Visitor Rights and Guidelines

VISITOR HOURS: 5:30 a.m.-9 p.m.

To promote the delivery of safe, high quality care to patients, North Oaks Medical Center suggests a limit of two visitors at a time during general visiting hours for inpatient and outpatient areas. Waiting areas are located near each unit for your convenience.

Visitor Information

Patients at any North Oaks Medical Center inpatient or outpatient department or unit have the right to see the visitors they have given permission to visit them. This permission may be given verbally (spoken) or in writing. Visitors may include, but are not limited to, a spouse or domestic partner (including same-sex partners), family members and friends. North Oaks Medical Center will not restrict, limit or refuse visitation based on the patient’s or visitor’s race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or any other reason, unless such limitation is reasonable or needed to ensure that the patient is receiving safe, appropriate medical care.

Visitor Rights

Those people visiting patients have full and equal visitation rights when:

1. The patient has given their permission to see the visitor; and
2. Visits do not interfere with providing safe medical care.

Patients are allowed to limit, deny, or withdraw permission for specific people to visit them.

Visitation Limitations/Restrictions

Visitors must respect the rights of other patients. Visitation may be limited if clinicians feel that having visitors is not safe for the patient or would interfere with the care being provided to the patient. There are times when legal requirements require us to limit or restrict visits to patients. Restrictions and limitations may differ according to the care that the patient needs, whether the patient’s room is private or semi-private, the condition of the patient, and other nondiscriminatory reasons. North Oaks Medical Center reserves the right to restrict or end a visit if visitors do not follow the rules for visitors, or if they disrupt or interfere with our ability to provide care to a patient.

Visitation Rules:

• Except for the units, visiting hours in all North Oaks Medical Center departments are 5:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. Exceptions to visiting hours may be made based on the patient’s needs or condition, consideration of other patients’ needs or rights, emergency or other unforeseen circumstances, or the then-current hospital policy. General visitation is not allowed between 9 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. to allow patients to get the rest they need to recover well.
• To help prevent infection, visitation will not be allowed by any visitor showing symptoms of a potentially infectious process. These symptoms may include, but are not limited to: vomiting/diarrhea within 48 hours of visit, rash or skin lesions, upper respiratory infection, fever over 99.0°F, known exposure to communicable diseases or other signs of infectious disease.
• One overnight visitor for a patient in a private room is allowed. An overnight guest for a patient in a semi-private room is allowed if it does not provide a hardship or other concern for patient’s roommate and the overnight guest is of the same gender as the roommate. This policy helps to balance the rights and respect the dignity of both patients in the room. For the safety of our patients and visitors, no visitors under the age of 18 may spend the night.

Visitors arriving after 9 p.m. may be allowed to visit with the patient if the patient agrees to see the visitor and other visitation policy criteria are met. Visitors after 9 p.m. must check in with Security staff in the Emergency Department to find out if the patient is accepting visitors. For any approved visitation outside of normal visiting hours, proper identification must be provided and each visitor will be issued a temporary hospital identification badge, which must be visible at all times. North Oaks strongly encourages visitors under the age of 18 to visit patients only during normal visiting hours.

To promote the delivery of safe, high quality care to patients, North Oaks Medical Center suggests a limit of two visitors at a time during general visiting hours for inpatient and outpatient areas. However, more visitors will be allowed if the patient’s condition allows, and the visit does not prevent the caregiver from providing the needed care.

Guidelines for Overnight Guests:

• Please turn cell phones and pagers off completely or set to vibrate mode.
• If you need to make personal phone calls, please go to the waiting area.
• Please speak softly so that other patients are not disturbed.
• TVs and lights should be turned off at 10 p.m.
• Please keep the patient’s room door closed. Sleep is a part of the healing process.

Unit-Specific Limitations are as follows:

Infusion Therapy Unit

For the patient’s safety, only two visitors are allowed at a time for private rooms. Due to limited space, only 1 visitor per patient is allowed in the Treatment Room. Exceptions may be made at the nurse’s discretion depending on the number of patients on the unit. Visitors may be limited at nurse’s discretion during times of procedures or any change in the patient’s condition.

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU)

Daily visitation hours are from 8 a.m.-9 p.m. To allow for procedures and treatments, visiting hours are restricted from 9 a.m.–10 a.m., 1 p.m.-2 p.m. and 6 p.m.–8 p.m. Only two visitors are allowed at a time during each visiting period, which is 15 minutes.

If the patient’s condition permits, one visitor over the age of 18 will be authorized to stay with the patient at all times except during the hours outlined above. The overnight visitor should be easily identified by staff and registered as an overnight visitor with the unit secretary/ nursing staff. Personal items belonging to visitors should be limited.

Examples of exceptions to overnight visitation: first night in SICU for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG)/Aortic Valve Replacement (AVR) and trauma patients. For infection prevention purposes and and the child’s emotional well-being, children under the age of 10 are not allowed in the ICU/SICU.

Visitation may be restricted at the discretion of the charge nurse/doctor during patient procedures, acute status changes, or an influx of patients arriving to the SICU. It is also permissible for a patient to limit, deny or withdraw the visiting privileges. Exceptions for visitation prior to 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. may be made by the charge nurse in collaboration with the doctor for visitors with extenuating circumstances.

Intermediate Care Nursery and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Visiting hours are 24 hours a day except between the hours of 6:00am-8:30am and 6:00pm-8:30pm because of shift change and assessments.

Rest is very important to allow babies born too early, or those needing special care, to grow and heal. For this reason, only two visitors at a time are allowed for a 30 minute visit. This time limit may be adjusted based on infant stability.

For privacy and infection prevention purposes, visitors are limited to the neonate’s parents and grandparents. Parents and grandparents must have a copy of photo ID on infant’s bedside chart. Scheduling visits is encouraged due to the limited space in the units. Other family members or friends must be greater than 18yrs old and may visit when accompanied by infant’s parent only. All visitors may be restricted as needed during procedures and/or admissions. In the event the mother does not want the father to visit, legal documents may be requested to determine whether visitation can be granted to that individual. Visitors must follow the infection prevention policies of the hospital, the NICU and Intermediate Nursery.

For infection prevention purposes and the sibling’s emotional well-being, the following restrictions are in place: a one-time introductory visit for siblings 6 years of age and older is encouraged to promote family bonding. Siblings between 15 and 18 years of age may visit between the designated times and must be accompanied by a parent. Parents are responsible for supervising siblings during their visit and assuring they are not disruptive. No visitors under the age of 16 will be allowed in the NICU during RSV season which is typically October through March.

Same Day Surgery, Surgery Center, & Cardiac Catheterization Lab

Due to limited space and patient privacy, only two visitors are allowed at a time before and after the surgery/procedure. Additional visitors may be allowed at the nurse’s discretion. To prevent infection, no visitors are allowed in the operating room.

Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU)

For a pediatric patient, only one parent in PACU will be allowed.

Women’s & Children’s Unit

To ensure the safety and well-being of our patients and their families, this unit has one central entrance/ exit for visitors, which has been equipped with an intercom and video camera to monitor the entrance 24/7.

In order to enter the unit, visitors must use the intercom to contact the Nurse’s Station for permission to enter the unit and must report back to the Nurse’s Station for permission to exit the unit.