Visitation policies are going to be temporarily stricter in Intermountain Healthcare facilities starting on Tuesday due to the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
Under a new policy, Intermountain has declared that overnight visitors will be relegated to pediatric patients, patients diagnosed with dementia, laboring and postpartum mothers, and critically ill patients. As a result of this policy, all other visitors are only able to stay between the visiting hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Intermountain believes that by reducing overnight visitors, there is less of a chance that visitors will take their masks off while sleeping, which has brought about the concern of exposing COVID to healthcare workers. All visitors are expected to have their masks on in the presence of a caregiver and whenever feasible, patients should be masked as well according to Intermountain officials.
According to the Intermountain website, not only are visitors expected to be masked, but they must be older than 12, must be in good health, and are needing to complete a screening that asks about their symptoms. Intermountain is asking that whenever possible, visitors should come alone or should only bring people who are necessary for visitation.
