Cambridge hospital launches online tool to book patient visits

People who want to visit patients at Cambridge Memorial Hospital can now sign up online to book their visiting time.

The hospital has launched a new reservation form so people can book an appointment to see a friend or loved one. For in-person visits, patients are allowed one visitor per day for up to two hours in the afternoon and evening.

The hospital is also offering virtual visits using software such as Zoom or FaceTime. Those are booked via email and are for those unable to visit a patient in person. The virtual visits are for 30 minutes and can be booked between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. each day.

Emily Quantz, patient safety and quality lead at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, says staff felt it was important for the hospital to maintain visits.

"It's better for patient experience and it's really person-centred when you're able to connect them with their care partners and people who are supporting them and I think it also helps the visitors feel like they're contributing to the patient's recovery," she said.

Benefits patients and families

The hospital started virtual visits in March when they closed their doors to walk-in visits. On a weekend in late June, they pilot-tested in two wards, allowing one visitor per patient. That went so well, it was expanded to the entire hospital.

At first, "it was directed from the nurses. So it was one of those, 'Don't call us, we'll call you,' concepts because we didn't have a format in place yet to ensure that everybody had a way to access visiting," Quantz said.

Then they graduated to allowing visitors to call or email in requests for visits and now, have refined the process into the online form for in-person visits. A form to reserve a virtual visit time is in the works.

However, some patients still may not be permitted to have visitors, such as people who are in isolation.

Quantz says she's heard back from people who appreciate being able to visit their loved ones.

"I had a visitor tell me she hadn't seen her husband for 20 days and that's a long time to be away from your family and phone calls don't really cut it sometimes," she said.

In another situation, a daughter went into her mom's room and they hugged and cried.

"It's great to see the connections that people have," she said.

Visitors must wear masks 

Other hospitals are also working on plans to allow visitors to come back.

At Grand River Hospital, visits are not currently permitted except in special circumstances. Officials say they hope to have a new visitor policy in place later this month.

St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener allows patients to name up to two care partners to visit or to accompany a person to a scheduled appointment. The care partner must meet certain criteria laid out by the hospital.

Guelph General Hospital allows "care partners who are closest to the patient and play an active role in their care and well-being" to visit for certain patients.

People who are permitted in local hospitals need to wear masks at all times.

Stephanie Pearsall, director of surgical services and emergency at St. Mary's General Hospital, said in a press release last month that masks will help reduce transmission of the novel coronavirus.

"Patients needing hospital care are vulnerable to infection and we know that COVID-19 spreads very easily," Pearsall said.

Bonnie Camm, vice president of clinical services at Grand River Hospital, agreed, saying masks will be an important part of any plans to ramp up services and allow visitors back into the hospital.

'Things change quite often'

Quantz warned that the project is new and visitor rules may change. The hospital receives direction from the province and local public health officials, and hospital staff have to do what's best for the local circumstances.

"Things change quite often," she said. Modification to the visitor protocols could come if COVID-19 cases start to rise again in the region.

"We may go backwards. We may find a spike and we might have to change our visiting policy again," she said.