It comes as facilities in several other states have imposed mandates this winter season.
A hospital system in Illinois this week issued a mandate that everyone entering its facilities must wear a mask due to “widespread respiratory illnesses” in the area.
“Starting Tuesday, December 31, all employees, patients and visitors at our hospitals are required to wear masks due to the widespread respiratory illnesses in our communities, including COVID-19, influenza and RSV,” said OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, based in Peoria, Illinois, in a statement posted on Facebook.
“Additionally, we are implementing a temporary visitor restriction: only two visitors (age 18+) per patient at a time. Thank you for your cooperation in keeping our community safe.”
It comes as Rush University Medical Center, based in Chicago, said in a statement that starting on Dec. 2, it will require “patients and visitors to wear hospital-approved masks when they are in clinical offices, waiting areas and patient registration.”
“The policy coincides with the respiratory virus season, when the spread of flu, RSV, and COVID-19 rises,” it wrote.
New Jersey Hospital Appears to Mandate Masks
The largest hospital system in New Jersey, RWJ Barnabas Health, said in December that visitors and patients in its facilities “are expected” to wear a face mask. Masking is also being “strongly encouraged” for staff and visitors at the company’s outpatient and medical group facilities in the state, according to a statement released in mid-December.
“Wear an appropriate face mask. We will offer you a new mask for source control or may ask you to replace your own mask with a hospital-supplied mask,” the hospital said to patients and visitors.
For outpatient and medical group buildings, “masking is strongly encouraged for all providers, staff, patients, visitors and vendors at all times in the presence of patients,” it said.
RWJ Barnabas added that “masking is REQUIRED for all patients who present with respiratory symptoms, as well as all staff members and providers caring for them.”
