Children six years old and older can once again visit patients at Cape Fear Valley Health facilities if accompanied by an adult, the health system announced Tuesday. 

The health system also removed masking requirements for patients or visitors in the waiting rooms of its emergency departments and ExpressCare locations. But its press release emphasized that “visitors with symptoms of a fever or respiratory illness symptoms, including cough or shortness of breath, should remain home.”

It’s an easing of visitation policy restrictions that Cape Fear Valley Health enacted in January to fight the increase in cases of respiratory illnesses seen across the Sandhills region at the time. One restriction was raising the minimum age of visitation to 12 years old to help prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses.

The restrictions were enacted because Cape Fear Valley Health’s emergency departments were seeing a worrying number of pneumonia cases. The Medical Center’s adult and pediatric emergency departments saw 652 cases of pneumonia between Oct. 1 and Jan. 10, more than double last season’s total for the same period.

Cases of other respiratory illnesses and viruses, including RSV and the flu, were spiking across the state, contributing to Cape Fear Valley Health’s decision to limit visitation and causing other health systems like Duke Health, UNC Health and WakeMed to do the same. This year’s flu season was one of the worst in the past 15 years, with a peak of 5,842 cases in one week in North Carolina’s hospitals, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

With NCDHHS reporting that cases of respiratory illnesses are generally decreasing, Cape Fear Valley Health and other health systems are easing their restrictions.

Cape Fear Valley Health’s update didn’t include staff masking policies. As of January, staff working in the health system’s emergency departments and its intensive care, step-down and long-term acute care units must wear masks when interacting with patients. ExpressCare facility workers, frontline staff and those in contact with patients with symptoms of respiratory illnesses at Cape Fear Valley Health clinics are also required to wear masks.

Cape Fear Valley Health’s other visitation policies are as follows:

  • Two visitors are permitted per patient between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., the health system’s visitation hours.
  • If the space allows, a patient can have one overnight visitor so long as that person enters before and stays in the facility after visiting hours end.
  • In its adult emergency departments, no visitors are allowed in the waiting room unless a patient is cognitively impaired or 65 years old or older. All others are allowed one visitor once given a room. 
  • In its pediatric emergency department, one parent or guardian is allowed in the waiting room per patient. Once a child is given a room, they can have two parents/guardians visit. Children 12 and older can also visit, but can’t stay overnight, and no more than two visitors can be in a patient’s room at a time.
  • Patients in the Labor and Delivery Unit can have up to three designated support people who are 16 years old or older. Designated support people can remain with the patient throughout their stay in the unit, coming and going as they please. However, those designated cannot change during labor and delivery.

Other facility-specific policies and exceptions can be found on Cape Fear Valley Health’s website.