NY hospital's visitor policy improves quality of care

St. Peter's Hospital in Albany earned top marks for its patient visitation policies in "Sick, Scared, and Separated from Loved Ones," a report released Wednesday by New Yorkers for Patient and Family Empowerment and the New York Public Interest Research Group. The medical advocates point to the correlation between liberal visitation policies and the quality of care a patient receives—not to mention the patient's reduced level of stress. Overall, the report found that visiting policies for large hospitals in New York have wide disparities in access rules and "disturbing flaws in communication that run afoul of new state and federal regulations on the right of patients to have visitors."