Assessing Visitor Policy Exemption Requests During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This is a prepublication version of an article that has undergone peer review and been accepted for publication but is not the final version of record. This paper may be cited using the DOI and date of access. This paper may contain information that has errors in facts, figures, and statements, and will be corrected in the final published version. The journal is providing an early version of this article to expedite access to this information. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the editors, and authors are not responsible for inaccurate information and data described in this version.

Observational study of organisational responses of 17 US hospitals over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In the intervening 3 years, numerous studies have been published related to various specific aspects of the hospital COVID-19 response, including visitation policies,19–23 practice adaptations in specific settings or types of care (eg, ICU, paediatric and cancer care, aerosol generating procedures),24–28 infection control procedures,29 use of technology to assist care and prevent disease transmission 30–33. Many of these manuscripts propose guidelines on deploying a strategy, explore experiences or outcomes of staff and patients or describe evolution of a specific guideline.…”

One should not separate a newborn from their hospitalized parent: A retrospective case analysis

“…Despite the fact that the purported benefits of hospital visitation policies are universal, existing literature demonstrates certain subsets of vulnerable patients (such as children) are more likely to be granted exemptions. 3,32,35 The risk to the rest of the hospital, however, is similar whether a parent is visiting a child or that same child is visiting the parent in the hospital. Evidence regarding the increased spread of infection from children visitors to the hospital is conflicting [36][37][38][39] and in fact, as the pandemic continues, available evidence has demonstrated children are less frequently the source of transmission in the spread of COVID-19.…”

COVID‐19 hospital and emergency department visitor policies in the United States: Impact on persons with cognitive or physical impairment or receiving end‐of‐life care

“…For example, only 76% of sites explicitly provided an exception for parents, although the remaining sites likely permitted this exception without explicitly publicizing it. 49 Nonetheless, our approach was intentionally chosen to mimic the expected steps the public would take in search of a hospital's visitor policy. Furthermore, explicit publicly available policies are more relevant to older persons; whereas parents of children were more likely to pursue exemptions when none were explicitly provided, 49 older persons were more likely to identify barriers and be discouraged from seeking care.…”

“… 49 Nonetheless, our approach was intentionally chosen to mimic the expected steps the public would take in search of a hospital's visitor policy. Furthermore, explicit publicly available policies are more relevant to older persons; whereas parents of children were more likely to pursue exemptions when none were explicitly provided, 49 older persons were more likely to identify barriers and be discouraged from seeking care. 50 This suggests that allowances for discretionary exceptions should be explicitly mentioned, as the onus of requesting them should not be placed upon the patient, who are the ones most likely to benefit most but evidently also most reluctant to request them.…”