CentraCare and Carris Health Reinstate Visitor Policy

(KNSI) — Effective Monday, February 14th, CentraCare says it is updating its visitor guidelines.

According to a press release from CentraCare, one healthy adult visitor will be allowed at all CentraCare and Carris Health sites, and two adult visitors will be allowed for patients under 18. This includes hospitals, clinics, and specialty centers.

These new guidelines do not pertain CentraCare’s long-term care facilities because of different regulations for vulnerable populations.

CentraCare’s COVID-19 incident commander Dr. George Morris says the hospital had limited resources for testing, but those are slowly being replenished, so they can do some return to work, return to school testing, which they didn’t have in January. Dr. Morris says they understand that a visitor is different than family members, caregivers, people who need to be there, and they were making exceptions as needed.

CentraCare says that as COVID-19 case numbers within the community decline, they are “cautiously optimistic these new guidelines will offer patients a balance of safety and family support while receiving care.”

Under the new guidelines, visitors to CentraCare and Carris Health facilities must be healthy and not have COVID-19 symptoms. Visitors should not visit for ten full days following a positive test for COVID-19 or having a known close contact exposure to someone with COVID-19. Medical-grade masks are also still required at all facilities. Patients and visitors with non-medical grade masks, including cloth masks, gaiters, or bandanas, will be offered a medical-grade mask upon arrival.

For the full visitor policy, click here.

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