Milford Regional bans all visitors, with few exceptions

Photo | Grant Welker Milford Regional Medical Center

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By Grant Welker

As hospitals have been looking to limit coronavirus exposure as much as possible, visitors have been tightly restricted.

Milford Regional Medical Center is now going a step further, banning all visitors except for extreme cases, including a birthing partner in the maternity unit, a parent or guardian for a child, and for end-of-life care at the discretion of a charge nurse or nursing supervisor.

That new policy, announced Tuesday afternoon, is among the strictest policies yet. Most local hospitals have limited patients to one visitor a day or told those who are sick, have traveled abroad recently or been in contact with someone confirmed or suspected of having coronavirus to stay away.

Milford Regional is screening all patients and visitors before entering, and has closed its main lobby entrance. Only the Hill Health Center, Imaging Center and Emergency Department are open. Visitors who pass the screening must wear a visitor tag at all times, and it expires in 24 hours.

Milford Regional, like other hospitals, is postponing most elective procedures and routine screenings.

Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester and MetroWest Medical Center have also tightened their visitor policies, banning all visitors for inpatient units and the emergency department with some exceptions: Visitation of a patient nearing the end of life, a coach or partner for each mother in the Center for Women and Infants, one parent at a time for each baby in the Special Care Nursery, and one visitor to accompany patients for hospital discharge. No children are allowed to visit inpatient units.

Entry and exit is now limited to the third-floor North entrance at 123 Summer St., and the emergency department entrance. MetroWest Medical Center is limiting entry and exit to the main lobbies of its Framingham Union Hospital and Leonard Morse Hospital campus in Natick.

Harrington Hospital in Southbridge is allowing one visitor per patient on outpatient units but generally none for inpatient units. It is closing until further notice its Charlton urgent care facility as of 6 a.m. Wednesday.