Safe Care at Hasbro Children's Hospital

While the coronavirus has changed much of our daily lives, one thing that has remained constant is our commitment to providing children and their families with the best, safest care possible.

Hasbro Children’s Hospital is a safe place to receive care, whether through a regular visit with your pediatric primary care doctor, a specialist or even in the event of an emergency.

Now is not the time to ignore check-ups or skip immunizations. Surgical services and elective procedures are now being scheduled as appropriate.

Safety is our top priority for patients, families and staff.

General steps we have taken to keep children and their families safe include:

Pre-screening all patients and their parents and caregivers before they arrive for their visit
Screening patients and adults accompanying them when they arrive.
Enhanced cleaning of exam rooms and procedural areas between every patient appointment.
Cleaning and sanitization of high-touch and common surfaces a minimum of every four hours.
Reconfiguring waiting areas to ensure appropriate social distancing.
Asking patients and families to wait in their cars upon arrival whenever possible before their appointment time.
Staggering appointment schedules to reduce number of patients waiting.
Requiring all patients, families and staff to wear masks at all times.
Limiting patient visits to a single adult caregiver.
Continuing to offer telehealth visits where appropriate.

In our operating rooms, surgeries are now being scheduled, and extensive sterilization precautions have been added to the operating room regime in order to keep patients as safe as possible at the time of surgery and anesthesia. In addition:

Patients who are COVID-negative will be treated in the newly constructed perioperative suite. The preoperative area, postoperative recovery room, operating rooms, and surgical waiting rooms are dedicated spaces for COVID-negative patients and their families.
Inpatients, as well as any patient who is COVID-positive will be treated in a separate area of the hospital and operative suite.
“Pauses” have been added after all aerosol-generating procedure (including the start and end of anesthesia) to purify the air in the operating rooms through special N95-grade filters.
Deep cleaning between each surgical case has always been Hasbro Children’s standard practice, however, each operating suite is now getting extra attention with regard to potential exposure.

In our emergency department, precautions we are taking include:

Screening everyone at each entry point and requiring masks for parents and children.
Placing patients in specific rooms immediately based on whether they are infectious or non-infectious.
Isolating respiratory-compromised patients from other patients.
Placing tape at six-foot intervals at triage areas so those waiting for the greeter can keep a safe distance while in line.
Placing the chairs in the waiting area far apart to allow for physical distancing.
Enforcing our current visitor policy of allowing only one parent or visitor at a time
Directly triaging patients to a bed
Frequently cleaning high-touch surfaces.
Requiring all staff to wear surgical masks at all times.

Now more than ever, it is important for families to get the care needed for their kids when they need it.

We are confident that these measures will continue to keep our patients, families and staff healthy.

Learn more about patient- and family-centered care at Hasbro Children's Hospital