Johns Hopkins Health System visitor policy has been updated due to the spread of the coronavirus.
The following guidelines were released by officials. They apply to all patients within the hospitals and clinical care areas in Johns Hopkins Medicine’s health care system.
For adult inpatient facilities, no visitors will be permitted except under specific circumstances, and by prior approval of the vice president of medical affairs or vice president of nursing, who can be reached through each affiliate’s central command center.
- *End-of-life care. Per previous guidance regarding compassionate care restrictions, the number of visitors is two visitors at a time. Other family members need to remain outside of the facility to rotate in special circumstances.
- Only one visitor in addition to a doula in labor delivery and postpartum will be allowed.
- One visitor for patients in inpatient hospice units will be allowed.
- One visitor to accompany patients for hospital discharge will be allowed. (They strongly encourage staff to escort discharged patients to waiting caregiver outside whenever feasible.)
- One visitor for patients undergoing emergency surgery related to a traumatic event will be allowed.
- One visitor will be allowed if the patient’s care team has requested the visitor to be a part of scheduled family training for patients with rehabilitation or for help with cognitive needs, with approval of vice president of medical affairs or vice president of nursing.
For pediatric inpatient facilities:
- The family of each pediatric patient is allowed to name two primary caregivers for the duration of the hospital stay.
- The named caregivers should be parents or legal guardians and must be in good health and cannot change during the hospitalization.
- They ask that, as much as possible, only one primary caregiver be present in the hospital at any one time.
- Pediatric patients hospitalized with possible COVID-19 will be allowed only one designated caregiver who should stay with the patient in their room during the patient’s stay.
For all outpatient appointments:
- One visitor will be permitted to accompany a patient to facilitate care or treatment such as an ambulatory visit, procedure or same-day surgery.
- Visitors are not allowed in the adult cancer centers where care is being delivered to potentially immunocompromised patients. Visitors can wait in car or in designated area (per affiliate instruction).
If a visitor is approved based on the criteria above: Consistent with the previous policy, any visitor who meets the above exception criteria must also follow the following process for the safety of staff and other patients:
- Visitors will be screened for flu-like symptoms, such as fever, cough or shortness of breath and will not be able to stay if symptomatic.
