APPLETON, WI – Influenza season is now underway in Wisconsin. In an effort to prevent the spread of the flu and to protect the health of patients, families, team members and the communities served, ThedaCare leaders are announcing visitor restrictions.
Beginning on Monday, January 6, 2020, children under the age of 12 will temporarily not be permitted to visit patients in all seven ThedaCare hospitals.
This does not apply to outpatient or clinic services. One exception to the restriction is siblings, who do not have cold or flu symptoms, may visit the OB unit.
ThedaCare is implementing the temporary restriction at hospitals in Appleton, Berlin, Neenah, New London, Shawano, Waupaca and Wild Rose.
Dr. David Brooks, Infectious Disease Specialist for ThedaCare says the restriction does not apply to outpatient or clinic services.
“Patients at risk are generally in the hospital, or it could be family members visiting or our staff members,” he said. “This is sort of a yearly thing that we expect during flu season.”
Brooks went on to explain that children are strong carriers of the viruses.
“They tend to be more common hosts, so by restricting pediatric visitors, it does tend to mitigate the transmission that could occur in the hospital.”
By putting the restriction in place, they are trying to prevent the flu from spreading to already unhealthy patients as well as staff members.
“They might pose and increased risk of transmitting influenza viruses to patients that have other medical situations that might be at high risk.”
He says while staff members have received the flu shot, it does not keep them out of harms way completely.
“The more exposure puts our staff at risk and could put us in a shortage of being able to provide medical services.”
The restriction will be lifted as soon as the flu dangers starts to taper off.
“When we see that trend coming down to a safe level, we will reverse that visitor restriction.”
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services, during the 2018-2019 flu season, there were 17,210 cases of the flu in Wisconsin.
People of all ages can get the flu.
ThedaCare continues to encourage the community to protect hospitalized patients from exposure by not visiting unless necessary. People should not visit if they have a cough, fever, diarrhea or vomiting.
Visitors are highly encouraged to wear masks and frequently wash or sanitize hands while at the hospital.
