With COVID Surge, Archbold Further Scales Back Visitor Policy and Urges Vaccination

Due to a surge in COVID-19 cases and low vaccination rates across Thomas County, Archbold has made the decision to further scale back visitor policies. While understanding how difficult it is for patients not to see their loved ones, Archbold must take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of our staff, patients, and visitors as COVID-19 hospitalizations across our facilities continue to rise.

Effective Friday, July 30, no visitors will be allowed for COVID-19 positive patients. For all other inpatients, one (1) visitor per day is permitted. Mother/Baby will be allowed one (1) visitor per day. Labor and Delivery will be allowed two (2) designated support persons.

Archbold is also asking for the community to please do what they can to help by getting vaccinated. “The number of unvaccinated patients in our hospitals and emergency departments are reaching critical levels,” said Amy Griffin, Vice President of Patient Care Services at Archbold Memorial Hospital. “We need people to get vaccinated so we don’t reach maximum capacity because that’s where we are headed.”

Griffin also stressed the importance for patients to seek care for non-life-threatening emergencies from their primary care physician’s office or an urgent care facility.

“We are having to take care of patients with critical emergencies first, which is causing longer than normal wait times for those that could have possibly been treated at a physician’s office or walk-in clinic.”

For more information regarding the most recent visitor policy and the COVID-19 vaccine, please visit Archbold.org.