HOSPITAL WILL REVIEW VISITOR POLICY PATIENTS COMPLAINING OF NOISE, CONGESTION.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital is considering revising its visitor policy in response to patients' complaints about other people's visitors crowding into rooms and making too much noise.

Provisions being considered include limiting each patient's visitors and requiring after-hours visitors to check in with security guards, who will issue identification badges that expire within 24 hours.

``If you have a seriously ill patient, you don't want to have a whole bunch of people in there. The whole reason they are in the hospital is to get rest and recuperate,'' hospital director Gary Hill said. ``The intent is to make sure patients are secure and their care and healing can go on as smoothly as possible.''

The board approved in principle a draft policy at Wednesday's meeting. Chief Executive Officer Mathew Abraham said the hospital will meet with nursing staff and physicians to get their advice.

``Our visitor control policy and procedures are in serious need of revision. It has come to the point where overcrowding of patient care areas and patient rooms causes difficulty for our staff to provide quality patient care,'' a hospital report said.

``We are also getting complaints from patients regarding visitor crowding and noise levels in the hallways and patient rooms,'' the report said.

Hospital officials said a tighter visitor policy will help improve security and provide additional protection for patients, in particular for newborns. Officials cited cases at hospitals elsewhere where infants have been stolen.

``In light of an extremely high census, and also concerns in the public health-care arena that deals with infant security, Antelo Hospital is considering a revision of its policies to address these concerns and to deal with the high census,'' Abraham said.

Under the proposed policy, visiting hours will remain the same, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. The hospital's front entrance will be locked at 8 p.m., and all other entrances except the emergency room entrance will be locked at 6 p.m.

The security officer issuing the identification badge will document visitors' names and the names of patients being visited. If there are three visitors already with a patient, additional visitors will be asked to wait, the proposed policy said.

``The identification badges provided to visitors must be worn at all times while visitors are in the hospital,'' the proposed policy continues. ``Anyone without identification will be asked to leave patient-care areas. Identification badges are time-sensitive and will automatically expire at the end of 24 hours.''