‘Family coordinator’ available to patients
Anne Arundel Medical Center creates communication position for visitor ban
Rod Hewitt fell asleep on his couch one night in April. He didn’t wake up until nine days later — alone in Anne Arundel Medical Center’s ICU.
Coronavirus cases surging in March, before hitting a peak in April, caused Anne Arundel County’s two main hospitals, AAMC and Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, to stop allowing visitors as a safety precaution.
For patients and their loved ones, the separation and lack of communication exacerbated health anxieties.
Nurses and doctors across the country reported lending their personal phones to patients, some of whom were dying from COVID-19 in intensive care units, so they could talk to family or say final goodbyes.Hewitt, 55, was intubated in the ICU for over a week in mid-April battling pneumonia and low oxygenation rates. During that time his girlfriend, Lee Ann Llano, was living a nightmare.
Days prior to finding Hewitt unconscious and calling an ambulance, Llano said they talked about how terrible it would be to be hospitalized without visitors or to be the family barred from the bedside.
“I can’t even imagine it and then, BAM, one morning, we were those people,” Llano said.
Recognizing the physical and emotional toll the separation can cause, AAMC created a new “family coordinator” position to connect patients with their families by phone and Zoom video calls.
CORONAVIRUS IN MARYLAND “I don’t think any of us get on these calls and don’t have tears in our eyes when we’re done because it’s hard to listen to and it’s hard to realize (family) is not going to be able to be there.”
— Juli Pastrana, Anne Arundel Medical Center RN
Coronavirus cases surging in March, before hitting a peak in April, caused Anne Arundel County’s two main hospitals, AAMC and Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, to stop allowing visitors as a safety precaution.
For patients and their loved ones, the separation and lack of communication exacerbated health anxieties.
Nurses and doctors across the country reported lending their personal phones to patients, some of whom were dying from COVID-19 in intensive care units, so they could talk to family or say final goodbyes.Hewitt, 55, was intubated in the ICU for over a week in mid-April battling pneumonia and low oxygenation rates. During that time his girlfriend, Lee Ann Llano, was living a nightmare.
Days prior to finding Hewitt unconscious and calling an ambulance, Llano said they talked about how terrible it would be to be hospitalized without visitors or to be the family barred from the bedside.
“I can’t even imagine it and then, BAM, one morning, we were those people,” Llano said.
Recognizing the physical and emotional toll the separation can cause, AAMC created a new “family coordinator” position to connect patients with their families by phone and Zoom video calls.
CORONAVIRUS IN MARYLAND “I don’t think any of us get on these calls and don’t have tears in our eyes when we’re done because it’s hard to listen to and it’s hard to realize (family) is not going to be able to be there.”
— Juli Pastrana, Anne Arundel Medical Center RN
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