WITH the ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. has announced a new hospital visitation policy which aims to protect and ensure the safety of patients, visitors and employees.
CHCC is seeing a lot of positive cases in the 30 to 39 age group and below, CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther Muna said in a media briefing Friday morning on KKMP radio.
“We are looking at the cases, [each patient’s] age, ethnicity, type of activities, how they got [infected]. We are seeing fewer cases from the older group — 60s to 70s — who are at home. However, some cases have managed to enter homes,” she said.
“When we look at the number of hospitalizations — that is always a concern for our staff,” she added.
“We don’t want to burn out our staff and we also want to make sure that we have the bed capacity and the resources capacity. We are at a situation where we are managing it really well. We will continue to monitor and try to [implement additional] preventive measures as much as possible,” Muna said.
Starting Monday, for example, CHCC and the Covid-19 Task Force will test unvaccinated inbound travelers on the fifth day of their arrival instead of seventh day.
Muna said this change is still in line with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
She said vaccinated individuals will not be quarantined but they will be tested upon arrival. “And while waiting for the result, they must isolate, and try to minimize contact with others,” Muna said.
“We are looking for the Omicron variant,” she added. “We are seeing [Omicron] all across the U.S. so it is likely going to be here. It is a matter of when,” she said, adding that so far, the specimens sent out to the CDC have been identified as Delta variants.
“We are getting a lot of support from the CDC to prioritize our tests especially with the surge,” Muna said.
Like Guam, the CNMI is trying to get its own equipment to be able to do the tests right away, she added.
Muna reiterated that the Delta and Omicron variants are highly transmissible as she urged the public to use an N95 mask instead of a cloth mask.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, contact tracers will be stationed in the point of care area, including the main entrance, so that people do not have to wait for contact tracing and they can get information right away.
Hospital visitation
As for the new hospital visitation policy:
• All vaccinated or unvaccinated visitors are allowed a maximum of 10 minutes visiting privileges for Covid-negative patients.
• Emergency, Labor and Delivery, Obstetrics, and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are excluded from visitation limit due to breastfeeding and bonding requirements for a newborn.
• No testing is required for vaccinated visitors.
• Unvaccinated individuals have to present a negative antigen test before they can visit a patient.
• Antigen test results for unvaccinated visitors is valid for 24 hours only. They are required to retest if they plan to return to visit a patient after 24 hours.
• Family members of caregivers requested by patients needing moderate to maximum assistance during hospitalization should be fully vaccinated and have a negative antigen result before they are allowed into the room.
• Only one caregiver will be allowed in the room the whole time.
• The hospital will not allow switching of caregivers unless approved by the attending physician. But the substitute caregiver must be vaccinated, and tested negative on antigen testing.
• All non-Covid-19-related patients are subject to PCR Covid-19 testing on the third or fifth day of admission to ensure early detection of the virus. These include pediatric and obstetrics patients.
• The visiting hours are 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 3 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• All visitors are reminded to properly use face masks while in the facility. Hospital visiting hours must be adhered to and frequency of visits may be further limited on a case-by-case basis. If a patient has clinical reasons to be denied visitation rights — for example, the patient is Covid-19 positive — specific policies related to the respective unit will apply.
• For patients visiting the emergency room, a screening process for Covid-19 will take place.
• Symptomatic patients or patients with a recent high-risk Covid-19 exposure will be escorted to the Medical Care and Treatment Site for assessment while asymptomatic patients will be able to head straight into the waiting area for assessment. All patients will be treated accordingly.
For more information follow @cnmichcc on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter; visit www.chcc.gov.mp; or call (670) 234-8950.
