Columbus Regional restricts hospital visits for those with flu-like symptoms

This is the flu season and it’s shaping up to be a particularly nasty one. That’s why Columbus Regional Health, which operates Midtown Medical Center, said Monday it is urging all non-family visitors and anyone with possible flu-like symptoms to stay away “until further notice.”

Hand sanitizer and face masks can be found at hospital entrances, as well as other high-traffic areas, for the use of visitors, the health-care system said. It is mandatory that children 12 and under and receiving treatment wear a mask, it said.

For those who do have flu symptoms, Columbus Regional Health, which also owns Northside Medical Center and John B. Amos Cancer Center, recommends that those people contact their family physicians or head to an urgent care center for treatment.

The health system also said its hospital staffs are seeing an “unusually high number” of patients with flu-like symptoms to include gastrointestinal problems.

“Visiting sick patients can infect visitors,” Susan Harp, Columbus Regional Health’s infection control coordinator, said in a statement. She added that everyone should wash their hands often and also use hand sanitizers to help avoid spreading the flu.

The Georgia Department of Public Health on Friday said that a few hundred people have entered the state’s hospitals for flu-related illnesses. There have been four confirmed flu-connected deaths in the state thus far, it said.

Flu outbreaks are widespread in 49 of the 50 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The agency estimates that between 5 percent and 20 percent of U.S. residents get the flu each year, with an average of 200,000 people finding themselves in a hospital for flu-related complications annually.

“Hospitalized patients can become infected by visitors who may be infectious for the flu prior to developing signs or symptoms of illness,” Harp noted. “It makes sense right now to take precautions and do what we can do to protect everyone.”

In light of the flu danger, here are the hospital guidelines and recommendations issued Monday by Dr. R. Scott Hannay, chief medical officer for Columbus Regional Health. They are in effect at Midtown Medical Center, Northside Medical Center and the John B. Amos Cancer Center:

▪ Limit visitors to two adults per patient at any time.

▪ Unless they are receiving treatment, children age 12 and under will not be permitted in the hospital.

▪ Wash hands or sanitize with an alcohol rub frequently, especially after entering and upon leaving a medical facility.

▪ Visitors with symptoms of the flu or gastrointestinal illness, including fever, cough, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, vomiting or diarrhea will not be permitted in the hospital.

▪ Get the flu vaccine.

This story was originally published January 15, 2018 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Columbus Regional restricts hospital visits for those with flu-like symptoms."