Starting Tuesday, Maimonides will allow each patient to have two visitors a day, one at a time, during select hours, as New York’s pilot program gets underway in 21 hospitals across the state.

Visitation will be permitted from 12-2 p.m., and 6-8 p.m., Sunday through Friday; and on Saturdays, from 12-2 p.m. and 7-11 p.m. Visitors should coordinate with the patient’s family, so that the family knows who will be visiting the patient; once a patient has had two visitors in a day, they will be allowed no other visitors for the rest of the day.

Visitors will be screened for symptoms and undergo temperature checks, and will be provided with, and must wear, personal protective equipment.

A photo identification is required of all visitors at Maimonides.

In specific limited cases, expanded visitation will be allowed. Children who are hospitalized may have one visitor at a time at all hours, women giving birth may have one visitor plus a doula and infants in the neonatal ICU may have one parent between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.

A visitor is allowed in cases where it is deemed medically necessary, such as those with intellectual or developmental disabilities or dementia, and a visitor is permitted with a patient for whom death is imminent.

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