As hospitals increasingly focus on improving the patient experience, many have considered allowing hospitalized children to receive sibling visitors in pediatric playrooms. Doing so requires special measures to reduce the risk of infection transmission, according to a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.
"Most guidelines recommend that siblings not be permitted to visit playrooms," wrote the study authors. "This approach was not seen as consistent with family-centered care in our setting."
To make care more family-centered, the researchers conducted a literature review and reviewed current benchmarking strategies on playroom infection control standards.
They also worked with members of patients' families, child life specialists, care teams and infection prevention and control services to develop a screening form for sibling visitors. The researchers' pilot project tracked the use of these forms for siblings and other visitors.
In the first two years of the project, the screening form identified that approximately 10 percent of the visiting siblings had a potentially communicable illness. In the cases where the form revealed an infection risk, the family was informed that the visiting sibling would not be able to visit the playroom until his or her condition improved,
"The lack of clear published strategies to screen siblings-visitors to patient play areas and the lack of knowledge sharing about experience in this area of infection prevention and control is a gap and should, we propose, be remedied," concluded the study authors. "Screening of siblings can reduce infection and allow hospitalized children to benefit from ongoing interaction with their families."
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