Cape Fear Valley Health System’s Emergency Departments at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Hoke Hospital and Bladen County Hospital are now allowing one care companion to accompany patients once they are placed in private treatment rooms. In each instance, the patient should bring a care companion who is knowledgeable regarding the patient’s personal health information. He or she must also be willing to stay with the patient during the entire Emergency Department visit.

To ensure social distancing measures are followed, only patients are allowed in the waiting room. Care companions are asked to wait in their cars until the patients are settled into treatment rooms. To protect staff and patients from the risk of COVID-19, patients and care companions will be required to wear face masks during their stay in the E.R.

Patients going to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center for surgery may also have one care companion. He or she must wear a mask and will remain in the surgery waiting room for the patient. If he or she must leave for any reason, he or she will need to give waiting room personnel a phone number to be called when the patient is ready for discharge. Patients having short-stay surgeries may also have care companions who may join the patients in Phase II Recovery. Care companions are screened for fever and asked whether they have recently traveled to known hot spots.

General visitor restrictions remain in place at all Cape Fear Valley Health System locations, including hospitals and outpatient clinics, with the following exceptions:

• Laboring mothers may have one support person/coach for the duration of their stay. If the support person leaves the premises for any reason, he or she will not be allowed back into the building.
• Legal minors may have one parent or guardian with them.
• Patients who need health care decision makers or require communication assistance may have one assistant with them.
• End-of-life patients will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine the appropriate number of visitors.

Cape Fear Valley is a 950-bed health system serving a region of more than 800,000 people in Southeastern North Carolina. The not-for-profit system is the state’s eighth-largest health care system and is made up of 7,000 team members and 850 physicians, eight hospitals and more than 60 primary care and specialty clinics. Cape Fear Valley Health offers residencies in emergency medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, general surgery, and transitional internships in affiliation with the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine at Campbell University. Visit www.CapeFearValley.com for more information.