Memorial Health is and has always been a safe place to get medical care. Now, as it moves forward and re-opens services, staff are taking unprecedented precautions to ensure the safety of patients and visitors.

The safety plan touches every part of the hospital, and it starts before a patient or visitor enters the door. The enhanced protections include:

• Screening everyone for symptoms before they can enter the hospital

• Performing temperature checks on all patients, visitors, team members and physicians

• Giving everyone a mask before they enter the hospital and requiring them to wear it

• Limiting visitors

• Requiring social distancing at all times

• Frequently disinfecting all surfaces in every area

In addition, staff and physicians follow strict infection prevention guidelines in the emergency rooms and operating rooms; each room is cleaned thoroughly after each patient and procedure.

Teams also have the necessary Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and supplies needed to keep themselves and patients safe.

COVID-19 patients and suspected COVID-19 patients are cared for in a dedicated area by the same staff, and not throughout the hospital.

For the convenience of patients and visitors, these entrances are now open at Memorial Health:

• Emergency Room (ER): 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

• Main Entrance, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

• Day Surgery, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday

• Building 100, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday

Visitation has been expanded, to include:

• Surgery patients may have a dedicated caregiver with them from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. each day.

• Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and Children’s Hospital offers visitation for both parents; parents may rotate visitation so that each can spend time with their baby and child.

• One dedicated adult caregiver will be allowed for each patient arriving for all types of care, treatment and services. Visiting hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The hospital will continue to restrict visitation for patients who are positive for or are awaiting test results for COVID-19.

As an important reminder, please do not visit the hospital if you:

• Have a fever, cough or shortness of breath

• Have had direct contact with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19

Memorial Health provides the region’s only Level I trauma center for the most acute illness and injuries, as well as dedicated children’s, cancer and heart hospitals to serve a 35-county area in southeast Georgia and southern South Carolina.

The system includes its flagship hospital – Memorial Health University Medical Center – a 630-bed academic medical center; Memorial Health University Physicians’ primary and specialty care networks, including Adult Primary Care, located at 14 Okatie Center Blvd. South, Suite 101 in Bluffton,.

Memorial Health is a part of the HCA Healthcare family, the largest provider of care in the United States and the U.K.

For more information, visit memorialhealth.com.