Flu limits visitors to patients at Salem Hospital, West Valley Hospital

To protect its patients, Salem Health is limiting visitors to patients at Salem Hospital and West Valley Hospital.

“We are asking our patients’ loved ones and friends to help protect the patient from the flu by staying home if they’re ill,” said Marty Enriquez, RN, chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services for Salem Health. “Hospitalized patients are particularly vulnerable to contracting the influenza virus, and to experiencing serious complications from the flu.”

Effective immediately, the following restrictions are in effect:

• Only persons needed to give support to and care for patients should visit.
• Persons who are sick, or who have been in contact with someone who is sick, should not visit, even if they are not ill now. It is possible to spread the virus one to seven days before you know you are sick.

“While the number of patients we are seeing at this point is normal, taking these steps can help reduce the spread of influenza which can be particularly hard on people with chronic conditions or who are elderly or very young,” said Nancy O’Connor, infection prevention manager for Salem Health. O’Connor noted that there are currently seven patients at Salem Hospital with influenza and that the early start of this flu season called for restricting visitation to reduce exposure for hospitalized patients.

All visitors need to follow good hand hygiene practices and cough etiquette, said O’Connor. This includes washing hands and/or using alcohol-based hand gel, covering their cough or sneeze with a tissue or coughing or sneezing in their sleeve, using masks and limiting their travel within the hospital facility as much as possible.

Hospital staff will make masks, tissues and hand hygiene supplies readily available and will advise patients’ families of the new guidelines. Signs will also be posted at hospital and unit entrances.

Salem Health recently wrapped up its successful No Flu Here League, which improved employee vaccination rates from 67 percent the prior year to 92.5 percent for the current flu season. “This high level of immunization makes Salem Hospital and West Valley Hospital patients less likely to get influenza from contact with staff. Adding these additional limits on visitors who are ill, or might be, will add that extra necessary protection,” said O’Connor.

Salem Health is comprised of Salem Hospital, West Valley Hospital, Willamette Health Partners and other affiliated health care organizations offering exceptional care to people in and around Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley. Visit us at salemhealth.org and facebook.com/salemhealth; follow us on Twitter: @salemhealth; and view us at youtube.com/salemhealth.