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Wheelchairs – With a few exceptions, employees, patients and visitors to WVU Medicine’s hospitals and clinics will no longer be required to wear masks starting Monday.
In a message sent through the WVU medical network, the medical system decided to significantly relax the masking requirements that have been in place since COVID-19 first entered the community.
WVU Medicine Wheeling and Reynolds Memorial Hospital CEO Douglass Harrison said the announcement was well received by employees.
“There’s definitely mask fatigue out there,” he said. “I think this is a very positive step in the right direction.”
The decision was spurred in part by President Joe Biden’s announcement last month that both the declared national and public health emergency related to COVID-19 would end on May 11, Harrison said. said it took
WVU Medical Hospital exceptions include:
– Employees entering an occupied inpatient room or patient room in a hospital emergency department to provide patient care or support must wear a mask. Employees entering vacant patient rooms to clean or service do not need to wear masks.
– Employees, visitors, or patients exhibiting respiratory symptoms, including but not limited to fever, cough, runny or stuffy nose, sore throat or shortness of breath, should be both inpatients and outpatients, and all Masks must be worn in public spaces. Hospitalized patients with symptoms are not required to wear a mask in the hospital room.
– Vaccine-exempt employees must continue to use N95 masks, but only where masking is required. For example, when entering a non-COVID patient’s room, her N95 mask should be worn instead of a surgical mask.
– Masks are highly recommended but not required in crowded waiting areas and lobbies, such as emergency room waiting areas.
– Hospitalized patients should wear a mask when leaving the room unless the mask interferes with their care.
The message states that providers and employees who wish to wear masks are free to do so.
WVU Health Systems president and CEO Albert Wright said in a message that additional masking cuts could take place at the end of March if virus activity remains low. Harrison said WVU medical hospitals could return to tighter restrictions if COVID, flu, or RSV numbers rise again.
“If the flu or COVID spikes, we still reserve our rights…if we need to put the masks back on,” Harrison said. I have to protect people and patients, but I think I’m in a pretty good position right now.
“I’m tired of masks, so I think it’s the perfect time to relax and see where we’re going,” he added.
