VISITOR POLICY

[Kiwi82]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering what everyone's visitor policy is in their department. Also how does everyone go about giving out visitor passes? What kind of software if any do you use to issue these passes? Do you require the presence of a photo ID ? Who issues the visitor passes in your department ?

Do you have posters in the waiting room with information about the visitor policy?

Trying to get ideas for our department. Thank you for your input.

[JKL33]

I just flat-out-but-nicely (very nicely) direct people if they're in my way. "I'm going to have you sit in the chairs for a little bit while we get things settled here." Maybe I'm lucky, I don't know. I like to think that having a polite but focused demeanor tends to help...it's not uncommon that one visitor will tell the other one that s/he is in my way. Bonus.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Things to consider:

Do staff have to climb over people to get to the pt?

Are the visitors quiet and cooperative?

Does the pt want or not want a particular person with him or her?

Privacy.

Are there children involved?

This!

My facility doesn't have a visitor policy. I worked at a large hospital downtown and they don't really follow a visitor policy, but I always told my patients 2 visitors at a time because the rooms are small. I get really irritated when I have to climb over people just to take care of my patient.

At another hospital, it was also 2 visitors at a time but we actually issues visitor passes. They were like those little stick-on name tags.