Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in Taiwan
During an epidemic, almost all healthcare facilities restrict the visiting of patients to prevent disease transmission. For hospices with terminally ill patients, the trade-off between compassion and infection control becomes a difficult decision. This study aimed to survey the changes in visiting p...
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doaj-c80d0c3c736740e680307ca306baf0902020-11-25T02:27:25ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health1661-78271660-46012020-04-01172857285710.3390/ijerph17082857Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in TaiwanYa-Chuan Hsu0Ya-An Liu1Ming-Hwai Lin2Hsiao-Wen Lee3Tzeng-Ji Chen4Li-Fang Chou5Shinn-Jang Hwang6Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, TaiwanDepartment of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, TaiwanDepartment of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, TaiwanDepartment of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, TaiwanDepartment of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, TaiwanDepartment of Public Finance, National Chengchi University, Taipei 116, TaiwanDepartment of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, TaiwanDuring an epidemic, almost all healthcare facilities restrict the visiting of patients to prevent disease transmission. For hospices with terminally ill patients, the trade-off between compassion and infection control becomes a difficult decision. This study aimed to survey the changes in visiting policy for all 76 hospice wards in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The altered visiting policies were assessed by the number of visitors per patient allowed at one time, the daily number of visiting slots, the number of hours open daily, and requisites for hospice ward entry. The differences in visiting policies between hospice wards and ordinary wards were also investigated. Data were collected by reviewing the official website of each hospital and were supplemented by phone calls in cases where no information was posted on the website. One quarter (n = 20) of hospice wards had different visiting policies to those of ordinary wards in the same hospital. Only one hospice ward operated an open policy, and in contrast, nine (11.8%) stopped visits entirely. Among the 67 hospice wards that allowed visiting, at most, two visitors at one time per patient were allowed in 46 (68.6%), one visiting time daily was allowed in 32 (47.8%), one hour of visiting per day was allowed in 29 (43.3%), and checking of identity and travel history was carried out in 12 wards (17.9%). During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all hospice wards in Taiwan changed their visiting policies, but the degree of restriction varied. Further studies could measure the impacts of visiting policy changes on patients and healthcare professionals.https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2857COVID-19health care surveyshospicessevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2visitors to patients |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ya-Chuan Hsu Ya-An Liu Ming-Hwai Lin Hsiao-Wen Lee Tzeng-Ji Chen Li-Fang Chou Shinn-Jang Hwang |
spellingShingle |
Ya-Chuan Hsu Ya-An Liu Ming-Hwai Lin Hsiao-Wen Lee Tzeng-Ji Chen Li-Fang Chou Shinn-Jang Hwang Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in Taiwan International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health COVID-19 health care surveys hospices severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 visitors to patients |
author_facet |
Ya-Chuan Hsu Ya-An Liu Ming-Hwai Lin Hsiao-Wen Lee Tzeng-Ji Chen Li-Fang Chou Shinn-Jang Hwang |
author_sort |
Ya-Chuan Hsu |
title |
Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in Taiwan |
title_short |
Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in Taiwan |
title_full |
Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in Taiwan |
title_fullStr |
Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in Taiwan |
title_full_unstemmed |
Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in Taiwan |
title_sort |
visiting policies of hospice wards during the covid-19 pandemic: an environmental scan in taiwan |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
issn |
1661-7827 1660-4601 |
publishDate |
2020-04-01 |
description |
During an epidemic, almost all healthcare facilities restrict the visiting of patients to prevent disease transmission. For hospices with terminally ill patients, the trade-off between compassion and infection control becomes a difficult decision. This study aimed to survey the changes in visiting policy for all 76 hospice wards in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The altered visiting policies were assessed by the number of visitors per patient allowed at one time, the daily number of visiting slots, the number of hours open daily, and requisites for hospice ward entry. The differences in visiting policies between hospice wards and ordinary wards were also investigated. Data were collected by reviewing the official website of each hospital and were supplemented by phone calls in cases where no information was posted on the website. One quarter (n = 20) of hospice wards had different visiting policies to those of ordinary wards in the same hospital. Only one hospice ward operated an open policy, and in contrast, nine (11.8%) stopped visits entirely. Among the 67 hospice wards that allowed visiting, at most, two visitors at one time per patient were allowed in 46 (68.6%), one visiting time daily was allowed in 32 (47.8%), one hour of visiting per day was allowed in 29 (43.3%), and checking of identity and travel history was carried out in 12 wards (17.9%). During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all hospice wards in Taiwan changed their visiting policies, but the degree of restriction varied. Further studies could measure the impacts of visiting policy changes on patients and healthcare professionals. |
topic |
COVID-19 health care surveys hospices severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 visitors to patients |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2857 |
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