Hospital visiting policies in the time of coronavirus disease 2019: A nationwide website survey in Taiwan

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious coronavirus disease, has become a worldwide pandemic. Infection control precautions for hospital visitors are needed to avoid cluster outbreaks, so this study investigated the visiting policies of all the hospitals in Taiwan in the time of COVID-19. Methods: From March 15, 2020, to March 18, 2020, we searched the official websites of all 472 National Health Insurancecontracted hospitals to determine their visiting policies. For those hospitals that had posted new visiting policies and still allowed visits to ordinary wards, we recorded the relevant details shown on their websites, including the number of visitors allowed at one time, the number of visiting slots per day, the total visiting hours per day, and the rules provided to visitors before visiting. Results: During the study period, 276 (58.5%) hospitals had posted new visiting policies on their websites, with higher proportions of academic medical centers (92.0%, 23/25) and metropolitan hospitals (91.5%, 75/82) than local community hospitals (48.8%, 178/365) doing so. Visits to ordinary wards were forbidden in 83 hospitals among those. Among the 193 hospitals that had new visiting policies and still allowed visits to ordinary wards, 73.1% (n = 141) restricted visitors to two at a time and 54.9% (n = 106) restricted visits to two visiting slots per day. Furthermore, history taking regarding travel, occupation, contacts, and cluster information was mentioned by 82.4% (n = 159) of these 193 hospitals, body temperature monitoring by 78.2% (n = 151), hand hygiene by 63.2% (n = 122), and identity checks by 51.8% (n = 100). Conclusion: In the time of COVID-19 covered by this study, about three-fifths of the hospitals in Taiwan had posted their visiting policies for ordinary wards on their websites. Furthermore, the thoroughness with which such visiting policies have been enforced also requires investigation.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer screening in Taiwan

“…There are several possible explanations for the in-hospital examination decrease. Firstly, restriction on hospital visits [ 8 , 9 ] and triage of patients with COVID-19 infection risks to outdoor visiting areas both limited the number of people entering hospitals. Secondly, people hesitated to go to hospitals during the pandemic.…”

Unintended consequences of infection prevention and control measures during COVID-19 pandemic

“… 1 The unprecedented threat of a novel pathogen provided the impetus for hospital-wide deployment of various IPC strategies, such as universal masking, visitor restrictions, and deployment of droplet and contact precautions for patients with respiratory symptoms. 2 , 3 , 4 Prior to the pandemic, such strategies were only deployed in high-risk units, given concerns with cost-effectiveness and sustainability. 5 , 6 The current pandemic thus provides an opportunity to assess the effect of multi-modal IPC bundles when deployed at scale.…”

The impact of visitor restrictions on health care-associated respiratory viral infections during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experience of a tertiary hospital in Singapore

“…We read with interest the recent article by Weiner et al that described hospital visitation policies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and called for epidemiological evidence to support and inform the imposition of visitor restrictions. 1 Indeed, the imposition of visitor restrictions has been introduced in various healthcare settings to mitigate transmission of SARS-CoV-2; 2 , 3 however, as such measures were typically imposed as part of a bundle of other infection-prevention measures, the actual contribution of visitor restrictions in minimizing healthcare-associated transmission of respiratory-viral-infections (RVIs) is unclear. Furthermore, evidence is emerging that restricting access to family caregivers and visitors poses risks of social isolation, psychological distress, and delayed recovery, 4 which has to be weighed against potential benefits associated with preventing healthcare-associated RVIs (HA-RVI).…”