Patients Allowed Any Two Visitors During Visiting Hours
Effective Wednesday, July 21, 2021 CarolinaEast Health System is expanding limited visitation at CarolinaEast Medical Center. All inpatients and emergency department patients are allowed any two visitors during visiting hours of 9:00am until 8:00pm.
In March 2020, CarolinaEast restricted all visitation upon the recommendations of state and federal officials to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and allow for unknowns related to the novel illness. As the situation evolved, limited visitation was introduced in late July 2020, allowing one designated visitor during limited visiting hours. The next phase of the visitation plan expanded this policy in March 2021 to two designated visitors throughout a hospitalization. As officials have since expanded state and federal guidelines, CarolinaEast leadership made the decision to further expand visitation to any two visitors at a time throughout a hospitalization.
Expanded visitation details implemented Wednesday, July 21, 2021:
- Visiting hours for inpatient units are 9:00am until 8:00pm for all units except Crossroads Adult Mental Health, which is 5:30pm until 6:30pm and Intensive Care Units (ICU/CVICU), which are limited to half hour increments at 9:00am, 11:00am, 1:00pm, 3:00pm and 5:00pm.
- Inpatients are no longer limited to two designated visitors throughout their stay, but rather any visitor age 12 and older. However, only two visitors are allowed in a patient room at a time.
- Emergency Department (ED) patients are allowed two companions while being cared for in the ED.
- No visitation is allowed for patients on COVID isolation protocol.
- All visitors must be at least 12 years old. Minors must be accompanied by one adult.
- All visitors must pass wellness screening upon entry into a CarolinaEast facility.
- All visitors are required to obtain a visitor pass upon check-in, and check out after visiting.
- All visitors must wear a mask at all times. Please note that although the mask guidance from federal and state officials for vaccinated individuals has recently changed, said changes do not apply to healthcare settings. All employees and visitors, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, are required to wear masks in any healthcare environment.
- The hospital cafeteria (Blue Wave Café) and coffee shop (Jasmine Coffee Shop) remain closed to the public. Visitors of patients are permitted to purchase to-go food, but the dining areas can currently only accommodate CarolinaEast employees for dine-in.
- Due to social distancing guidelines, hospital waiting areas remain closed and visitors will continue to wait outside the facility during surgical procedures.
“Safety remains our guiding principle at CarolinaEast. Striking a balance between protecting our staff, patients, and visitors while also fulfilling the needs of those we serve has been a challenge,” says Jim Davis, Chief Nursing Officer at CarolinaEast. “However, we do understand that family support is an important piece of healing and we hope that reintroducing more of that support to our patients – in a safe way – will fill in some gaps that this pandemic has created.”
As the situation continues to evolve, CarolinaEast will advise of additional changes to the visitation policy. Visit carolinaeasthealth.com to learn more about CarolinaEast’s efforts to protect its patients, visitors and staff from COVID-19.
Submitted by Brandy Popp, Director, Public Relations