Hospital visits: Some doctors think it is time to relax restrictions for some families and caregivers

Covid-19 restrictions on family hospital visits persist, despite concern As the pandemic in the U.S. wanes, patients and physicians say ongoing visitor restrictions may actually be harming patients. Claudia López Lloreda STAT

...Even as most businesses in the U.S. have been removing Covid mask mandates and social distancing policies, one major exception continues to be hospitals, which have been more cautious in lifting restrictions. At the start of the pandemic, in the face of a new virus and the many unknowns that came with it, hospitals rushed to implement rules to keep patients as well as hospital staff safe, including barring visitors from entering altogether. Now, with the nature of the pandemic changing in the U.S. and increasing vaccination rates among the general population, patients and many physicians say the more restrictive ongoing limits, like only allowing one visitor, are no longer justified and may actually be harming patients’ mental health and leading to worse outcomes.

“It’s understandable that when fear strikes, like when a new contagious disease comes along, we’re going to be very guarded about who can be in the hospital,” said Kevin Biese, an emergency medicine physician and geriatrician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But with the current state of the pandemic, he believes that “if [visitors] have no identified risk, they should be allowed to go on in and see their loved ones.” ...

“It’s understandable that when fear strikes, like when a new contagious disease comes along, we’re going to be very guarded about who can be in the hospital,” said Kevin Biese, an emergency medicine physician and geriatrician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But with the current state of the pandemic, he believes that “if [visitors] have no identified risk, they should be allowed to go on in and see their loved ones.”....