Throughout the COVID-19 health crisis, Cook Children’s has made every effort to keep patients and families safe while following the latest guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since Nov. 16, only one caregiver has been allowed at Cook Children’s Medical Center per patient. Beginning at 5 a.m. on Monday, March 8, the visitation policy will change, allowing two primary caregivers inside the medical center per admitted patient.

The new visitation policy affects families with a child admitted to Cook Children’s Medical Center. Two primary caregivers will be able to accompany the patient in the hospital and stay with them in their room while they are an inpatient. Siblings and other visitors will not be allowed.

For primary care appointments and other outpatient visits (such as urgent care, specialty care, neighborhood clinics and surgery centers), any two people from the child’s household are permitted attend to appointments or visits. For example: mom and sister; dad and daughter; mom and grandmother.

For emergency room visits, special exceptions will be made for families who have other children with them when they arrive. Special considerations are also made for situations involving end-of-life and other times when an additional visitor may be necessary.

Cook Children’s will still require masks to be worn by employees and anyone over the age of 2 entering Cook Children’s locations. This includes patients, caregivers and those who have been fully vaccinated. In addition, all visitors will be screened for the virus via temperature and symptom checks.

Medical Director of Infectious Diseases, Suzanne Whitworth, M.D., hosted a Q&A with reporters to answer questions about this change. 

Why does Cook Children’s need to reinstate this visitation policy?

We have been keeping a close eye on community numbers for COVID-19 and we know that they have gone up dramatically over the last five or six days. In thinking through that, we want our patients in the hospital and our staff to have less exposure to the community. So this, conceivably, has 200 less people in the building during the day, which is going to reduce exposures. That's really the main goal.

How difficult was it to reach this decision?

It’s terrible to reach this decision because we're all parents, and we are doing our best in a really difficult time to try to keep everybody safe. The adult hospitals have had no visitors and I don't know how they did that. These kids will at least have a parent or a relative at the bedside 24 hours a day if they want to. They won't be alone. We just feel like this is the safest thing for everyone.

When will this restriction be lifted?

We are going to lift the restriction when we feel like it's safe for our patients and families to do so, and also safe for our staff. So it would have to be at a time when community transmission is much lower than it is now. I don't have a number about that at this point, but we will wait and look forward to going back to having visitors when we feel like it's safe.

Are there exceptions for this rule?

We have exceptions for the emergency room and for end of life situations.

How is the morale of the staff at Cook Children’s?

I think everybody is doing really well. I think that we go to work with a goal and a mission. All of us want our lives back, me included. There’s still a sense of ‘When is this going to be over?’ But I think we're really lucky because we work with children who make you laugh and I think we all enjoy our jobs. So, I think generally, just being around the hospital, making rounds and having clinic, I think we're doing pretty well.

With the rise in local COVID-19 cases, Cook Children’s Medical Center is changing its inpatient visitor policy to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus on campus. Beginning Monday, Nov. 16 at 5 a.m., only one primary caregiver will be allowed per patient inside the medical center. Siblings and other visitors will not be allowed. This rule was in place from March through Oct. 1. Due to substantial community spread of the virus, we are reverting to this policy.

Cook Children’s is currently experiencing the highest number of infected children on a daily basis since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The seven day rolling positivity rate is 8.3%, up from an average of 5% seen in recent months. This reflects an increase in the total number of patients testing positive for COVID-19 across Cook Children’s Medical Center, primary care and urgent care locations. In addition, there are currently 8 confirmed COVID-19 patients at Cook Children’s Medical Center.

These high numbers, along with the increasing COVID-19 cases seen across Tarrant County, force us to make the difficult decision to limit the number of people on our campus in order to keep our patients, families and employees as safe as possible.

“We know these measures greatly impact our patient families and mean missed moments between parents and children,” said Stan Davis, Chief Operating Officer at Cook Children’s. “This decision was not made lightly, and was determined to be necessary given the circumstances surrounding the rapid spread of COVID-19 in our community.”

Medical Director of Infectious Diseases, Suzanne Whitworth, M.D., added, “We ask everyone to please wear a mask, practice social distancing and avoid large gatherings. We need the support of the community to lower the spread of COVID-19 and protect all those we care for. We can’t do it without you.”

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