More Visitor Restrictions at Minn. Hospitals

In an unprecedented joint announcement, 25 Twin Cities hospital say they’ll be limiting visitors in an effort to slow down the spread of H1N1. Allina, which runs 11 hospitals, Fairview, which has 7, and HealthEast, which has 4, were joined by Hennepin County Medical Center, Regions and North Memorial.

“What the public should not take away from this is that there’s some sort of catastrophe imminent,” says Dr. Steve Bergeson of Allina. But the drastic rise in recent weeks of H1N1 cases means healthcare providers must limit exposure and protect those who are most
vulnerable. “We had a toddler who was brought into the hospital to
visit a patient who actually had H1N1 and thereby exposed the toddler to the virus they had no business being exposed to in our hospital.”

That best illustrates why hospitals will take such a hard line. In most cases, no one under five will be allowed to visit a patient and
if you’re between ages five and sixteen, you must be a family member.
There are exceptions, such as at Regions Hospital, where limitations will only be on maternity and neo-natal areas.

A big factor in these decisions is the limited amount of vaccine
available. “What we’re trying to do is slow down the exposure,” says
Dr. Gretchen Phillips of Fairview. “We’re not at the point where we’re telling everyone to stay in or wear a mask wherever they go, but in the absence of enough vaccine…this is one of the best preventive measures, so we don’t get to the epidemic kind of level that we hope we never have to see.”