Family and Visitor Health Guidelines: Protecting Our Patients

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has developed the following guidelines to keep our patients as safe as possible. Common germs and illnesses can be very dangerous to hospitalized children. The best way to prevent the spread of germs and illness is to clean your hands well and often. Do not visit the hospital when you are sick.

• When caregivers and visitors arrive at the hospital, they will be asked if they have symptoms that might be due to a viral illness. Visitors (not including caregivers) with symptoms may not visit the bedside. They will be asked to leave the hospital.

• Some people have symptoms when they are sick with cold and flu viruses. Other people may have a cold or the flu but have little or no symptoms. Because it can be hard to tell who is truly ill, we ask that you limit visitors to those that need to be here.

• People with a cold or stomach illness, fever, or rash, should not visit until 2 days without symptoms have passed, and they are not taking medicine to control symptoms. When there are a lot of patients with viral illnesses in the hospital or community, the hospital may change its rules for visitors.

• All visitors must clean their hands before entering and when leaving a patient’s room. They can either wash their hands with soap and water for at least 15 seconds or use alcohol-based hand rub. The proper way to use hand rub is to apply a dime size amount to your palm and keep rubbing until the gel dries. Anyone encountering your child should use one of these methods to clean their hands before and after touching your child, every time.

• If you are feeling unwell due to illness, you should stay home to keep your child and other patients safe. Sick parents should not go to common areas such as the nourishment room, playroom, nurses’ station, or cafeteria.

• Patients with symptoms of a viral illness will need to stay in their room. They may only leave the room for necessary tests and procedures. Safety measures will be put in place including isolation precautions to help prevent the spread of germs.

• Visitors, including parents and guardians, may not visit other patient’s rooms or bedsides. They may meet in common areas of the hospital. Ask your child’s nurse about places to meet with others outside of a patient room.

• Anyone visiting patients on isolation precautions must stay in the patient’s room. If they need to leave the patient’s room to visit common areas such as the nourishment room, they may ask the patient’s nurse, as needed, after washing their hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand rub.

For questions or concerns, contact a member of your child’s healthcare team.

Reviewed May 2024 by Maureen Mccloskey, RN, CIC, Lindsay Brim, CIC