The health care community at United Hospital Center is in a fight against the surge of the Delta variant of COVID-19 and effective Friday there will be new general visitation guidelines in place to help in that fight.

 

“We are seeing higher admissions and bed capacity being stretched with this wave of the Delta variant,” said Dr. Mark Povroznik, vice president of quality at United Hospital Center. “We are also experiencing, as are hospitals across the state and beyond the state, where visitors come to visit and then later call and say they have been tested for COVID and they tested positive.

 

“The new guidelines will help lower foot traffic when there is just an abundance of COVID in the community and to help support the best we can, the connection between visitors and their loved ones.”

 

The new guidelines are listed below:

 

General guidelines for visitation at UHC*:

Effective, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021

UHC is encouraging all adult patients to attend their clinic appointments alone, although one visitor may accompany the patient to the exam room and remain in the room during the entire visit. Pediatric clinic patients may have two approved visitors accompany the patient to the exam room and remain in the room during their entire visit.  In an effort to minimize the number of people entering its clinics, UHC is requesting that, when possible, family members and friends stay at home or wait in their vehicles in the clinic parking lot during adult patient appointments. 

 

Patients are asked not to arrive for their appointment more than 15 minutes early.

 

* Exceptions to visitation will be made based on patient condition and on a case-by-case basis by the department leader and/or house supervisor. 

 

Povroznik said visitation guidelines were actually more strict during the early stages of the pandemic because health care officials were battling a variety of unknowns including knowledge of transmission, preventative measures and the availability of protective equipment for our staff.

 

Still, there is a need to tighten up now with the Delta variant in full force.

 

“Visitors that are granted approval to visit should adhere to three cardinal principals for patient and health care staff safety,” Povroznik said. “One, wash your hands using the alcohol sanitizing stations that we have readily available upon entering and exiting the facility. Number two, remain masked.

 

“Three, provide a clear and accurate screening. I don’t want to say people lie, but there have been some clear cases of purposeful fibbing.

 

“It does raise concern for patients and staff when a visitor leaves and then calls back and says, ‘Oh by the way, I tested positive for COVID.’

 

“The foot traffic needs to be curtailed for safety and a secondary effect of limiting visitation is it brings heightened awareness to the community as to what health care is experiencing and we are certainly at the highest of the pandemic right now.”

 

Povroznik said hospital capacity is an issue that health care leaders deal with every day. It’s just part of the business to look at how many are in the emergency room, how many surgeries are lined up, how many are in-house, how many are due to be discharged. It’s a constant changing, always working algorithm.

 

If the continued trend in COVID admissions continues, UHC could be forced to halt elective surgeries again as Povroznik said when they are forced to flux and find additional beds, elective surgeries are typically the first place looked at.

 

Recently, Povroznik provided an info graphic (which can be seen at the top of the page) that provides some key vaccinated vs. unvaccinated data.

 

That data shows that in the 31 days prior to Sept. 7 that UHC had 163 total COVID admissions and 87 percent of those were unvaccinated. Of those 163, 29 required critical care with all but five (82.8 percent) unvaccinated. Thirteen patients required a ventilator, 12 of them (92. 3 percent) were unvaccinated.

 

Seven of those patients died. All seven were unvaccinated.

 

“Since I put that data out, the pattern of percent of unvaccinated requiring hospitalization hasn’t changed, give or take one percentage point,” Povroznik said. “Those requiring critical care or have gone on a ventilator, it hasn’t changed. The deaths have gone up. Last time it was seven, we were up to 16 as of Wednesday and it’s still 100 percent unvaccinated. That’s not to say there won’t be a vaccinated case die, there are those cases.”

 

According to Povroznik, the biggest misconstrued piece of information out there comes from the people who say, “Why should I get the vaccine if I can still get COVID.”

 

“The key to getting rid of this pandemic is vaccination,” he said. “But it will continue to be a struggle based on the disbelief system that the vaccine will not prevent people from still acquiring COVID. The vaccine has proven to lower moderate to severe illness, hospitalizations and death. By getting vaccinated we continue to lower transmission.

 

“We have to get over that disbelief of ‘why should I get it if I can still get COVID.’ It’s because you are lowering transmissions, you are preventing moderate to severe illness. You are preventing hospitalizations and you are preventing deaths.”

 

Editor's note: Info graphic and photo of Povroznik courtesy of UHC.