ArticleCritical care (London, England)2021
Restricted visitation policies in acute care settings during the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review.
Article in Critical care (London, England), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Patient satisfaction with infection prevention and control interventions in acute hospitals: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of restricted family presence during the COVID-19 pandemic on critically ill patients, families, and critical care clinicians: a qualitative systematic review.BMC health services research · 2024Pooled it
- Association Between State Essential Caregiver Programs and Antipsychotic Medication Use Rate in Nursing Homes During the COVID-19 Pandemic.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Clinical Nurses' Attitudes and Self-Reported Practices of Family Nursing in Japan Following COVID-19 Visitation Restrictions: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Article
- Health-related quality of life trajectories one year after COVID-19-induced ARDS: A secondary analysis of the CONFIDENT trial.Annals of intensive care · 2026Article
- Video call program for intensive care patients and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic: A retrospective study.Saudi medical journal · 2025Article
- Experiences of Moral Distress in Canadian Intensive Care Unit Professionals During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Exploratory Multiple Case Study in Ontario and Alberta, Canada.Journal of intensive care medicine · 2025Article
- Addressing the ethical and legal complexities of hospital visitation restrictions for patients who are incarcerated.Journal of hospital medicine · 2025Article
- The effects of restricted visitation on delirium incidence in the intensive care units of a tertiary hospital in South Korea.Acute and critical care · 2025Article
- The impacts of visitor restrictions for palliative patients during the COVID-19 pandemic on family members and healthcare providers: a Canadian qualitative study.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Family support in acute care settings: perspectives of family members on cognitive and emotional support.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- The Legal and Ethical Dimensions of Hospital Visitation Bans in the COVID-19 Era.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Healthcare Provider Experiences With Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients: A Qualitative Study.Critical care explorations · 2024Article
- Through the eyes of Spanish-speaking patients, caregivers, and community leaders: a qualitative study on the in-patient hospital experience.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19-related restricted family presence policies on Canadian pediatric intensive care unit clinicians: a qualitative study.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2024Article
- Usage and limitations of medical consultation with patients' families using online video calls: a prospective cohort study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2024Article
- "You want them to be partners in therapy, but that's tricky when they're not there": A qualitative study exploring caregiver involvement across the continuum of care during the early COVID pandemic.Clinical rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Voices of Musicians: Virtual Live Bedside Music Concerts in Inpatient Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- A survey of pediatric intensive care unit clinician experience with restricted family presence during COVID-19.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
30 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRestricted visitation policies in acute care settings because of the COVID-19 pandemic have negative consequences. The objective of this scoping review is to identify impacts of restricted visitation policies in acute care settings, and describe perspectives and mitigation approaches among patients, families, and healthcare professionals.
methodsWe searched Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Healthstar, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials on January 01/2021, unrestricted, for published primary research records reporting any study design. We included secondary (e.g., reviews) and non-research records (e.g., commentaries), and performed manual searches in web-based resources. We excluded records that did not report primary data. Two reviewers independently abstracted data in duplicate.
resultsOf 7810 citations, we included 155 records. Sixty-six records (43%) were primary research; 29 (44%) case reports or case series, and 26 (39%) cohort studies; 21 (14%) were literature reviews and 8 (5%) were expert recommendations; 54 (35%) were commentary, editorial, or opinion pieces. Restricted visitation policies impacted coping and daily function (n = 31, 20%) and mental health outcomes (n = 29, 19%) of patients, families, and healthcare professionals. Participants described a need for coping and support (n = 107, 69%), connection and communication (n = 107, 69%), and awareness of state of well-being (n = 101, 65%). Eighty-seven approaches to mitigate impact of restricted visitation were identified, targeting families (n = 61, 70%), patients (n = 51, 59%), and healthcare professionals (n = 40, 46%).
conclusionsPatients, families, and healthcare professionals were impacted by restricted visitation polices in acute care settings during COVID-19. The consequences of this approach on patients and families are understudied and warrant evaluation of approaches to mitigate their impact. Future pandemic policy development should include the perspectives of patients, families, and healthcare professionals.
trial registrationThe review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42020221662) and a protocol peer-reviewed prior to data extraction.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.