St. Mary’s Temporarily Limits Numbers Accompanying Patients to the Emergency Department

To improve patient flow amid heavy patient volumes in its Emergency Department, St. Mary’s General Hospital is asking for help from those coming for emergency care. The Emergency Department must temporarily limit the number of people accompanying patients to the department except in exceptional circumstances such as:

• Patients who are critically ill, as identified by the clinical team
• Patients who are near end of life, as identified by the clinical team
• Acutely ill patients requiring treatment in the Emergency Department. Once the patient is triaged, visitors will be asked to leave if the patient is low acuity (triage level 4&5)
• Patients experiencing a mental health crisis
• Care Partners functioning as ‘essential care partners’ providing care to a patient who would be at risk if the care partner was not available. This includes patients:
  • under the age of 18
  • adults/seniors with significant dependencies of some kind (such as communication, physical or cognitive impairments)

Thank you for your cooperation as we work through these current challenges.