Sonoma County hospitals restricting visitor, staff access to reduce coronavirus spread

Sonoma County’s hospitals are further restricting entry to the medical centers to protect patients and staff from the new coronavirus, including taking temperatures of visitors, staff and vendors before they are allowed to enter.

Hospital officials said the measures are prompted by the growing prevalence in the community of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, as well as an attempt to help keep medical staff from contracting the infectious disease that’s caused a global pandemic.

At Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, new procedures beginning this week include “mandatory temperature screenings for clinicians, employees, vendors and contractors upon entering all Sutter Health acute and ambulatory care delivery venues,” hospital CEO Dan Peterson said in an email to employees.

That includes Sutter’s Santa Rosa hospital and Sutter Health’s non-clinical sites, Peterson said. Staff with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher will not be allowed to enter to report to work, he said. The temperature checks could begin as early as Wednesday.

Also, Peterson’s email to staff begins with explaining that “individuals” with COVID-19 were present at the hospital, though it does not specify if they were staff, visitors or hospital vendors.

“We are aware of individuals who have been on Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital premises that have tested positive for COVID-19,” Peterson wrote in the email which was obtained by The Press Democrat.

Sutter officials on Tuesday declined to elaborate on or clarify the individuals Peterson was referring to, citing policies that protect patient and employee privacy.

“Even in times of emergency, HIPAA still applies and it is our duty to protect patient, staff and clinician privacy,” Sutter spokeswoman Ashley Boarman said, referring to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

At Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, medical staff already are taking the temperatures - using an external thermometer ­- of anyone who walks into the Montgomery Drive hospital.

On Tuesday, a young female hospital worker asked, “Do you have any respiratory symptoms? Traveled outside the country?” as she swiped a thermometer across a visitor’s forehead.

Those with high temperatures are not allowed to go any further, said Christian Hill, a spokesman for St. Joseph Health, which runs both Memorial and Petaluma Valley hospitals.

Hill said the measure was implemented last week at both hospitals as a key part of efforts to help keep employees and providers healthy.

Two weeks ago, Hill said, St. Joseph Health began restricting visitors to the hospitals encouraging patients and their families to communicate via phone and video chat instead. No visitors are allowed in either hospital unless they meet the following criteria:

Exceptions are being made for visitors of children admitted to the hospital; neonatal intensive-care unit; maternity units; and patients receiving end-of-life, palliative care. Only one visitor, 18 or older, per patient is allowed at a time. Visitors must be immediate family, powers of attorney, guardians or patient representatives.

At the Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center on Bicentennial Way, greeters are stationed on the driveway near the main entrance. They ask basic screening questions to people still in their cars and offer hand sanitizer and masks, if needed, to anyone who is going into Kaiser’s hospital and medical buildings.

The greeters direct visitors to the appropriate entries, which have been reduced to try to minimize the risk of viral infection.

Medical staff are not currently taking temperatures of visitors or staff, though Kaiser officials are considering it.

David Ebright, a Kaiser hospital spokesman, said “we are actively evaluating the option to take employees’ temperatures at points of entry.”

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.