EMMC tightens security on pediatric floor

BANGOR – Heightened security measures were put into place beginning this week on the eighth floor of the Eastern Maine Medical Center. The floor houses the Child & Adolescent Care Center, a state-of-the-art wing opened in 1994.

From now on, a receptionist will meet visitors to the child and adolescent unit, and everyone except parents will be required to sign in. Most will be required to show “positive identification,” according to a July 2 news release. Parents will be supplied with blue bands to put on their wrists. The bands will allow them to bypass the sign-in procedure. A simple wave of the wrist so the receptionist can see the band will give the parents quicker access to their hospitalized children.

The changes were not put in place because of any particular concern or problem, according to hospital officials. In 1997, the hospital tightened security on the seventh-floor maternity unit after Nicole Yablonka kidnapped an infant boy from the nursery in late 1996.

Instead, the new level of security will provide a more comfortable and secure atmosphere in which to recuperate, according to Cheryl Morrow, R.N., department head for the Child & Adolescent Care Center.

Morrow said visitation procedures used at hospitals across the country were studied in an effort to come up with a tighter system at EMMC.

“We’ve been mulling this over for a year or so,” Morrow said. The children’s unit which opened after a great deal of publicity is “very beautiful, and a large number of people just like to come and visit. They’ve heard of us and what a beautiful view we have, so they just come up on the floor.”

While hospital staff members welcome such visits at certain times, “we need to know who’s here and who needs to find their way to new patients,” Morrow said.

Visitation hours, termed “pretty liberal” by Morrow, basically will remain the same. Parents and guardians will have 24-hour-a-day visiting privileges. Siblings and grandparents may visit from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. All others may visit hospital patients from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

In addition, hospital officials ask that children under age 16 be accompanied by an adult and remain under their supervision for the entire visit. Individuals with contagious illnesses such as chicken pox, flu, fever or a cold will not be permitted to visit patients on the floor.

A receptionist will be stationed near the elevator entrance to the eighth floor from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Any civic groups that want to visit the pediatric unit must schedule the occasion in advance with the department head nurse at 973-8707 or a child life specialist at Ext. 8737.