CORNWALL, Ontario – The Cornwall Community Hospital (CCH) has updated their rules for essential visitors for the month of March.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCH currently has full restrictions in place for visitors, allowing one essential visitor/ caregiver per patient, with some exceptions.
“It is recognized that there are situations where essential visitors/care partners require additional access to a patient,” reads a statement from the CCH in regards to exceptions to their one visitor limit. “These situations include, but are not limited to, patients who are children/youth, are palliative or actively dying (as determined by a physician), have cognitive, mobility, and or communication impairments, or require a translator. Some patients coming to the hospital for outpatient appointments/procedures may bring an escort, as determined on a case by case basis.”
Visitors are required to adhere to the following restrictions:
- Wearing a medical-grade mask during visitation (a medical-grade mask will now be provided for you at CCH).
- Wearing a gown during visitation (a gown will be provided for you at CCH).
- Public health guidelines also currently recommend wearing safety glasses during visitation.
- Please note that essential care partners/ visitors are still entitled to visitation even if they do not have safety glasses.
- Due to limited supply for staff, CCH is unable to provide safety glasses for visitation. To comply with this best practice recommended by public health, care partners/visitors are encouraged to provide their own safety glasses.
For Emergency Department visits, the CCH is currently not allowing visitors to accompany patients with the following exceptions:
- Patients that have cognitive challenges and require a support person
- Guardian/parent accompanying a child
- The patient’s end of life is imminent
- *Compassionate reasons including mental health considerations, care partner/visitor senior support (these cases will be evaluated on a “case by case” basis with ED staff and the screeners)
*Note: Because of physical distancing requirements, this group will not be allowed to wait in the waiting room but can be called once the patient is settled in ED and the primary nurse/physician deems it appropriate to have a family/care partner present.
Appointments are required for visitations. Please call 613-938-4240 ext. 4778 between 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
The CCH is helping to facilitate virtual visits by lending electronic devices to patients. The CCH offers the following guidelines for a virtual visit:
- A valid email address
- A computer/tablet or phone with a camera and microphone
- The Zoom App
A request to set up a virtual visit can be made by emailing virtual.visit@cornwallhospital.ca or by calling 613-938-4240 ext: 4740 and is available between the hours of 8h00 and 16h00 7 days a week. Information like the patient’s room number/name and time of the desired visit are helpful details to include when communicating.
