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Information for Visitors

For more information, call (805) 988-2500 or (805) 389-5800.

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Visiting Guidelines

As a part of family-centered care, it is the policy of St. John’s Hospitals to provide safe visitation and support of its patients by: family, healthcare decision maker(s) and the spiritual support/leader of their choosing. It is the responsibility of all hospital staff to make sure that visitation is family centered and safe. Visitation must be consistent with patient wishes, the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and must not jeopardize the safety of patients, staff, volunteers or the community. Consistent with state and federal law, the Hospitals acknowledge a patient’s right to designate who their visitors should be and to limit their own visitation. The Hospitals also will not deny or limit the privilege of visitation based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation/preference, disability or financial ability to pay. The Hospitals' limitations on visitation must be reasonable or clinically necessary in medically appropriate circumstances (e.g. when a patient is undergoing tests or care interventions, infection control issues, or when visitation may interfere with the care of patients).

Visiting Hours

Visiting that is conducive to the healing and comfort of the patient is allowed 24/7 as appropriate to patient care and privacy. Visiting hours in some specialized areas in the Hospitals differ from general guidelines.

Number of Visitors

The number of visitors will be appropriate to the patient's wishes and needs. Different units throughout the Hospitals may have varying guidelines on the number of visitors that may be present in the patient's room at one time, especially Critical Care (e.g. ICU, CCU, NICU) and L&D, ER, Rehab and Subacute. In general, the unit policy should be followed, however, should the number of visitors impede care or negatively impact other patients, the number of vistors may be decreased and visitors will be asked to leave and if necessary removed from the area.

General Visiting Guidelines

At St. John’s, we encourage family members to visit their loved ones in the hospital. To ensure the safety of all our patients, please observe the following:

If you are ill, have a fever, cough, diarrhea, rash, sore throat, or runny nose, we ask that you please do not visit. Instead, please call the hospital and ask the operator to connect you to the patient.
All visitors must wash or gel their hands upon entering the hospital, before and after visiting the patient, and upon exiting the hospital. In addition, staff may ask you to wear a mask or gown.
Please limit the number of children you bring in to the patient room with you to one child at a time. Please have other children wait in the waiting area with another adult to watch them. Please note that we are unable to provide supervision. Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
In the Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, children under the age of 16 must receive approval from the unit’s nurse manager prior to entering a patient’s room.
Children under the age of 12 may not visit patients in isolation for their safety.
Patients have the right to restrict visitation to their rooms. Please respect our patients’ desire for privacy.

Children

For their own safety and the safety of our patients and other visitors, minors under the age of 16 years old cannot be unattended and unsupervised in the hospitals so they must be accompanied by an adult at all times - no playing or wandering in the hallways. See Infection Prevention and Control below for limitation on minors visiting isolation patients.

Infection Prevention and Control

For the protection of patients and the staff caring for them, visitors with fever, rash, cough or other signs of infectious illness should not visit. All visitors are expected to clean hands when entering or leaving a patient room and to cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue, elbow or sleeve.

It is the responsibility of staff to monitor and inform visitors of all pertinent guidelines, including infection control requirements: such as following isolation requirement, do not use patient's shower or toilet, do not sit on patient's bed, do not touch patient equipment, and to wash hands or use alcohol hand sanitizer when entering/leaving the room.

Patients in isolation for an infectious condition may have visitors, provided they are willing and able to follow infection prevention precautions. Visitors are expected to wear personal protective equipment and to diligently wash their hands upon entering and exiting the patient's room. Minors under the age of 12 cannot effectively wear PPE and should be excluded from the rooms of isolation patients.

During periods of increased risk, visitors may be restricted due to community epidemiology and/or other infection control concerns. There restrictions may be applied to a single unit (e.g. NICU during period of increased community RSV activity) or hospital-wide (e.g. likely community outbreak of flu or seasonal flu).

The Hospital's Administration, the Infection Control Chair or their designee is authorized to institute restrictive measures specific to the disease risk, up to and including restricting all visitation. These restrictions may or may not be in conjunction with activation of the Hospital's disaster or surge plan.

Security

Problems should be communicated to the Security Department immediately upon identification. Security will also perform rounds to faciliate compliance with visiting hours.

