Penn State Health leaders, while remaining fully committed to enforcing strict masking and distancing requirements for everyone, approved a move to Tier 2 visitation status starting Monday, Feb. 1.
The changes, made in response to declining COVID-19 cases, include:
- Allowing adult inpatients to have one family/support person per stay
- Allowing adult outpatient surgery patients to have one family/support person per stay
- Allowing adult outpatient procedures to have one family/support person per stay
- Allowing pediatric outpatient procedures to have two family/support person(s) per stay
Two new visitation exceptions have been included:
- Patients who have a surgery/procedure and will require a responsible driver, or those having new radiation consults and/or radiation treatments
- Patients who are suffering from acute delirium and would benefit from seeing familiar faces/family will be allowed a support person with specific visiting hours and guidelines as set by the attending physician in collaboration with the nurse manage
Employees are expected to set examples of safe behaviors. Caregivers and others who spot visitors and patients ignoring safety protocols should inform them of the health system’s policy.
As a result of the pandemic, Penn State Health has made difficult but necessary safety decisions that have affected patients’ support systems. The health system always seeks to include support persons as part of each patient’s care team and to remove barriers that cause patients to delay care. Penn State Health will continue to make iPads available for communication between care teams, patients and families.
Should circumstances change, leaders will assess the visitation status and take the appropriate action.