B.C. hospitals can put COVID-positive and negative patients in same rooms: top doctor
CTV
Patients who don’t have COVID-19 could end up in the same hospital rooms as patients who do have the virus, B.C. health officials said Friday.
Patients who don’t have COVID-19 could end up in the same B.C. hospital rooms as patients who do have the virus.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed Friday that anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 while admitted to a hospital for other reasons is permitted to be treated in rooms with those who tested negative for the virus.
That would only happen “with additional (COVID-19) precautions in place, as we would for people admitted with other respiratory illnesses,” she said.
Sarah Adams’ husband has been hospitalized at Vancouver General Hospital for three months, slowly recovering from a serious illness not related to COVID-19.
“This shocks me,” she told CTV News. “Why would you put someone who you know has COVID into a room with someone who you know doesn’t?”
Health officials acknowledged it’s not an ideal scenario, but one hospitals across the province may need to consider. With the record number of COVID-related hospitalizations, some acute care facilities might not have enough space to continue keeping test-positive patients separated from others.
“That is an infection prevention and control team decision, made at a hospital-by-hospital, room-by-room basis, depending on the needs in that facility,” said Henry.
