NEWPORT – Samaritan Health Systems is relaxing its visitor restrictions at its hospitals in Newport and Lincoln City as illnesses due to Covid-19 and other respiratory viruses declines.
Medical-grade face masks are still required at all Samaritan hospitals, patient care departments and clinics, under Oregon Health Authority requirements.
But, Samaritan’s visitor policy has relaxed to allow each inpatient to designate two visitors and one or more support people, with one support person allowed at a time. This means there can generally be up to three people with a patient at a time — up to two visitors and one support person, the hospital said in a news release.
The policy also covers Samaritan’s hospitals in Albany, Corvallis and Lebanon as well as its mental health inpatient facility in Corvallis.
Other provisions of the revised policy include:
- Patients at the end of life may have more visitors, with the number of visitors decided in consultation with the medical staff;
- Clergy may visit at any time with patient or family consent and does not count towards the visitor and support-person limit;
Additional restrictions or special exceptions for mental health patients, emergency department patients, pediatric patients and obstetric patients are detailed in Samaritan’s visitor policy.
