Prolonging hospital visiting hours

Given that there may be additional benefit of allowing family to be present during round, should we allow them to be around patients even if the visiting hours are up?

Although majority hospitals in the world practice a limited visiting hour, there are some hospitals​ that practice open visiting policy. There are common believes that patients need rest in between visits, visitors may interfere with the patients care, security reasons and many more.

However, studies have shown that patients prefer flexibility in visiting hours. We all must have heard or exprienced on how the guards need to do round to clear visitors outside visiting hours. It is stressful for both the guards and family. And I personally has been scolded for being with my grandmother outside visiting hours (and perhaps the reason I have biased against restricted visiting hours).

Would people not continue visiting and makes the hospital overcrowded? I can argue that the reason visitors are overcrowding the beds is because of the limited time given for each visit. We can always limit the number of visitors per patient, while keeping the visiting schedule fairly flexible.

It comes to no suprise when majority of us would like to die at home, surrounded by people whom we love. Even if the patients at the hospital cannot routinely arrange to die at home, the very least we can do is to let them die with whom they love. Relaxing on the visiting time will allow this to happen.

Attached is a review article for those who want to read more. Even if we disagree with 24hr open visiting policy, it certainly makes us think whether limiting 2-4 hours for each visiting session is based on clear evidence.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4954899/