H1N1 forces UK Hospital policy change

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By Laura Clark

To reduce the spread of the H1N1 pandemic, UK Hospital is changing its visitation policy.

Dr. Chris Nelson, associate professor of pediatrics specializing in infectious diseases, said Wednesday because of the month-long “widespread influenza situation,” UK Hospital is altering its current visitation policy to limit the spread of the flu. The hospital will restrict visitors of patients under 18 years of age to parents only. Nelson said the change was short-term.

“I’ll say up front that this is temporary, all of this we hope is temporary,” Nelson said. “A pandemic does resolve, it does reside and the virus will become seasonal … but during the time we’re in a pandemic, we feel it’s important in an institution to protect our patients here who do not have influenza currently, as well as our health care workers by changing our visitation policy.”

Last week, the hospital received 200 intranasal doses of the H1N1 vaccine. Nelson said. While he does not think those supplies are yet exhausted, UK’s head pharmacist was picking up more doses Wednesday morning, which included the intramuscular shot form of the vaccination.

“Now we can focus more on the health care providers that we’ve had to defocus on because they can’t get the intranasal — those who care for bone marrow patients or pregnant health care workers,” Nelson said.

Nelson said pregnant women cannot receive the intranasal, or live vaccine, form because it has not been studied in that particular group. He said even though the vaccine supply is still very limited, high-risk patients are still encouraged to get the vaccine.

“The concern is we’re going to get into the height of this pandemic peak before we have the significant number of the population immunized,” Nelson said.

The hospital has been tracking how many patients are being seen and staff absentees. Nelson said the volume in outpatient clinics has increased in the last couple of weeks. He said the emergency room saw more than 20 patients with influenza-like illnesses within a 24-hour period.

Nelson said it was important for patients with influenza-like illnesses or those who have children with manageable fevers to not overwhelm health care clinics unless they are showing signs of dehydration or other serious illnesses. Nelson said UK Hospital was not overwhelmed at the moment.

“We are not overwhelmed right now — you do not see tents outside in the parking lot outside the ER,” Nelson said. “We are not experiencing a critical staffing shortage at the present time, but what I tell you today may change tomorrow — that’s the nature of the beast here.

“But right now, we are managing and we are maintaining. It’s not necessarily business as usual, but we’re not in our emergency-operations planning right now.”