How your hospital is reacting to Florida’s COVID surge, and what it means for visitors

Citing “a pandemic of the unvaccinated” and a resurgence of COVID-positive patients — along with a resistance among many to getting a vaccine — leaders at Jackson Health System, Miami-Dade County’s public hospital, made changes to visitation rules.

UHealth follows suit on Friday, July 23.

Why?

Consider the highly contagious delta variant of the virus.

“As a healthcare system, Jackson wants to avoid a repeat of last year and not to overwhelm the hospital,” Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya said Tuesday during a video conference call. “We have the tools to stop this pandemic,” he said, citing the tool he calls the No. 1 key: the vaccine.

Dr. Lilian Abbo, an infectious disease specialist at Jackson Health, said the delta variant is more transmissible — ”1,260 times more virulent in terms of viral loads, the amount of virus you’re shedding.” Delta also has a considerably shorter incubation period than the original strain of the novel coronavirus last year. The earlier strain tended to take 10 to 14 days to reveal itself.

“People tell us we had dinner with others on Thursday and already on Sunday I had symptoms,” Abbo said during the video conference with media on Tuesday.

Then factor in the significant share of Floridians who remain unvaccinated — about 500,000 of those eligible 12 and older in Miami-Dade, Migoya said.

The number of new infections reported weekly by Florida’s health department has increased more than fourfold in a month, from 10,095 cases for the week ending June 17 to 45,449 on July 16.

Though the vaccinated can still get COVID, the severity is most often greatly reduced and the outcome considerably more favorable. Abbo said 91% of COVID-positive patients are not vaccinated. In Jackson’s intensive care units, 95% of patients who are critically ill with the disease have not received the vaccine.

“This is real. If you don’t want to believe it I may not be able to convince you but I urge you to listen to the science,” Abbo said. “Our healthcare workers are exhausted. We have been working this nonstop. For the good of humanity we really need to get vaccinated and protect each other.”

Migoya calls the resistance to taking the vaccine “the most frustrating thing I’ve ever seen.” He said that the peak and the length of the current surge will depend on the number of people who are not vaccinated taking that step toward protection.

Until then, there’s changes. Here’s what we know at South Florida’s major hospitals.

What Jackson is doing about rising COVID cases

▪ Visitation policy changes. Effective Wednesday, July 21, Jackson Health suspends visitations to most of its inpatient units, with exceptions for rehabilitation, pediatrics, the neonatal intensive care unit, maternity ward and non-COVID end-of-life cases. Visitors will not be allowed in adult emergency departments, Migoya said.

Before making the change, Jackson Health administrators had already raised the COVID threat level to “high” at its hospitals in South Miami-Dade, Miami’s Civic Center and North Miami Beach. That triggered precautions that included limiting in-person meetings to 50% of a room’s capacity. Face masks in all non-clinical areas are also required for everyone, including those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

For the latest on Jackson’s visitation policy and other FAQ’s visit: jacksonhealth.org/keeping-you-safe/.

Baptist Health South Florida

“We are currently caring for 354 patients across our hospitals who are positive for COVID-19,” Baptist spokeswoman Georgi Morales Pipkin said in an email to the Miami Herald on July 21. “The vast majority of these patients who are currently hospitalized for the disease are unvaccinated patients.”

She said there are some changes to the hospital chain’s visitor policies and guidelines. Baptist continues to require mask wearing inside its facilities.

The status, which includes reduced number of allowed visitors and hours, includes Baptist’s Florida Keys hospitals, Mariners Hospital and Fishermen’s Hospital.

▪ The visitation policy, in general, means inpatient units, emergency department non-COVID patients, and maternity patients may have one visitor at a time at several of its hospitals. Hours may vary at the chain’s hospitals but in Miami, for instance, the hours are 10 a.m.-7 p.m.

Exceptions will be made for pediatrics, oncology and special circumstances, according to Baptist.

Homestead Hospital, however, will not allow visitors except for labor and delivery and maternity patients who may have one partner and one visitor present at all times. Elective surgical procedures or diagnostic imaging patients may have one visitor on the day of the procedure and/or the testing.

