News

No Visitors Policy Instituted at Meritus Health Facilities

Beginning Saturday, March 21, no visitors will be permitted in Meritus Health facilities except under these specific circumstances:

• End-of-life care or end-of-life decision making. For these situations, two visitors will be permitted to be with the patient.
• One parent or caregiver of a child in the special care nursery
• One parent or caregiver of pediatric patients as long as that parent/caregiver is not symptomatic
• One visitor inclusive of a professional support person or postpartum helper of a patient in the labor and delivery and postpartum units
• One visitor to accompany a patient for hospital discharge
• One visitor for a patient undergoing emergency surgery
• A visitor who has been asked by the patient’s care team to be a part of scheduled family training for a patient with rehabilitation needs.
• One visitor will be permitted to accompany a patient to facilitate care or treatment such as an ambulatory visit, procedure or same-day surgery including scheduled surgery.

In any of these circumstances, the visitor should be in touch with the patient’s primary provider or a member of his/her health care team prior to coming to Meritus Medical Center.

This policy applies to all patients in all Meritus Health facilities.

The decision aligns with other hospitals in Maryland, including Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of Maryland system and is consistent with approaches taken by other leading health care institutions nationwide.

Liberalized family presence in hospital settings could lead to potential spread to patients and staff by those with asymptomatic or mild infection.