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Hospital Visitor Guidelines More Strict Due to Flu Concerns

Hospital Visitor Guidelines More Strict Due to Flu Concerns - Monday, October 19, 2009 at 6:10PM EST

Reported by: Eyewitness News
Monday, Oct 19, 2009 @ 06:10pm EDT
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY -- Concerns over swine flu are causing hospitals in Lackawanna County to take drastic measures. Five hospitals, including all three in Scranton, have changed visiting guidelines.

Signs announcing new visitor guidelines were posted outside Mercy Hospital Monday morning. Because of the flu and swine flu threats, Dr. Anthony Yanni says fewer people will be allowed through the doors.

ÒIn my career, I have not seen anything like this need to be done in a regional sense. This is a pandemic. Hopefully we won't see one happen again," he told Eyewitness News.

Mercy is joining Moses Taylor, Marian Community, Scranton CMC and Mid-Valley Hospitals in the new policy. No one under the age of 12 will be allowed in and patients can only have immediate family visit.

Mark Molner of Clarks Summit said, ÒI know itÕs a big inconvenience. I know itÕs not really what people want, but itÕs for the protection of the patients."

Molnar knows the importance of the new guidelines. He works at Moses Taylor in Obstretics. ÒYou can take a young, healthy mother on one of the happiest days of her life and potentially with swine flu -- it could become a very critical illness," he said.

Hospital officials stress the changes are a proactive measure to keep patients safe. All of the hospitals have also installed hand sanitizing stations. ÒThere's one before you hit the elevator. There's one outside. There's one practically everywhere you turn," said Ella Colborn of Dunmore.

ÒA lot of people are concerned about their family members and feeling and seeing and knowing that they're okay is important to them, but we also wanted to make sure that on their mind is the idea that we don't want to make anyone in the hospital sicker," said Yanni.

Hospital officials say some parts of the hospital may have even stricter visitation rules. There's no word on how long the new rules will stay into effect.

Once again here are the new visiting guidelines for hospitals in Lackawanna County:

- No one under the age of 12 will be allowed in
- Only immediate family can visit patients
- No more than two visitors per patient

Eyewitness News contacted other hospitals about changes to their visiting hours. The Pocono Medical Center has a policy under final review.

Susquehanna Health Services in Central PA is posting signs at hospital entrances asking people to leave if they're experiencing flu symptoms.

And Geisinger says they are monitoring the situation.
 


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