MDH Encourages Visitors to Consider Health Status

McDonough District Hospital is encouraging visitors to think about their health status before checking on friends and family who are patients at the hospital. Signs asking visitors who are ill to consider calling or sending electronic cards have been placed in hospital entrances, elevators and waiting areas.

MDH encourages persons with any illness, especially flu symptoms, to avoid visiting patients in the hospital. Individuals with flu symptoms should seek medical advice from their personal health care provider. In some areas hospital staff may ask visitors to submit to screenings if there are concerns of illness prior to admission to patient rooms.

“With the increase in concern regarding seasonal flu and H1N1, it is important to consider our patients’ safety and reduce situations which might spread the flu,” said Carol Rowland Maguire, Infection Control R.N. at MDH.

The hospital’s infection control staff is working with county and state health officials and hospital leadership to provide information and resources to MDH employees, patients and visitors. More than 280 MDH employees have received the seasonal flu vaccination.

The hospital has increased cleaning practices with additional emphasis in public traffic areas such as handrails, wheelchairs and door knobs. Cleaning supplies have been provided to high traffic offices to assist in keeping areas clean and sanitary.

For more information regarding seasonal and H1N1 flu, there is a link on the MDH website home page as well as the Center for Disease Control website at http://cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm or the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) website at http://www.idph.state.il.us/.