Unit-Specific Visiting Guidelines

Visitor guidelines in some specialized areas of the hospitals differ from the general guidelines. Review special guidelines below or check with the unit nurse.

Emergency Department (ED)

Visitors to the Emergency Department need authorization from ED personnel to enter the ED.
Visitation of ED patients will be authorized at physician / nurse discretion.
The number of visitors will be determined by the nurse and/or the physician as appropriate to the patient's comfort and needs for support and healing.
Young children visiting should have an adult supervise them while visiting and while in waiting areas. For the purposes of this policy, parents of minor patients are not to be counted / considered as visitors. One or both parents of a minor patient may attend the minor patient at all times in addition to a visitor.

Intensive Care Unit and Critical Care Unit (ICU/CCU)

Visiting patients in these areas is limited to two (2).
Children under the age of 16 may visit only with prior authorization. In the interests of protecting confidential patient information, during the hours of 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. and 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. (i.e. during shift change report), entry/exit to the critical care units is minimized and only one (1) visitor per patient is permitted.
Flowers and plants are not appropriate in critical care.

Labor and Delivery

For fathers of a newborn there are no restrictions unless imposed by the patient.
Siblings of any age who are free of infection or symptoms of infection are permitted to visit, subject to any limitations imposed by the patient. In order to maintain the health of our vulnerable newborns, any child who has been exposed to any communicable disease (e.g. chicken pox, RSV, measles, mumps and whooping cough) will not be permitted to visit the infant or mother.
Generally, the delivery support person or "Labor Coach" and/or the mother/patient's significant other are not considered visitors for the purpose of this policy.
Visitors during vaginal delivery will be limited to two (2) for safety.
Children of the laboring mother/patient may visit in the Labor and Delivery when accompanied by a responsible adult (other than the mother/patient). Siblings may attend the delivery (except C-sections) upon special request when arranged through the medical and nursing staff.
Due to patient safety concerns, visitors are not permitted during epidurals or C-section procedures.
Visitors, other than siblings, younger than 13 years old are discouraged.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. John's Regional Medical Center only

Parents and others identified by the parents may visit 24 hours per day, except during change of shift (6:30 a.m. – 7:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.), in order to protect patient privacy.
Healthy Sibling visitation may be arranged via NICU staff in accordance with the NICU visitation policy.
Flowers and plants are not appropriate in critical care.

Subacute Care Unit at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital only

As the patients of the Subacute Unit are de facto residents of that unit, immediate family or other relatives are not subject to the visiting hour limitations of the Hospitals or other restrictions not imposed by the resident patient of Subacute.
Likewise, the facility will provide 24-hour access to other non-relative visitors who are visiting with the consent of the resident.
These other visitors are subject to reasonable restrictions that can be imposed by the facility's residents. The Subacute facility will also provide reasonable access to any resident by any entity or individual that provides health, social, legal, or other services to the resident, subject to the resident's right to deny or withdrawal consent at any time. (see policy LTC-UMS/SS23).

Special Instructions
Animals will not be allowed inside the facility with the exception of service animals assisting those with a physical impairment or Hospital validated Therapy Animals who are brought to the Hospitals for the purpose of Pet Therapy (see policy PPC 2.5 - Animals in Hospital).

The Hospitals are tobacco free environments.

Visitors are asked to respect the Healing Environment of the Hospitals are thus expected to comply with the rules of common courtesy and cleanliness when using visitor waiting areas. Visitors need to remain in designated visitor areas and abide by occupancy limits.

The Hospitals recognize that healing dictates that patients cannot simultaneously be caregivers. Therefore patients ought not to bring children or adults for whom they are caregivers with them while they are a patient. The Hospitals cannot be responsible for giving care to people other than patients.

Because it is impossible to delineate all conditions under which visitation might need to be limited in this policy, Hospital Administration, or their designee reserves the right to modify visitation at any time as they/she/he deem necessary for optimal patient care and safety. The Hospital Administration's, Medical Officer, Infection Control Chair or their designee is authorized to institute restrictive measures specific to the disease risk, up to and including restricting all visitation. These restrictions may or may not be in conjuction with activation of the hospital's disaster or surge plan.