Mount Nittany Health expands visitor policy, including for outpatients. Here’s what to know
Mount Nittany Health broadened Friday its visitation policy, including allowing visitors at outpatient facilities for the first time since at least December.
Two visitors per inpatient at Mount Nittany Medical Center are allowed from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Visitation had been limited from 2-6 p.m. daily.
Two visitors are also permitted at the hospital’s emergency department, outpatient surgical services, diagnostic services, cancer services and Mount Nittany Physician Group.
Masks are required at all of the health system’s facilities, marketing and communications manager Linda Bandura wrote in an email.
“By reopening our visitation hours, we look forward to improving the experience of our patients by enabling them to have the support of their loved ones while they are cared for in our facilities,” the health system wrote in a Facebook post Thursday. “... We recognize that the limited visitation policy has been a challenge for patients, loved ones, and everyone at Mount Nittany Health, and it is through your efforts that we are able to make this welcome change.”
Mount Nittany has modified its visitation policy throughout the coronavirus pandemic, pulling back when cases and hospitalizations rise and relaxing restrictions when they subside.
The health system reported Tuesday seven COVID-19 inpatients between the ages of 59 to 86. About 60% of Centre County’s population is fully vaccinated, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed.
Centre County remained at the “low” level Thursday in the CDC’s weekly update of its COVID-19 Community Level scale, which takes into account both case counts and stress on the health care system. About 70% of the state’s 67 counties are in the low level.
Neighboring Huntingdon and Mifflin counties are in the highest level, while neighboring Union County is in the medium level.
COVID-19 community levels are measured by weekly new cases per 100,000 people, new COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 people and the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.