{"id":53234,"date":"2009-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloomingtonhospital.org\/WhatsNew.asp?PageID=WTN001015"},"modified":"2009-10-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-20T05:00:00","slug":"bloomington-hospital-implements-visitor-restriction-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/53234","title":{"rendered":"Bloomington Hospital implements visitor restriction policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Policy put in place for patient safety<\/em><\/p>\n

Bloomington, Ind. (October 20, 2009) \u2013 Beginning Thursday (10\/22), Bloomington Hospital will implement a temporary visitor restriction policy due to the increasing number of flu-like illnesses in the community.<\/p>\n

Bloomington Hospital will restrict patients to having two healthy adult (18 years or older) visitors at a time.\u00a0 Healthy adult means those not experiencing any flu-like symptoms, such as fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headache, tiredness, body aches, diarrhea or vomiting, and those who have not been exposed to the flu virus in the last week.<\/p>\n

This policy is temporary, but will be in place throughout flu season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health and safety of our patients, employees, providers and volunteers is of highest priority.\u00a0 Because of the increasing number of flu cases we\u2019re seeing in the community, we believe now is the right time to begin restricting visitors to proactively help stop the spread of the virus,\u201d says Amanda Roach, spokesperson at Bloomington Hospital.<\/p>\n

While the number of hospitalizations for the flu have been low in Monroe County compared to other locations in Indiana, the time to act is before the situation becomes a crisis.\u00a0 Since the beginning of September, Bloomington Hospital has admitted seven patients with a diagnosis of flu.\u00a0 In addition, its Emergency Department is seeing more and more patients each day with flu symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weeks of September 20 and September 27, about 12 percent of the patients coming into our Emergency Department were there because of flu-like symptoms,\u201d says Roach.\u00a0 \u201cThe week of October 4, this jumped to 19 percent, and last week (the week of October 11), the number was 21 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roach asks for the cooperation of the community following the visitor restriction policy and in screening yourself for the flu before visiting the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have flu symptoms, please stay home.\u00a0 You can keep your loved one in the hospital safe and not spread the flu virus to others by isolating yourself at home if you\u2019re sick,\u201d says Roach.\u00a0 \u201cYou can keep in touch with your hospitalized loved one in ways other than seeing them in person.\u00a0 Telephone calls, texting, e-mail, social networking sites and sending cards all show you care and are thinking about the person.\u201d<\/p>\n

The flu virus is spread when droplets from coughs or sneezes come into contact with another person\u2019s eyes, mouth or nose.\u00a0 For mild flu, it is best to stay home and treat symptoms with rest and a fever-reducing medication like Tylenol.\u00a0 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends people ill with the flu stay home and stay away from others until they are fever-free for 24 hours without taking a fever-reducing medication.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re at high risk for flu complications, see your primary care physician.\u00a0 Emergency medical help may be needed if you have the flu and experience additional symptoms such as difficulty breathing or shortness of breath; pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen; sudden dizziness; confusion; severe or persistent vomiting; or flu-like symptoms that improve but then return with fever and worse cough.<\/p>\n

For more information about the flu, please visit\u00a0bloomingtonhospital.org\/flu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

###<\/em><\/p>\n

Bloomington Hospital has been innovative in providing quality care to south central Indiana communities for more than a century. Offering a comprehensive continuum of care, Bloomington Hospital is a not-for-profit organization and has a patient base of 413,000 in 10 counties (Brown, Daviess, Greene, Jackson, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Morgan, Orange and Owen.) Bloomington Hospital currently operates\u00a0two hospital campuses (Bloomington and\u00a0Orange County)\u00a0with regional specialty offerings for Heart and Vascular, Behavioral Health, Cancer, Women and Children, Neurology and Orthopedic services.\u00a0 As a leading hospital in Indiana, Bloomington Hospital enhances health by advancing the art and science of medicine through the use of new technologies, procedures and care.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Policy put in place for patient safety Bloomington, Ind. (October 20, 2009) \u2013 Beginning Thursday (10\/22), Bloomington Hospital will implement a temporary visitor restriction policy due to the increasing number of flu-like illnesses in the community. Bloomington Hospital will restrict patients to having two healthy adult (18 years or older) visitors at a time.\u00a0 Healthy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}