PERU - Visitor restrictions at Illinois Valley Community Hospital continue to be eased as the number of new coronavirus cases in the state are still trending downward.

Patients on the hospital’s medical floor and in the intensive care unit are each allowed to have one visitor beginning June 15 with certain restrictions. Among them:

• The patient must designate who their visitor will be and that person will be the only visitor allowed to see the patient throughout their hospital stay.
• The visitor will be required to enter IVCH through the northeast entrance and be screened; afterward, they must wear a mask at all times, even in the room of the patient they are visiting.
• The visitor will have to check in at the nurses’ station before going to the patient’s room and they will have to wear a visitor tag at all times.

Also beginning this week, IVCH emergency department patients may be accompanied by one other person who will be screened and required to wear a mask at all times while in the hospital. The accompanying person will not be allowed to leave the patient’s room in the emergency department unless authorized to do so by an IVCH staff member.

The new visitor rules come after IVCH announced last week that obstetrics patients who have sonogram appointments and day surgery patients are now allowed to have one person accompany them into the hospital.

Patients coming to IVCH for X-rays and lab tests are still being asked not to bring anyone with them unless medically necessary. Patients who have appointments at IVCH Medical Group offices or who are going to the CareToday walk-in clinic are also asked to come alone if possible. These restrictions do not apply to pediatric (children) patients accompanied by their parents or other responsible adults.