Midlands hospital changing its emergency room visitation policy as COVID surges in SC
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Lexington Medical Center is making another change as a result of surges in the COVID-19 pandemic in South Carolina.
The hospital will no longer allow visitors into its emergency room, Lexington Medical Center spokeswoman Jennifer Wilson said in a Thursday news release.
The change went into effect Thursday, according to the release.
The only time a visitor will be allowed into the emergency room is when the patient being admitted is under the age of 18. In that instance, a parent/guardian can accompany the minor into the emergency room.
Otherwise, Lexington Medical Center patients will be permitted one visitor only after they receive an emergency department room assignment, Wilson said.
“Visitors must stay in the patient’s exam room at all times and may help settle the patient into his or her inpatient room if admitted,” Wilson said in the release.
No visitors will be allowed for COVID-19 patients, according to the release.
This is a change from a previous policy that was not even a month old.
On Aug. 9, Lexington Medical Center enacted a COVID-19 visitation policy that allowed only one person to visit a non-COVID patient in the hospital’s emergency room and urgent care centers.
Since then, Lexington Medical Center has also temporarily closed its outpatient surgery center in Irmo and sent some of its nurses to care for patients in the hospital’s overwhelmed intensive care unit, hospital officials said.
The U.S. is experiencing another wave of COVID-19 cases because of the highly contagious delta variant.
Lexington Medical Center encourages all eligible individuals to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and Wilson said the hospital has administered nearly 100,000 to date.
On Wednesday, Lexington Medical Center reported two COVID deaths, while saying 182 patients were hospitalized with the coronavirus, and 165 of them were unvaccinated. Of the 56 COVID patients in the ICU, 51 were unvaccinated while five had received the vaccine.
Lexington Medical Center was recognized as the top hospital in the Midlands, and ranked No. 5 in South Carolina, according to U.S. News & World Report.
South Carolina has reported more than 740,000 (confirmed and probable) cases of the coronavirus and 10,684 deaths since the start of the pandemic. With nearly 48% of the state’s population fully vaccinated, health officials are urging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine to help limit the spread of the virus and to protect themselves.
As of Sept. 2, there have been 503 breakthrough cases that led to hospitalizations in South Carolina, and 0.0058% of fully vaccinated people died of COVID-19, according to DHEC.
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This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 10:31 AM.
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