Penn State Health has adopted a tiered system for visitation to help ensure the safety of patients and staff during the pandemic.
The changes, effective Wednesday, December 9, apply to Hershey Medical Center, Holy Spirit Medical Center, St. Joseph Medical Center and the Penn State Health Medical Group Academic Practice and Community Practice divisions.
The tiers were determined by a group of systemwide representatives. This new process will enable leaders to more efficiently move between visitation changes, depending upon the level of restrictions needed.
At this time, the system is operating under Tier 3.
Adult visitation changes include:
- No visitors for adult patients.
- No family/support persons for adult inpatients, outpatient surgery/procedure patients and emergency department and outpatient clinic patients.
- Labor and Delivery – One family/support person per stay.
Pediatric patient changes include:
- No visitors for pediatric patients.
- Inpatients – two family/support persons per stay.
- Outpatient surgery – two family/support persons per stay.
- Emergency department – two family/support persons per stay.
- Outpatient procedure/outpatient clinic – one family/support person per stay.
In adult cases in which an exception is approved, the family/support person is not permitted to stay overnight.
