In an effort to protect our community due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Bradley County Medical Center has announced that until further notice the only door that will be open to hospital visitors will be the Jolley Street entrance at the business desk on the west side of the hospital. That door will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday and not open on weekends.

The front door of the hospital on Bradley Street remains closed to foot traffic and the hospital door on Jolley Street next to the ER Waiting Room is also closed to foot traffic.

The BCMC Emergency Room entrance is open to patients needing emergency room services.

The No Patient Left Alone Act was recently signed into law in Arkansas. This act states that a patient be allowed one support person who is permitted to be physically present on a daily basis at reasonable times throughout his or her hospitalization. Therefore, each patient may have one support person with them during normal visiting hours. In accordance with this new law, BCMC will allow one support person per patient during normal visiting hours.

Bradley County Medical Center reserves the right to limit or place visitor restrictions in certain situations including, but not limited to, when the presence of visitors would be medically or therapeutically harmful; interfere with the care or rights of any patient; visitors are engaging in violent, disruptive, or threatening behavior; or visitors are noncompliant with BCMC policy.

Visitors still have to follow normal screening procedures upon entering BCMC and must continue to follow the mask mandate, including respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette. No one will be allowed in the building if they have a temperature of 100.4 or higher or if they refuse to follow the mask mandate.

All hospital visitors will be screened using the current Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines before they are permitted entry. Visitors that do not clear screening will not be allowed into the hospital.

Additionally, there will be some temporary changes at the BCMC Rural Health Clinic. We are seeing well-patients and OB patients all day. However, sick patients are seen only in the afternoons beginning at 2 p.m. Sick patients will need to call the front desk of the BCMC Rural Health Clinic at 870-226-8636 to get checked in and wait in their car until a nurse calls them. They do not wait in the lobby. Everyone, staff included, is still screened daily before they enter the building.

To learn more about the COVID-19 coronavirus in Arkansas please visit the Arkansas Department of Health website at www.healthy.arkansas.gov or call 1-800-803-7847. More information on COVID-19 can be found at https://uamshealth.com/coronavirus/. BCMC strongly encourages anyone who thinks they have symptoms of COVID-19 to please call their primary care physician first for instructions.