Grand River Hospital District supports a patient- and family-centered approach to care. We work with your wishes and care needs for support person visitation during your stay in any hospital department. We allow your support person to visit without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. Grand River Hospital District health care professionals exercise clinical judgment to determine when your support person visitation is, and is not, appropriate. You may designate your support person orally, in writing, or as part of your advance directive.
Support Person
Your support person is any person whom you designate including, but not limited to, a spouse, domestic partner (including a same-sex domestic partner), another family member, or a friend. Your support person may exercise your visitation rights on your behalf with respect to other visitors if you are unable to do so. A support person does not need to be the same person as your patient representative designated in your Advance Directive.
Grand River Hospital District visiting hours are currently 8:00am – 8:00pm. Staff members may restrict visitation for you in the following circumstances:
- To respect your clinical and emotional needs or of your roommate such as exhaustion, over stimulation, or marked increase in agitation
- When visitation causes an inability to maintain infection control policies
- When there is a need to maintain a sterile environment during bedside procedures
- When there are space limitations in patient care rooms such as:
a. Exam rooms, Emergency Department, Surgical Services, semi-private inpatient rooms, etc. may need a limit of two visitors at a time per patient
b. Private inpatient rooms may accommodate up to four short-term visitors per patient and one support person for an overnight stay
5. When there are patient, family, or employee safety issues
a. Family members/visitors must be able to take care of their own personal needs or have a caregiver present who can do so
b. Family members/ visitors who are disruptive to the unit will be asked to leave
c. Family members/ visitors impaired by use of alcohol or other substances are not allowed to visit
d. Family members/ visitors with a restraining order are not allowed to visit
A support person, family member, and/or visitor may spend the night with you if:
- You wish them to stay
- Space in the room is adequate
- Their stay contributes to your well-being
Your visitor limitations requests will be honored.
Visits by children under 18 years of age must be coordinated with the patient’s nurse and the patient or patient’s support person. Children must always be accompanied by an adult other than you, the patient.
A support person, family member, or visitor presence in the Surgical Suite is at the discretion of the physician, anesthesia provider, Peri-Op Services Director or Circulating RN. Consideration depends on the ability to maintain a sterile environment and the personal safety of the support member, family member, or visitor.
Guidelines for support persons, family members, and visitors:
- Please wash hands or use hand gel before entering and leaving the patient’s room
- Follow all isolation precautions as instructed by the nursing staff
- Refrain from visiting if feeling ill, have signs of, or have been recently exposed to communicable illness or infections
- Maintain the privacy of other patients, family and visitors by entering only the room of the patient they are visiting
- Remain in the patient’s room or move to a public waiting area when not in the patient’s room
- Be mindful of the needs of other patients and avoid noise and disturbances
Information about Advance Directives
An Advance Directive is a written instruction such as a living will or durable power of attorney for health care, relating to the provision of your health care when you are incapacitated.
A Psychiatric Advance Directive is a written instruction that may name another person who is authorized to make decisions for you if you are determined to be legally incompetent to make your own choices. It may provide instructions about hospitalization, alternatives to hospitalization, use of medication, types of therapies and your wishes concerning restraint or seclusion.
You have the right to make decisions to accept or refuse treatment and to formulate an Advance Directive. The Advance Directive provides guidance about your wishes for provision of care in certain situations such as a terminal illness or permanent vegetative state. You have the right to designate a conservator/ guardian/ surrogate as a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare (DPOA). The DPOA is capable of making decisions on your behalf when you become incapacitated. An Advance Directive is “self-determined”, you must create your own, and no one else can do it for you.
Grand River Hospital District staff will provide your DPOA with the information required to make informed decisions about your care and will seek informed consent when appropriate from your designee. Please let a staff member know if you would like more information about preparing your Advance Directive. We will be happy to help you.
or you can download a PDF version of it here:
