Visiting Policies of Hospice Wards during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Environmental Scan in Taiwan

Ya-Chuan Hsu,Li-Fang Chou,Hsiao-Wen Lee,Ming-Hwai Lin,Shinn-Jang Hwang,Tzeng-Ji Chen,Ya-An Liu

doi:10.3390/ijerph17082857

Abstract

During an epidemic, almost all healthcare facilities restrict the visiting of patients to prevent disease transmission. For hospices with terminally ill patients, the trade-off between compassion and infection control becomes a difficult decision. This study aimed to survey the changes in visiting policy for all 76 hospice wards in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The altered visiting policies were assessed by the number of visitors per patient allowed at one time, the daily number of visiting slots, the number of hours open daily, and requisites for hospice ward entry. The differences in visiting policies between hospice wards and ordinary wards were also investigated. Data were collected by reviewing the official website of each hospital and were supplemented by phone calls in cases where no information was posted on the website. One quarter (n = 20) of hospice wards had different visiting policies to those of ordinary wards in the same hospital. Only one hospice ward operated an open policy, and in contrast, nine (11.8%) stopped visits entirely. Among the 67 hospice wards that allowed visiting, at most, two visitors at one time per patient were allowed in 46 (68.6%), one visiting time daily was allowed in 32 (47.8%), one hour of visiting per day was allowed in 29 (43.3%), and checking of identity and travel history was carried out in 12 wards (17.9%). During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all hospice wards in Taiwan changed their visiting policies, but the degree of restriction varied. Further studies could measure the impacts of visiting policy changes on patients and healthcare professionals.

Highlights

Given its geographical proximity and close economic and cultural ties with China, Taiwan has faced an enormous epidemic threat and has been on high alert since the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the associated coronavirus disease (COVID-19)in Wuhan, Hubei, China at the end of December 2019
We evaluated the differences between the visiting policies of hospice wards and ordinary wards
Of 81 hospice wards in Taiwan, five hospice wards were excluded from our study due to being shared by two hospitals, the ward being temporarily shut down for infection control, being an unopened ward, or being a ward without current inpatients

Summary

Introduction

Given its geographical proximity and close economic and cultural ties with China, Taiwan has faced an enormous epidemic threat and has been on high alert since the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the associated coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In Wuhan, Hubei, China at the end of December 2019. Taiwanese authorities have taken wide-ranging early precautions to contain the outbreak. One of the many preventive efforts was an alteration of visiting policies at almost all levels of healthcare facilities, following guidance issued by the Taiwan. Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) [1]. Policies for patient visits have been discussed in previous. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 2857; doi:10.3390/ijerph17082857 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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