LANSING, Mich. — Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order early Saturday morning, putting temporary restrictions on health care facilities and those who visit them.
The restrictions on hospital visitors began Saturday for Sparrow Hospital and are set to be in place until at least April 5th. Violations could result in a misdemeanor.
"Last night, the governor released her executive order for all the health departments and hospitals to put into effect strict measures to protect our most vulnerable populations from the spread of the illness," Dr. Dale Jackson said.
Jackson says he received Governor Whitmer's executive order around 3 a.m. on Saturday. The order calls for all health care facilities including doctor's offices, hospice care, and hospitals to allow no more than one visitor in to see a patient. Visits are also restricted to those who haven't traveled outside the country recently, and who are not displaying any signs of sickness.
"We're restricting visitation for visitors who need to come in and it's only going to be one at a time and it's for those patients with grave illness, at risk of imminent death, those who need to come in to support those in their activities of daily living," Dr. Jackson said.
He says with the order in place, no visitors are allowed inside the hospital unless the patient they're coming to see has a grave illness most likely resulting in death, or in special cases like patients in the mother-baby unit, children who need to be accompanied while under hospital care, or rehab patients.
"Obviously there's a lot of times where you need a ride, you need help, and those individuals that are helping you, that falls under that activity of daily living care-giving. If you need help with your care-giving those are the individuals that regardless of the people who will be allowed in, as long as you're not sick, those are the individuals that will be allowed in," Jackson said.
Dr. Jackson says right now the best way to prevent the spread of the virus in a hospital setting is to limit the number of people coming and going from the building. He says this way healthy visitors won't be at risk of catching anything from a patient coming in for care.
"If we can eliminate or minimize that person to person contact then it's a good chance that this virus will go away along with the winter and the flu season as we enter the spring and summer."
Jackson says the order is primarily effecting the hospitals right now but will eventually affect all health care facilities.
Hospitals will have until March 16th at 9 a.m. to begin enforcing the new restrictions.
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