LANCASTER — Due to the severity of the current flu season, hospitals across the country are taking efforts to help reduce the spread of the virus. Effective immediately, Antelope Valley Hospital (AVH) is implementing the following visitor restrictions:
- Children under 14 may not visit patients.
- Anyone with flu-like symptoms (i.e., coughing, sneezing, fever or sore throat) will not be allowed to visit patients.
“We are focused on providing the best quality of care in an environment that is safe for our patients, staff and visitors,” stated Jonathan Truong, M.D., medical director for AVH’s infection control. “These additional safeguards will help ensure our patients are not being put at an increased risk for flu or other respiratory illnesses.”
The new visitor guidelines are expected to remain in effect until the end of March, which is typically when flu season ends.
The hospital has seen a 27 percent increase in visits to the emergency department since November, largely due to flu-like symptoms. Earlier this month, AVH opened a “Flu Zone,” a designated treatment area for patients with the flu.
To help reduce the spread of the flu virus, Dr. Truong recommends the following tips:
- Anyone coming into the hospital with flu or cold symptoms should wear a mask.
- Visitors should practice good hand hygiene, including using hand sanitizers located throughout the facility, before and after patient contact as well as after touching public surfaces (i.e., door handles, elevator buttons, chair armrests, etc.)
- People should exercise good “cough etiquette” by covering their coughs/sneezes, followed by proper hand hygiene.
Robert scism says
these measures sound good , but you pack people into waiting rooms to be triaged then have to wait in contaminated areas until taken back to wait again spreading
contamination into er areas before evaluations then if patients are to stay you move them into rooms , then these areas. are now contaminated .?????