Previous Page UPDATED: Sacred Heart announces new hospital visitor policy in Women’s and Children’s services Posted 10/26/2009 News Release For Immediate Release Date: Oct. 28, 2009 Press Contact: Andrea Ash, PeaceHealth Media Relations Office: (541) 686-7110, cell: (541) 501-3296 (Springfield, Ore.)-Due to an increase in H1N1 flu activity in our community, Sacred Heart’s Women’s and Children’s services is making changes to its visitor policy to ensure the safety of its patients. As of Oct. 22, visitors to the following units at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend will be restricted to two adult support people: Labor & Delivery, Mother/Baby, and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit* (NICU). No other visitors will be allowed to enter the unit. The patient’s support people must be healthy and not showing any symptoms of flu, which include fever, headache, body aches, cough, sore throat or nasal congestion. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified the patient population that is cared for in the Women’s and Children’s department as being at a higher risk of severe complications, including death, if exposed to the flu; therefore, it is important to reduce the risk of exposure by limiting the number of visitors to these units. We understand that this change to the visitor policy will be disappointing to our patients and families; however, our patients’ safety is always our top priority. The current visitor restrictions will be lifted once we see a downward trend in flu cases in our inpatient hospital population as well as our outpatient clinics. Families are encouraged to visit our website or call (541) 222-3909 for updates to our visitor policy. At this time, the Pediatrics floor is also restricting visitors. The only visitors allowed in Pediatrics are parents or immediate caregivers of the pediatric patient. *When counting the number of visitors in the NICU, the mother is not counted as the support person. The support person, in this case, is either the child’s father or another person who is helping to care for the newborn after discharge. # # # For more information, email PeaceHealth's Public Affairs office.