Connect

The Visitor Guidance Workgroup, which consists of Reid Adams, MD, Chief Medical Officer; Costi Sifri, MD, Director, Hospital Epidemiology; John Bennet, Chief Ambulatory Officer; Adam Momper, Administrator, Supply Chain; and Bush Bell, Administrator, Hospitality and Support Services, monitors COVID trends and recommends policy and guidance for visitors of patients and the use of public space for UVA Health. 

Over the past 20 months, the group’s process has evolved and become formalized. In the spirit of transparency, here is some information on how these decisions get made.

The Visitor Guidance Workgroup meets every other Friday and reviews an updated Risk Matrix (example at right), which considers three factors. They are:

1. The probability of influx in the community | This is the Blue Ridge Health District’s positivity rate for last two weeks.
2. The probability of positive cases in the hospital | The slope of the two-week moving average of the percentage of COVID-positive patients of total inpatient census.
3. Inpatient ICU COVID Census | This is the two-week moving average of COVID patients in the ICUs.

Each item is scored and points are calculated to generate a risk score, which falls into one of four buckets: low, limited, moderate, or high. This score is then applied to the Visitor and Public Access Guidance Matrix (seen at right). The group also spends time reviewing regional health-system visitor policies and takes them into consideration. 

Given the risk score and other factors, the workgroup then reviews the current guidance level and determines if any changes are needed for the coming two weeks. At this time, they also review any requests for changes or modifications to the current policy or guidance.

Another item of note on this matrix involves masking and the consumption of food and beverages during indoor internal meetings and conferences. While eating and drinking is permitted in meetings, mask use is required at all other times when not eating or drinking.

If and when changes are needed, they are communicated through a variety of channels, including: 

• the Mid-Morning Huddle
• the UVA Health Update email 
• the Connect news site
• via direct communication to impacted areas
• posted to UVAhealth.com

If you have any questions about visitor guidance risk, please contact Bush Bell at bush.bell@virginia.edu.

It is our sincere hope that our future holds more time we can be in the green area of these charts. Until then, however, we will do everything we can to keep our patients, their families and friends, and our team members safe by constantly (and consistently) reviewing safety procedures around visitor access to the hospital.