After 9 p.m., all patients must enter and exit through Homestead Hospital’s emergency department. The main lobby will be closed.

For Baptist’s visitation policy and FAQ’s visit: baptisthealth-coronavirus.com/patients-and-visitors/visitor-guidelines.

Broward Health

▪ Broward Health’s visitation policy will be tweaked to limit the number of visitors entering its hospitals beginning on Thursday, July 22, said spokeswoman Jennifer Smith.

The system is implementing a “Level Yellow” visitation policy.

Under the revised guidelines, patients will be allowed one designated (by the patient) visitor a day. That visitor has to be age 18 and older. Pediatric patients will be allowed two parents or guardians.

According to Smith, Broward Health had 122 COVID-positive patients across its four hospitals – “slightly less than half the number of patients treated during last summer’s surge,” she said in an email to the Herald. “Only two of the current COVID patients are vaccinated, proving yet again the effectiveness of the vaccine.”

“The numbers nationally – and here in our own hospitals – clearly demonstrate that this is now primarily a pandemic of the unvaccinated. In the past two weeks our COVID patient volume has doubled, but with the exception of a few cases, they are all individuals who’ve unfortunately chosen to not receive the vaccine,” Dr. Joshua Lenchus, interim chief medical officer of Broward Health, said in a release.

Broward Health’s visitation policy is at www.browardhealth.org/pages/covid-visitor-information.

Masks are required.

Memorial Healthcare System

Memorial Healthcare, which operates Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and other hospital locations in Broward County, has restricted its visitation policy since March 2020 and continues to monitor community spread and adjust its visitation policy accordingly, said spokeswoman Kerting Baldwin.

“About a year ago, we were in a more restricted policy of no visitors, but the rate of infection was higher, the number of hospitalized patients were higher, and there was the absence of a vaccine,” Baldwin said.

“At this time, we are seeing the increase happening again in the unvaccinated population, and we have moved to a more restricted visitation policy than what we had about two weeks ago,” she said on July 20. “Unfortunately, we anticipate that these numbers will continue to climb, and therefore, we may be moving back to the ‘no visitor policy’ with some exceptions very soon.”

▪ Memorial’s current policy at www.mhs.net/patients-visitors is restricted in the hours and number of visitors who can enter the hospitals. For example, a critical care visiting hour for patient in the ICU is from noon to 1 p.m. daily, but only one visitor is allowed at the discretion of the clinical team. No visitors for the outpatient and emergency departments.

On Tuesday, July 20, Baldwin said Memorial Healthcare System had 234 patients with COVID-19 — a 125% increase of cases in the last 20 days.

“Of these patients, 98% of them are not vaccinated, which is why is so important for our community to get vaccinated and protect themselves and their loved ones,” she said. “In addition, the majority of these patients with COVID are trending younger – 60% of the 234 are under 60 years old.”

Mount Sinai Medical Center

Mount Sinai’s visitation policy is more restrictive than it was pre-pandemic, but the hospital is “not anticipating making any changes to our visitation policy in the near future,” spokeswoman Jaclyn Kaplan said in an email to the Miami Herald.

▪ The visitation policy was last updated on March 29, 2021, and can be checked at www.msmc.com/coronavirus-update/.

What you can expect are reduced hours — noon-4 p.m. for acute and critical care patients and 3 p.m.-7 p.m. for the rehabilitation unit where these visits must be scheduled in advance.

Also, only one visitor per patient at a time is allowed and you have to wear a mask at all times. No overnight guests and all visitors will be screened and issued a visitor badge if they pass the screening criteria.

UHealth: University of Miami Health System

▪ UHealth reverts to a no visitor policy for inpatients starting at 4 p.m. Friday, July 23, said spokeswoman Joanna Palmer. Outpatient patients have not been allowed visitors during the pandemic so that policy remains.

Masks will be mandatory in all indoor areas of the health system.

The University of Miami Health System includes the UHealth Tower, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. The institution’s information site can be checked at umiamihealth.org/patients-visitors/we-are-ready-to-care-for-you.

CDC information on COVID

For details on what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has to say about COVID-19 visit www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/.