Rush Health updates visitation policy

Rush Health Systems updated their visitation policy for patients on January 25th. The hospital decided to ease some restrictions after COVID-19 numbers began to decrease in the area.

“There was a time frame where we had a lot of sick people who had no family members with them in the hospital," said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Frederick Duggan. "So as the pandemic got a little bit easier in our area, and the script mandate was lifted, we were able to ease our policy.”

Each patient is only allowed one visitor per day for all areas except COVID-19 rooms. All visitors are required to go through temperature checks and screening after arriving.

“We believe that there’s a really important component to sick people who have their family around them," said Duggan. "So we liberalize that policy the best we could. We want to keep everybody safe in the hospital and allow as many family members as we can.”

Duggan says since the policy has been updated, they have begun to see somewhat of a shift in visitors.

“I think they have increased, but people are still kind of scared of being in the hospital. They are still worried about COVID so it hasn’t been a stampede, but we have seen an uptick in visitors," said Duggan.

For more information on the visitation policy, click here.