By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Visitation to Mosaic hospitals throughout northwest Missouri is being restricted as Mosaic responds to the coronavirus pandemic.
No one under 18 will be allowed to visit patients, unless an immediate family member or deemed essential to the patient’s well-being. Patients are being allowed one support person, such as a parent or spouse, plus one additional visitor. No one with a fever, cough, sore throat, or shortness of breath is being allowed in the hospitals.
Only a few exceptions are being allowed, such as for patients at the end of their life.
Mosaic CEO, Dr. Mark Laney, says other adjustments are being made.
“We are having some individuals who were scheduled for elective surgery speak with their physician and say, you know, I’m going to delay that and that’s absolutely fine,” Laney tells reporters.
Laney says Mosaic is attempting to operate as normal as possible.
“And the world does not stop, because of coronavirus,” Laney says. “All of those individuals have other very serious things or they wouldn’t be in the hospital. So, we can’t just shut the door and turn the lights off and say come back in two months.”
Laney says the Mosaic hospital in St. Joseph operates with between 250-and-275 people in the hospital at any given moment.
The restrictions apply to all Mosaic facilities, including Mosaic Life Care at St. Joseph, Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville, Mosaic Medical Center – Albany, and the Long-Term Acute Care Hospital at Mosaic Life Care at St. Joseph as well as all associated clinics.