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Important Safety Precautions to Remember When Visiting a Loved One at the Hospital
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 A visit from family or friends can bring great comfort to a patient staying in a hospital. At Penobscot Valley Hospital, they believe that family and friends play a very important role in the healing process of their patients and they encourage visitors. It is crucial for visitors to remember a few safety tips when you come to visit a loved one in the hospital.
Some times, patients in the hospital are being treated for infections or communicable diseases that will require all who enter the room to take extra steps to prevent the spread of the illness. In these instances, hospital staff and visitors are asked to honor specific “isolation precautions.”
Isolation precautions are the methods that all hospitals implement to keep germs from spreading. When a patient is undergoing treatment for infection, a STOP sign will be placed on the patient’s door. The STOP sign is designed to politely remind visitors that they need to speak with a nurse prior to entering the room.
Following these safety precautions is essential to protect yourself, your family, the patients and hospital staff. The hospital provides protective coverings free of charge. The necessary protective materials will be available in a compartment on the outside of the patient’s door. These coverings include gowns, gloves and masks, if needed. Please ask the nurse for assistance before entering the room.
There are four types of isolation precautions used in hospitals. The different methods of precautions include:
- Airborne precautions - used with germs that spread through the air. Special masks are used to protect inhalation of bacteria. Gowns and gloves should also be worn.
- Contact/Contact Enteric precautions - used for germs that can be easily spread by contact with skin, body fluids and the patient’s immediate environment. Gowns and gloves are used to protect the spread of the bacteria.
- Droplet precautions - used for germs that spread by coughing, sneezing or talking. A mask will be used for protection in these rooms.
- Neutropenic precautions - used for patients whose immune systems are compromised and require special precautions to decrease their risk of illness or infections. Visitors must check with the nurse before entering the room.
To help protect ALL of the patients in the hospital, including those that may be on isolation precautions, PVH reminds visitors to wash their hands often. Sinks and hand soap are also available in each patient room. Hand sanitizer stations are strategically placed throughout the hospital and should be used prior to entering a patient’s room and before leaving the room. Visitors are also asked to dispose of gowns, gloves and masks inside the patient’s room before exiting. Visitors who practice these hygiene tips will help prevent the spread of infection.
Staff at PVH also practice safe hand hygiene. “It is really everyone’s responsibility to make sure we frequently wash and sanitize our hands to avoid transmitting infection,” says PVH Infection Prevention Practitioner Sherry McCafferty. “Our healthcare providers encourage patients and visitors to ask if have washed their hands.”
McCafferty has a few more tips to keep yourself and patients safe:
- Patients should not leave their rooms without first asking for approval from their nurse.
- Patients and visitors should let the nurse know if you are going to take anything into or out of the patient room. Items may require sanitization.
- Visitors should refrain from utilizing the patient’s private bathroom and visit the public restroom instead.
- Gowns, gloves and masks worn inside the patient’s room are to be thrown away inside the patient room just prior to leaving the room.
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