Originally posted March 16, 2020
Updated October 7, 2020

Visitation guidelines at the Children's Hospital of Richmond

At CHoR we know that children are not little adults – their needs are unique, and support from family is critical during a hospital stay or procedure. We are balancing the needs of our patients and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s critical that we keep our patients and team members safe and healthy at all times.

Effective immediately, our open visitation policy is suspended until the transmission of COVID-19 is no longer a threat to our patients, visitors and team members.

For everyone’s safety, no visitors will be allowed who:

• Have any symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat or difficulty breathing
• Have returned from any of the COVID-19 high-risk countries or regions within the last 14 days
• Have been exposed to COVID-19
• Are under 18

Who can visit?

We recognize it’s crucial for children to have a parent or guardian present in the hospital. Modified visitation guidelines remain in place to minimize traffic in the hospitals and clinics. Visitors will be screened for the exclusions listed above.

Help us keep our patients and team members safe and healthy

• Please take extra steps to ensure good handwashing before, during and after your visit with us.
• Visitors who are required to wear a mask to enter a patient room will receive only one mask per day, to be used in the patient room.

The health and safety of our patients, team and visitors is critical at all times.

Our patient care philosophy depends greatly on engaging family and friends to be part of the healing process. We continue to identify public health practices that reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19, including restricting visitation within our hospitals, clinical and therapy centers.

We understand this is a difficult time for our patients and visitors, and we appreciate your help keeping our loved ones and community safe. Working together, we are confident that these measures will help us succeed with managing the spread of COVID-19 within our facilities while balancing the visitation needs of our patients and families.

How can child life help?

Our child life and recreation therapy teams are available to help make the hospital experience as comfortable and kid-friendly as possible. We will continue to provide procedure preparation and support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although our playrooms are closed, we still have kid-friendly activities to help make your stay a little more fun.

Our team can provide guidance to parents to help have critical conversations about why siblings are unable to visit. We can also help facilitate telecommunication via smart phone or tablet. Please ask your nurse to contact child life if we can help support your family.