BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – After loosening restrictions on patient visitations after the surge in COVID-19 cases began to slow, now two of the big hospital systems in Broward and Miami-Dade County are bringing back limitations on visitors to patients in their hospitals.
On Wednesday, Jackson Memorial Healthcare System will begin restricting patient visitations. Effective at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, July 21, Jackson will limit visitors in their emergency department and in patient rooms in hospitals.
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Outpatient guests will be required to stay in the waiting room or lobby and only one “healthy” guest will be permitted, according to the latest guidelines.
As of Wednesday morning, Jackson Health System hospitals had 146 inpatients who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 91 percent of those patients have not received the COVID-19 vaccine.
[See Jackson Memorial’s COVID-19 revised visitation guidelines]
Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County is also going to begin visitor restrictions, saying that they needed to revisit their policies because of the recent surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations.
“Since July 1, 2021, the volume of hospitalized patients at Memorial with COVID-19 has increased by 125 percent to 234 patients. Of these, 98 percent are not vaccinated, which underscores the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine to protect yourselves and your loved ones. In addition, 60 percent of these patients are trending younger, under the age of 60,” according to a statement from the hospital group on Tuesday.
Memorial stated that the increase in hospitalizations coupled with a high positivity rate in the community has them putting in place a more restricted visitation policy. They also cautioned that as numbers continue to rise, Memorial may return to a “no visitor” policy.
Memorial is following a High Risk limited visitation policy effective immediately, which includes no visitation for outpatient or emergency patients, and one visitor in the ICU per patient with restricted hours from only noon to 1 p.m. daily. Memorial will also keep the option of deciding visitation on a case-by-case basis determined by their medical team in the intensive care unit.
The guidelines for Memorial’s visitation can be found here: www.mhs.net/patients-visitors.