UMass Memorial easing visitor restrictions for end-of-life care

Photo | Grant Welker A sign outside UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus in Worcester makes it clear: the hospital doesn't want any visitors, with only limited exceptions, to minimize the spread of coronavirus.

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By Grant Welker

UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, which like other hospitals has had to prohibit nearly all visitors, is now loosening restrictions on visitors to coronavirus patients in end-of-life care.

The hospital's new initiative allows two loved ones to have a one-time visit with a patient, a step that UMass Memorial President Dr. Michael Gustafson said in a staff memo makes the hospital among the first in Massachusetts and potentially the country to implement what he called a compassionate patient-centered intervention.

The program uses a dedicated employee who works with a patient's family to arrange the visit and answer any questions before or after. The visitors, like any others allowed at the hospital during the pandemic, have to pass a screening process, including a temperature check. Visitors have to wear a gown and gloves when inside the patient's room for visits, which are limited to 15 to 30 minutes.

UMass Memorial's pandemic command center is first required to approve the exemption to the visitor ban.

The new end-of-life visitor program is one of a few steps UMass Memorial has taken to adjust to patient needs during the pandemic.

Expectant moms who've tested positive for coronavirus are now able to have a support person present for the birth, and new prayer and meditation spaces have been created at the University and Memorial campuses. More than 1,000 patient amenity packages including journals, eye masks, adult coloring books and personal care items have been distributed to patients at the hospital and at the field hospital at the DCU Center in Worcester, which UMass Memorial is managing.

UMass Memorial's two hospital campuses had a combined 177 confirmed or suspected inpatient coronavirus cases, including 72 in intensive care. The DCU Center had 33 patients as of Wednesday, according to the city.