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Mission Health Lifting Visitor Restrictions, Back to Limitations

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (March 8, 2019) – The latest report from the North Carolina health department shows a decrease in influenza-like illness in our region. As a result, Infection Prevention, in consultation with Mission’s Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Public Health Epidemiologist, is lifting visitor restrictions and moving back to limitations for all of Mission Health, effective today, March 8.

As a reminder, the Mission Health Visitor Limitation Policy asks patients’ family and friends to limit their hospital visits. Please continue to encourage visitors younger than 12 and those who do not feel well to call patients rather than visit them in the hospital. They can call the main number 828-213-1111 to be directed to a patient. Our community can learn more about flu season at missionhealth.org/flu.

Team members and visitors can help prevent the spread of influenza by practicing frequent hand hygiene, wearing a face mask, staying home if they are sick and by getting an annual influenza vaccine. Please urge all visitors to wash their hands before and after visiting, and inform them of the hand sanitizing stations available at hospital entrances and throughout the buildings. Additionally, people who have not yet received the influenza vaccine are urged to do so immediately and asked to ensure that their children have also been vaccinated.

We are also urging community members who become ill with symptoms of the flu to contact their primary care provider, seek care at a walk-in clinic such as Mission My Care Now, conduct an online visit with a doctor or visit a nearby urgent care facility. It’s important to avoid the emergency department unless there are signs and symptoms of severe illness, as it can expose the patient to other illnesses and expose others to illness as well.

Thank you for your efforts to help keep our patients, team members and visitors safe.

ABOUT MISSION HEALTH

Mission Health, an operating division of HCA Healthcare, is based in Asheville, North Carolina, and is the state’s sixth largest health system. In 2018, for the sixth time in the past seven years, Mission Health has been named one of the nation’s Top 15 Health Systems by IBM Watson Health (formerly Truven Health Analytics). Mission Health is the only health system in North Carolina to achieve this recognition. Mission Health operates six hospitals, numerous outpatient and surgery centers, post-acute care provider CarePartners, long-term acute care provider Asheville Specialty Hospital and the region’s only dedicated Level II trauma center. With approximately 12,000 colleagues and 2,000 volunteers, Mission Health is dedicated to improving the health and wellness of the people of western North Carolina. For more information, please visit missionhealth.org or @MissionHealthNC.
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