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The flu is running so rampant a local hospital system is stepping up enforcement of visitor restrictions.
MyMichigan Health said the number of flu cases they’re seeing are about 25-50% more than what they normally see this time of year.
“We’ve seen a spike in our respiratory illnesses, in particular Influenza A,” said Paul Berg, senior vice president and chief medical officer for MyMichigan Health.
He said it’s been a bad flu season.
“MyMichigan Health, in Midland at least, has a bed capacity of about 275, 280 beds. And nearly 10% of those are being taken up by flu patients,” he said.
That’s the reason why Berg said MyMichigan Health is enforcing visitor policies to keep patients and communities safe.
Patients at their hospitals are allowed two healthy visitors or support persons at a time. Emergency department patients are allowed one healthy support person, and patients in outpatient settings such as doctors’ offices, surgery centers, lab, imaging, or testing facilities are allowed one healthy support person.
People exhibiting potentially contagious symptoms should not visit unless they are seeking medical care. If that’s the case, people are strongly encouraged to wear a mask or consider a virtual visit as an alternative.
Berg spoke about how these policies will be enforced.
“Lots of signage. We have what we call guest etiquette stations when you come in. So, there’s signs there present. We have greeters at many of our doors that will be talking with patients. If we see excessive crowds up on the floors, our staff are trained to have those tactful conversations,” Berg said. “And of course, we know that there’s always exceptions. There’s sometimes people are in our hospitals, end of life, or late life, and we have exemptions to those things. We understand the need to have family around patients.”
Berg said it’s still not too late to get the flu vaccine. It could save your life.
“I’ve heard of at least four cases that we had patients with serious cardiac events, heart attacks for example, that were caused by the flu. Serious things hit our local communities. We talk about 40,000 deaths nationally in the U.S., but that means things can even happen here locally,” Berg said.
He said you can get your flu vaccine through the month of April.