Visiting Hours and Guidelines

Visitors can be good medicine for patients in the hospital. But there are times when patient visitation is restricted due to patient safety and quality of care. 

General hospital visiting times are 8 am - 8:30 pm, but may vary on specialized units. If a patient needs to see visitors at other times, arrangements can be made with the charge nurse. If a patient has a restriction related to visitation hours, the nursing team will let the patient or their support person know.

Scripps is implementing a visitor registration system as an enhanced safety measure at all hospital locations. The system will roll out during 2025 beginning at Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista in February and then expand to other Scripps hospitals throughout the year. All visitors will be required to check in at the front desk upon entry to the hospital to register and receive a guest badge that is to be worn for the duration of their visit. 

Masks are no longer required when visiting a Scripps facility, although they are still highly recommended. We highly recommend visitors consider wearing a mask depending on their circumstances and individual risk. Masks are still required for patients having respiratory illness symptoms.

Should a spike in infections and community spread occur — either seasonal or due to a new COVID variant — we may need to temporarily return to required masking for the protection of our staff, patients and visitors. Your understanding is appreciated as we continue to make everyone’s health our main priority.

• Masks will still be required for patients having respiratory illness symptoms.
• Visitors who are experiencing any flu-like symptoms, such as fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, or loss of taste or smell, should not visit.
• To allow patients plenty of rest, visitors are restricted to two people at a time in a hospital room, unless otherwise approved by specialized units. Visitors may need to be staggered in double patient rooms, based on certain circumstances. Only one visitor / support person will be allowed at any given time for patients undergoing inpatient or outpatient surgical procedures.
• Children age 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult and must be directly supervised at all times. The patient cannot be considered the supervisor of a child.
• Children may visit inpatient units, but must be authorized in critical care units on a case by case basis by the unit manager or their designee.
• Visitor limitations in maternal child health and the blood and marrow transplant unit are based on unit and patient criteria.
• Only one sibling age 12 and under, accompanied by no more than one adult, may visit a Maternal and Child Health unit at any given time. And, the amount of time a sibling can visit will be limited to allow for patient care, as well as rest for the patient and infant. Visitation may also be subject to certain restrictions based on possible space limitations.  

• Visitors are permitted to visit with COVID positive patients now, but must follow strict infection control guidelines including the use of a mask with eye protection. Additional personal protective equipment (PPE) may be required if the patient is undergoing certain procedures which may cause a greater risk of disease transmission.
• For COVID-19 positive patients in Labor & Delivery or the NICU, the support people must stay in the room for the duration of the stay. No in and out privileges.

Please note visitation restrictions may evolve over time depending on our response to public health recommendations. Again, we are doing this to protect the health and safety of our patients, staff, clinicians and community. Thank you for your understanding.

As a health care organization, we are dedicated to providing a healthy and safe environment for all who visit our facilities. We understand that service dogs may be required to accompany our patients and visitors. To ensure we are able to maintain health and safety standards for everyone, we ask that you abide by the following guidelines.

We allow only service dogs in our facilities. A service dog is a dog specifically trained to assist a person with a disability.

To confirm your dog is a service dog, you must be able to answer the following two questions:

• Is the dog required because of a disability?
• What is the specific work or task the dog has been trained to perform?

View our complete Guidelines for Service Dogs.