With Joint Commission standards requiring patient and visitor education on healthcare-associated infections (HAI), coupled with the emergence of H1N1, hospital visitation policies have become a hot topic for infection prevention.

Although the CDC and OSHA offer guidelines for employees caring for patients under isolation precautions, neither agency gives concrete recommendations for visitors who will be in the same room as the patients. Depending on the nature of the interaction with the patient, employees will wear gloves, isolation gowns, surgical masks, or N95 respirators. However, because visitors are not typically providing care, isolation gowns and gloves are largely unnecessary, says Terry Burger, BSN, RN, CIC, CNA, BC, director of infection prevention and control at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA.