A new proposal from the Department of Health and Human Services aims to expand the rights of patients to choose who visits them at the hospital.
The proposed rule, which was released last month, applies to all hospitals and critical access hospitals that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The proposal comes after President Obama issued a memorandum calling for new rules that would allow patients to pick who may and may not visit them. It also instructed HHS to ensure that hospitals are respecting patients' advance directives and giving patients' representatives the chance to be informed about and participate in care planning.
In his memo, the president said that limiting hospital visitation to family members can deny patients support from the people they depend on the most, whether that is a same-sex partner or a good friend. Restrictive visiting policies can also have a clinical impact, he noted.
In the proposed rule, HHS writes that physicians and other hospital staff may miss an opportunity to gain information on medical history and allergies, especially if the patient has trouble recalling or communicating the information: “We agree that restricted or limited hospital and [critical access hospital] visitation can effectively eliminate these advocates for many patients, potentially to the detriment of the patient's health and safety.”
Under the proposal, patients will have the right to designate who can visit them and to revoke that permission at any time. For their part, hospitals must give all visitors the same visiting privileges afforded to family members. Hospitals also must inform patients on these rights and explain under what circumstances visitation rights may be restricted for medical reasons. The proposal bars hospitals from restricting visitation based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
HHS officials plan to publish a final regulation by late fall. In the meantime, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote to the leaders of major hospital associations, calling on hospitals not to wait to begin implementing these changes in their visitation policies. “Your actions could spare many patients the pain of being separated from a loved one during an admission to a hospital—often one of the most anxious times in their lives,” she wrote.