Hospitals cracking down on who can enter

[kbm318]

The hospital I currently volunteer at just started cracking down on who they are allowing to enter the facility. At the entrance they are checking each individual as you enter to make sure you are 18 or older and if you are under 18 you are not allowed in unless you are with an adult and have a good reason to enter. I was just wondering if there were any other facilities doing this as well.

[StNeotser, ASN, RN]

We have limited visiting for school age children, meaning those between the ages of 5 and 18 due to H1N1 running rampant in the schools.

Which means we have about a third of the school age children visiting that we normally see. Nope, I'm not bothering to enforce it. Heaven forbid I upset a "customer"

[oldiebutgoodie, RN]

I see too many cases in ERs where someone brings in a young child for a bad case of the sniffles and all the aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and relatives of friends use the occasion to hold a reunion in the ER waiting room. One child receiving treatment, two dozen running wild in the waiting room disturbing people who are really sick and the one or two family members who brought them in. I wish they would make a no kids policy there.

On the other hand, one of the hospitals in our area just started a "no one under 19" policy. The problem is the geniuses who came up with it didn't make exceptions for spouses or parents who are under 19. So at this moment there is a 17 year old mother whose baby is in the hospital for pneumonia and she is not allowed to visit. The administration says they are "taking the matter under consideration" and will make a decision sometime next week.

The law of unintended consequences is alive and well.

So obviously there a patients who are idiots, and in this case, the administration are idiots too.

Oldiebutgoodie