Swine Flu Season – What to know when visiting a hospital or long term care facility

The restrictions on who can visit during swine flu season will include rules about what age visitors are allowed and how many people can visit patients this fall. Some hospitals are not allowing anyone under the age of 16 to visit a loved one unless the person is imminently dying. Or the hospital is limiting the total number of visitors to two. Before you go to visit someone in the hospital or in a long term care facility, call ahead to see what the rules are.

If you do visit, make sure that you wash your hands before you come into the building, before you touch the patient and as you leave so you don’t take any germs out with you. Many hospitals have the antibacterial gel at the entrance and in each person’s room. Use it often to protect yourself and your loved one. You may also want to bring a bottle of the antibacterial gel to leave at the bedside of your loved one. That way they can protect themselves.

The hospital doesn’t want you to get sick and they don’t want you to bring in any germs. Patients are very vulnerable to any infection and even if you didn’t mean to, you might be bringing a deadly infection to someone in the hospital. An infection that only makes you a little sick may be life-threatening to someone else. If you are sick, stay home.

I know that it would be difficult for me to stay home when my loved one was in the hospital. But I also know that I would be risking someone’s life by taking the chance of coming to the hospital when I am sick. I could not bear the thought that I brought something into the hospital that killed someone. So, I will do the right thing and stay home if I am in that situation. I hope you will too.

Have a kind and respectful day. KindEthics.com

Wash Your Hands or Use Hand Sanitizer – And make sure the medical professionals who are touching you are doing the same

I just finished reading, Complications: A surgeon’s notes on an imperfect science by Atul Gawande. A fascinating read into the world of surgery and the recovery process. In this time of swine flu, he brings up an important point. Wash Your Hands or Use Hand Sanitizer. And more importantly, make sure your doctor and all the people who are touching you in while you are in the hospital, wash their hands or use hand sanitizer. It was interesting to read about how diligent surgeons are in the operating room about keeping you safe from germs. But when they visit you in your hospital room, they are less cautious and sometimes forget to wash. And it is not just surgeons, it is everyone in hospitals. I think what I might do the next time I am a patient in the hospital or visiting someone in the hospital, is to make sure I bring in a large bottle of hand sanitizer to keep by the patient’s bed. That way, the patient can take charge and make sure that everyone that touches them has cleaned their hands. And that also includes the visitors. I hope that a long term side effect of the swine flu scare is that people keep washing their hands even after the scare is over. It is one powerful thing we can do to protect ourselves and the people we love throughout our lives.

Have a kind and respectful day.