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Information for patients and visitors to The Ottawa Hospital
If you have been instructed to quarantine by public health officials or in accordance with federal travel guidelines, please do not visit The Ottawa Hospital.
If you have a fever or cough, please isolate at home or book an appointment at a COVID-19 Assessment Centre to be tested. Do not go to the Emergency Department unless you have a medical emergency.
If you are having a medical emergency, go to the nearest emergency department or call 911.
All Essential Care Partners and visitors must wear a mask and practice physical distancing (stay at least six feet apart from others) at all times.
Visitor access to the hospital
Visitor restrictions are currently in effect at The Ottawa Hospital
The Ottawa Hospital is currently in an “intermediate visitor restriction” status as part of the hospital’s ongoing response to COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.
Intermediate visitor restrictions:
- One scheduled, fully vaccinated visitor, per patient, per day, for a maximum of one hour per day.
- Two individuals can be identified as a visitor per patient, but only one can visit per day.
- Regardless of level of restriction, any patient can identify an Essential Care Partner, who will have access to that patient even if their visitor is present.
- Masks must be worn at all times during the visit. All visitors will be offered a hospital-supplied procedure mask upon arrival at the screening desk.
“Fully vaccinated” is defined as having two doses of a Health Canada-approved COVID-19 vaccine with the last dose at least 14 days ago.
Essential Care Partners and visitors entering The Ottawa Hospital will need to provide proof that they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 along with a piece of identification. This is to ensure the safety of everyone in the hospital.
Proof of being fully vaccinated can be provided using a paper or electronic receipt. If you were vaccinated in Ontario, you can download your enhanced vaccine certificate (with a QR code).
All Essential Care Partners and visitors must wear a mask and practice physical distancing (stay at least six feet apart from others) at all times.
All Essential Care Partners and visitors:
- will be screened at the entrance (see next section for details)
- will be asked to clean their hands with alcohol-based hand rub
- must wear a medical-grade mask at all times, including when in the patient’s room; a mask will be provided at the screening desk
- must practice physical distancing (stay at least six feet apart from others) at all times
- must follow instructions from staff on the unit
Restrictions for positive or presumed COVID-19 cases
Like all hospitals, The Ottawa Hospital is a “highest risk setting.” For the health and safety of our patients, staff and visitors, any individual who has tested positive for COVID-19 or displays COVID-19 symptoms must wait 10 days before coming to the hospital.
You may only need to self-isolate for 5 days, as required by Ottawa Public Health, but you still should not visit the hospital for 10 days.
- If you have tested positive for COVID-19, you must wait 10 days from the date of your test before coming into the hospital.
- If you have symptoms of COVID-19 but are unable to get a test, you must wait 10 days from the onset of your symptoms before coming into the hospital.
Please review the Ottawa Public Health self-isolation requirements before coming to the hospital.
This regulation applies to all individuals — regardless of age or vaccination status — including non-emergent patients, Essential Care Partners and staff.
If you have or suspect you have COVID-19 and need to be treated for your symptoms, please visit the Emergency Department at either the Civic or General Campus.
If you have a medical appointment booked at the hospital within 10 days of your positive COVID-19 test or onset of symptoms, please call the office to reschedule your appointment to a time that is safer for everyone.
If you are an employee, please contact your leader to determine what is required and when you are able to return to work.
The screeners will ask you about:
- symptoms of COVID-19
- whether you have been instructed to self-isolate or quarantine
- immunization status (please have ready your paper or digital receipts showing proof of full immunization from COVID-19, along with a piece of identification
- your contact information so that we can do contact tracing in the future if needed
Screeners may also ask about:
- recent exposure to someone with COVID-19
- recent travel
This screening is designed to help us ensure that visitors and Essential Care Partners coming into the hospital are not ill and/or not at risk of COVID-19 exposure from travel or close contacts. Please also note that there may be a lineup for screening because of increased numbers of visitors.
We strongly encourage all eligible people to get the COVID-19 vaccine, as it protects from serious illness, hospitalization and death. Being immunized protects those around us, reduces the impact of COVID-19 on our health-care system, and ensures that health-care workers can continue to provide care for all who need it.
Yes. To coordinate a scheduled visit, please speak with your care team. We appreciate your patience as our staff do their best to accommodate visit requests.
There are limited exceptions to the requirement for vaccination for urgent or essential reasons. Please speak with the care team to determine if you meet the criteria for an exception.
During low visitor restrictions, visiting hours are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. For patients in Mental Health, visitors are asked to come between 2 and 8 p.m. In some cases, visitors may be permitted to stay beyond visiting hours in consultation with the care team.
Due to space limitations, only a fully vaccinated Essential Care Partner may accompany a patient to their outpatient appointment. It may not always be possible to wait with the patient due to space limitations in waiting rooms.
Yes. patients who are coming to the hospital for appointments, Essential Care Partners and visitors will be given a disposable medical mask when they enter the hospital. Masks must be worn at all times while in the hospital.
Masks help prevent the spread of respiratory illness, including COVID-19, when important measures such as physical distancing are not possible.
Important information about properly and safely wearing a mask.
Essential Care Partners and social visitors are not the same. An Essential Care Partner is a support person whose presence is considered essential to the safety and wellbeing of a patient while they are in the hospital.
Learn more about The Ottawa Hospital’s Essential Care Partner Program
There are limited exceptions to the vaccination requirement. They include:
- those visiting patients at the end-of-life
- an Essential Care Partner in the Emergency Department in consultation with the care team
- an Essential Care Partner for labor and delivery
- parents or guardians of patients under the age of 18
- Essential Care Partners who are needed to safely accompany patients to appointments or participate in delivering care
- other critical or urgent circumstances requiring family presence
- those who have a documented medical exemption to vaccination
When intermediate visitor restrictions are in place, there are also limited exceptions to the visitor policy, including end-of-life visitation.
If you are dealing with an exceptional circumstance, please speak with the care team to determine if you meet the criteria.
While a unit is experiencing an outbreak, there may be increased visitor restrictions on that unit to ensure the safety of patients, staff and Essential Care Partners. This means that in some cases, visitors may not be allowed on that particular unit. Before visiting a unit experiencing an outbreak at The Ottawa Hospital, visitors are advised to consult with unit staff. Entrance screening staff will verify all visitors with unit staff.
For more information about having a baby at The Ottawa Hospital during COVID-19 precautions, please visit our COVID-19 obstetrics patient information and visitor restriction page.
All children who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 are asked not to visit patients in the hospital whenever possible. This will help reduce risk because we know that it can be difficult for children to wear a mask properly and maintain physical distancing. We know that sometimes children need to visit patients. In those cases we will work with you to see if a visit can be done safely. If you would like to bring a child to visit someone in the hospital, please talk to your loved one’s care team in advance.
We will continue to monitor the situation in the hospital and the community, and we will adapt our visitor policy to help ensure safety for everyone. Thank you for your cooperation.
Last updated on: April 29th, 2022