The Adirondack Health-run hospital is allowing one visitor per patient to visit between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m., and between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.

“The one visitor must be the same person for the duration of the patient’s stay,” Adirondack Health spokesman Matt Scollin wrote in a press release.

AMC staff and patients are excited about the reopening, he said.

“Visitation is essential,” Scollin said. “It assists the healing process with that emotional support.”

No one likes the visitation restrictions, Scollin said, but they prioritize safety first.

Scollin said the hospital has been going back-and-forth with different levels of visitation since the pandemic began.

AMC reduced visitations on Dec. 2, 2021, during a post-Thankgiving COVID surge, he said.

Visitations had been reopened, with restrictions, since March 9, 2021.

Scollin said Adirondack Health is always looking to restart and expand visitations, and makes changes based on a variety of factors — a “recipe,” as he calls it.

He said they look at regional positivity rates, the number of people at AMC who have COVID-19 and the severity of COVID-related hospitalizations. These numbers are low enough now to make this change, he said.

Exceptions will be made for maternity care partners, imminent end-of-life situations, patients under 18 years of age, and patients with intellectual or developmental disabilities requiring care by staff or a loved one.

Care partners are permitted to accompany patients to joint replacement and/or bariatric educational classes in the Redfield Boardroom, and to outpatient visits on a case-by-case basis.

Patients who get out of surgery and settled in their room are allowed a 15-minute “check-in visit,” if outside the regular visiting hours listed above.

For a patient treated in the emergency department, one designated support person is permitted.

Visitors will be screened with questions and take temperature checks in the lobby. Visitors must wear appropriate personal protective equipment, and PPE will be supplied by the hospital.