AdventHealth Coronavirus Update | Visitor Policy and Elective Procedures

March 23, 2020 — AdventHealth has a responsibility to protect the greater community from the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As a trusted community partner, it’s vital we take measures to minimize the risk of infection for our patients while protecting our physicians and team members who are on the frontlines every day. Under the governor’s executive order on elective surgery, AdventHealth will immediately:

• Postpone all inpatient surgeries that are not time sensitive.
• Postpone all outpatient surgeries that are not time sensitive.
• Postpone all outpatient procedures in diagnostic centers that are not time sensitive.

AdventHealth will provide surgery only to patients whose needs are imminently life threatening, with malignancy that could progress, or with active symptoms that require urgent and immediate care. This decision allows us to further plan for the increased need for hospital beds, resources, and advocate for patient and team member safety.

Visitor Policy Changes

Additionally, we are announcing modifications to our visitor policy effective Monday, March 23^rd.

After much discussion with clinical leaders and physicians, AdventHealth will update its visitation policy. Effective Monday, March 23, no visitors will be allowed inside AdventHealth hospitals in the West Florida Division, except for special circumstances, which includes:

• AdventHealth Carrollwood
• AdventHealth Dade City
• AdventHealth Lake Placid
• AdventHealth North Pinellas
• AdventHealth Ocala
• AdventHealth Sebring
• AdventHealth Tampa
• AdventHealth Wauchula
• AdventHealth Wesley Chapel
• AdventHealth Zephyrhills

Visitation will be continued for special circumstances, including end-of-life situations. Visitation will also be permitted if the visitor is the power of attorney or medical decisionmaker. Other exceptions include:

• Patients under the age of 18 may be accompanied by one adult visitor (parent, legally authorized person or caregiver). No additional visitors or siblings allowed.
• Obstetric patients may have one adult visitor.
• Exceptions will be made for extenuating circumstances such as imminent end-of-life or unique patient needs for support.

In all circumstances, visitors who are sick will not be permitted to enter the hospital, unless they are seeking emergency medical care. We realize this will impact patients and their families, and we will constantly evaluate the need for this policy and will modify it when we believe it is safe for visitors to return.

“This is an unprecedented time in health care and our priority is to keep our patients, team members and ultimately our greater community safe while we continue to treat those who need our care,” said Mike Schultz, President and CEO, AdventHealth West Florida Division. “We believe this decision to further limit visitors at our hospitals is crucial to upholding our promise to keeping our community, patients, and employees safe. We thank our community in advance for their understanding and patience as we address COVID-19 together.”

We know how important is for families and friend to stay connected to their loved ones, so we strongly encourage them to remain closely connected through virtual tools, including Skype, FaceTime, text messaging, and phone.

Patient safety, safety of the entire health care team and the ability to care for our community are at the core of all our decisions. We will continuously evaluate these decisions to ensure safety for everyone.

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West Florida Division Media Resources