[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]New Jersey’s hospitals are being asked to restrict most visitations as COVID-19 cases spike to record highs.

The New Jersey Hospital Association issued the voluntary guidance on Dec. 29. Cathy Bennett, the trade group’s president and CEO, called the move a “necessary precaution” in the face of hospitalization levels not seen in a year.

NJHA’s guidelines apply to the state’s 71 acute-care hospitals, calling on calling on them to bar visitors except under certain limited exceptions.

The organization’s proposed exceptions apply to pediatrics, labor and delivery; end of life care, and patients with “intellectual, developmental or cognitive impairment including dementia, communication barriers or behavioral concerns.”

“We are sympathetic to patients and their loved ones that want to visit in the hospital,” Bennett said in a statement. “We know that support is very important. These guidelines aim to balance that with our overarching priority – and that is to protect our patients, visitors and healthcare workers from COVID transmission.”

On Dec. 29, the state logged 20,5483 positive cases, the highest total of the 22-month pandemic, shattering the previous record set on Dec. 25 of 16,626 cases.

While the statistics do not differentiate between the delta and omicron variants, state health officials said that most new cases are from the delta variant and primarily among unvaccinated individuals. More than 6.4 million people in New Jersey have gotten the vaccine and over 2.17 million have gotten a booster.

Hospitals counted 3,273 COVID-19 patients, of which 514 were in intensive care and 261 were on ventilators. Last December, the state logged 3,800 total hospitalizations, which itself was far below the more than 8,000 patients last spring.

The NJHA’s guidelines mark the highest level of visitation restrictions, agreed upon in November 2020 and referred to as “code red.”  State health guidelines require masks to be worn in all hospitals and medical offices and facilities.

There are a number of exceptions to the policy, but they must be approved in advance by a patient’s care team. The recommended visitation rules for each setting are listed below.

• Emergency department: A single parent or guardian will be permitted for pediatric patients for the duration of the stay
• Obstetric, labor and delivery: A single visitor is permitted, who must be the same person, for the duration of the birth parent’s stay
• Surgery and procedures: A single visitor is permitted, who can stay until the patient is taken into prep.
• Adult in-patient: A single visitor is permitted, who must be the same person, for adult stays over 72 hours and for bedside discharge instructions
• Pediatrics: The same two parents or guardians may visit at the same time. Siblings may be present for end-of-life care
• Psychiatry: The care team would have to approve visitors in advance, and would dictate the time and duration of the visit
• Immunocompromised: Such patients can have a single parent or guardian visit if they are a pediatric patient; one visitor at a time for patients receiving end of life care; and one visitor who must be the same person for patients in labor.
• End of life: Up to two visitors may visit at the same time, and visitors can switch throughout the day.

RWJBarnabasHealth, which owns one of the state’s three Level One Trauma Centers – Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick – imposed similarly strict visitation rules on Dec. 26.

University Hospital in Newark, another Level One Trauma Center, adopted the NJHA’s visitation restrictions. Holy Name in Teaneck, as well as AtlantiCare which owns the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City, and Atlantic Health System – which owns the Morristown Medical Center – have all adopted their own strict visitation policies.

Hackensack Meridian Health also tightened visitation rules and is requiring visitors to show proof of vaccine or a recent negative test.

Cooper University Health Care, based in Camden, the third Level One Trauma Center, is also restricting the number of visitors.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story indicated that guidelines from the NJHA called for limiting the overall number of visitors patients can receive, and generally restricting visitors to one at a time; that was incorrect. The NJHA guidance calls on hospitals to bar visitors except under certain limited exceptions; the story was updated at 7:52 a.m. EST on Dec. 30, 2021.

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