From my limited understanding, hospitals tend to segregate adult and child patients whenever possible. What are the protocols in scenarios when child and minor relatives are hospitalized from the same incident? Like if a 33 year old man and his 8 year old daughter both suffered burns in a house fire or if a 27 year woman and her 13 year old brother were injured together in the same car accident.
Are there situations when they could brought together, or would they still be kept apart in different wings for treatment? In such cases, how would their other family members have to arrange visitations and overnight stays?
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Hospitals separate patients based on what treatment they need, not their age. It is up to the hospital staff and the doctor in charge to decide where each patient should be admitted to in order to get the best treatment. There are often childrens wings at the hospital who are able to treat sick children in a better way then other department, not only medically but socially and psychologically. But if they need special attention or equipment which are better suited for other wings then the kids are placed on these wings. If you have been in a car crash then the Intensive Car Unit will likely fit much better. And the staff will be constantly evaluating the best place to keep the kids, is it safe or healthy for them to stay in the same room as their sick parents rather then with other kids and a better environment or do they need the comfort of their parents more.
Edit: Not usually -> not only
> Like if a 33 year old man and his 8 year old daughter both suffered burns in a house fire
Burn units typically treat both adult and pediatric patients so in this case if they required that level of care, they would be in the same unit.
If they didn’t require transfer to a burn unit, they would probably be in the adult and pediatric units, respectively. If they aren’t in ICU level care, then likely one of them is well enough to be transported for visitation to the other but they would likely spend the majority of the time in their respective units.
With regard to other visitors, a) most likely there is more than one family member/friend who can visit and they would simply split up and if not, the visitor would likely stay with the child primarily or all the time since I assume a 33 year old is much better equipped to handle being in a hospital room without any family around than an 8 year old.
> if a 27 year woman and her 13 year old brother were injured together in the same car accident.
Same as above except the more generic medical/surgical ICUs are still age segregated so even if they needed ICU level care, the child is probably in a pediatric ICU that is separate from the adult ICU.
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