HEALTH DIGEST || Visitor restrictions

Visitor restrictions

Mercy Health Youngstown facilities have implemented visitor restrictions because of the increase in the number of influenza cases in the area.

Four basic public health guidelines to protect patients, residents and their families and caregivers are:

Persons who do not feel well are asked to not visit hospital or skilled nursing facility patients. Instead, text patients on their cellphone or send a card.

No visitors under 14 are permitted until the flu season ends. Children are exposed to many more germs in schools and day care and can easily infect others.

The practice of allowing one family member to stay overnight in the room with a patient is canceled until flu season subsides. Exceptions may be granted in cases of gravely ill or minor patients.

Waiting rooms or public areas cannot be used for overnight accommodations in order to give hospital staff time to clean and disinfect the area and enable family members to get the rest they need to recuperate.

The extra precautions are effective immediately at all Mercy Health Youngstown locations. They are: St. Elizabeth Youngstown, St. Elizabeth Boardman and St. Joseph Warren hospitals; and the Assumption Village, Marian Living Center, and Humility House.

Hospitals awarded

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.

St. Joseph Warren Hospital and Salem Regional Medical Center are among 472 hospitals nationally to receive the Women’s Choice Award as the America’s Best Hospitals for Patient Safety for female patients.

This evidence-based designation is the only patient safety award that identifies the country’s best health care institutions based on criteria that consider female patient satisfaction and clinical excellence, said Delia Passi, founder and chief executive officer of the Women’s Choice Award.

Hospitals that have earned this award have had a low incidence of problems arising from surgical errors and infections. The hospitals that report their frequency to The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are ranked for 11 measures: Deaths among patients with serious treatable complications after surgery; collapsed lung due to medical treatment; serious blood clots after surgery; a wound that splits open after surgery on the abdomen or pelvis; accidental cuts and tears from medical treatment; serious complications; central line-associated blood stream infections; catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections; surgical-site infection from colon surgery; and methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus blood laboratory-identified.

Zika virus testing

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Department of Health Laboratory has begun Zika virus surveillance testing to identify suspected Zika virus infection in individuals within seven days of symptom onset.

The genetic material of the Zika virus often can be detected in blood specimens collected within seven days of symptom onset. Blood specimens tested by the ODH Laboratory will continue to be forwarded to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmatory testing.

“By conducting our own initial Zika virus testing on patients within seven days of symptom onset, we can significantly speed up initial test results for patients who are anxiously waiting on them,” said ODH Medical Director Dr. Mary DiOrio.

For more information about the Zika virus, visit www.odh.ohio.gov/zika.