Sask. patients in mind as visiting hour restrictions dropped

It’s all about the patients as all the Saskatchewan health regions are removing visiting hour restrictions in facilities across the province.

The removal of visiting hours was adopted by all the health regions on March 31, 2016 and the official announcement by Health Minister Dustin Duncan came today, May 11. He stated loved ones play a major role in the healthcare of a patient. Families will now be able to visit patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The policy originally came from a 2009 Patient First Review, where the first of 16 recommendations was for patient-and family-centred care (PFCC) to be aim of the provincial health system.

The Saskatchewan Health Quality Council defines PFCC as “an approach to the planning, delivery, and evaluation of health care that is grounded in mutually beneficial partnerships among health care providers, patients, and families. It redefines the relationships in health care.”

The patients themselves will be able to say who is a part of their family, including as relatives or other people they are close to. The patients will also be able decide the days and times they want family visits.

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Vikki Smart, the vice president of primary health at the Prairie North Health Region, said they have been working on their new policy for open visiting hours and will be rolling it out in the next six months, but it’s not just a simple thing they can change.

“There are a number of things that need to be in place and one of them is some of the parameters around it, such as respect and being quiet for other patients, all of those kinds of things. Even for the patient themselves, like what are their wishes, so it really centres around the patient,” she said.

Prince Albert Parkland Health Region communications officer Doug Dahl echoed the statement about respect for the hospital.

“There still has to be some of the respect for the operational needs or the need for quiet time for the patients who need their rest, not only their own family members but others who are in the facility,” Dahl said. “But it is about trying to accommodate people as much as possible and make sure that family members can be there to support their loved one who is in the hospital or long-term care.”

Dahl added just because it’s open hours, doesn’t mean people can always show up when they want. They need to have prior discussions about what each patient wants and needs on a case by case basis.

“For example, if we have two people in the same room, we need to make sure that one person having a family member there late at night or early in the morning isn’t disruptive to that other patient,” Dahl said. “And that’s just about having those conversations; I don’t think we anticipate there will be a lot of issues around that.”

Smart said Prairie North has starting a PFCC committee which is made up of staff and members of the public who will be working on different initiatives, including the rollout of the open visiting hours.

“We are really focusing on more and more patient and family centred care because it’s the patient experience that we’re looking to improve and to make the experience the best it can be,” she said.

Prairie North and Prince Albert Parkland previously had visiting hours from 2 to 8 p.m., but Smart and Dahl each said their health regions weren’t always strict about enforcing the times depending on the scenario.

mkelly@jpbg.ca