ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — BayCare Hospitals are almost entirely banning visitors to help limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. As the infection rate grows statewide, the health system is shutting off most patient visitation.
The changes take effect on Sunday and mean only certain visitors with special circumstances will be let in. The ones who are allowed will have to be screened for symptoms first.
Visitors may still be allowed, if approved by the hospital administrator on duty, in these circumstances:
- Inpatient
- Labor and delivery, post-partum, pediatrics and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
- End of life situations
- Behavioral Health Unit
- Emergency Room
- Waiting room only
- Outpatient procedures
The healthcare system also announced they will be changing the way they operate their drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites.
This move is to ensure that those who are most at risk get tested. The change comes due to limited testing supplies being available.
“To help understand what is happening in our community, we need to be able to identify whether patients with symptoms are carrying the virus so they can isolate and not spread it further,” BayCare Health System Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Nishant Anand said.
The refinements to the sites’ processes and operations are:
- Starting Saturday, all location hours will be reduced to 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Screening criteria now requires you to currently be experiencing symptoms
- Physicians referring patients for testing are being asked to complete a new form that the patient is to bring to the testing site. The form is explicit about the need for a patient to be displaying physical symptoms as well as meeting other criteria for screening as established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We need to be testing symptomatic individuals – those with fever, shortness of breath, a cough -- and reserving our limited supplies for those cases,” Dr. Anand said. Every asymptomatic patient we test means one less swab is available to those more likely to test positive.”
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