Memorial Healthcare System is taking new measures to try to control the spread of coronavirus in their South Florida hospitals, including a new limit on patient guests.
Hospital officials said Monday that the new measures will limit the amount of people coming to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood as well as the system's other hospitals, after three cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Broward County in recent days.
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Under the new measures, one visitor per patient will be allowed during the visiting periods from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The visitor must be the same person during that day’s visiting periods.
Maternity patients may have one significant other/caregiver with them 24/7, and one visitor is allowed in the emergency department
At Joe DiMaggio's Children's Hospital, only two caregivers can visit, but they will have access to 24-hour visitation. At Memorial Manor nursing home, officials are asking for no visitors unless absolutely necessary.
In addition, every person who visits a facility will be screened with questions including:
- Have you had a fever in the last 3 days?
- Do you have a runny nose?
- Do you have a fever or flu-like symptoms and other signs of illness?
- Have you had exposure to a cold and flu or travel to the affected COVID-19 areas?
All Memorial hospitals will have limited entry points and valet service has been canceled to prevent the spread of germs from the different cars to the hospital.
“Patients who come to our emergency rooms are being triaged or separated into two different groups. One group is that group of patients that have essentially respiratory symptoms, cold-like or flu-like symptoms. And the other group is all others," said Dr. Stanley Marks, senior vice president and chief medical officer for Memorial Healthcare System.
Hospital leaders are also requesting that people only go to the hospital if it's an emergency. If anyone is on the fence, Memorial recommends telemedicine or chatting online with a doctor.
