Responses to Hospital Restrictions on Family Visits during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Mali and France

Figures & data

Table 1. Number of interviews conducted per country according to pandemic waves.

Country	Wave	Period		Number of interviews									Total
		2020	2021	Managers	Doctors	Nurses	Social workers	Laboratory workers	Hygiene workers	Nurses’ aides	Other staff	Visitors*
Mali	1	April—May	-	1	6	7	2	5	2	-	3	4	30
	2	December	January	6	4	6	-	1	4	-	1	4	26
France	1	March—June	-	13	9	12	-	-	-	8	1	-	43
	2	October—December	-	5	1	4	-	-	-	2			12
Total				25	20	29	2	6	6	10	5	8	111

*Includes family members and other accompanying persons.

Table 2. Distribution of observation days by country and pandemic wave.

Country	1st wave	2nd wave	Total
Mali	32	74	106
France	27	17	44
Total	59	91	150

Table 3. Staff practices and families’ strategies regarding restrictions on family visits.

Country	Institutional measures to enforce family visit restrictions	Staff attitudes and practices	Families’ strategies to circumvent restrictions	Attempts at institutional support
Mali	Strict no-entry rules Hiring of a security guard	Tolerance of families in the triage unit Adoption of the one-visitor-at-a-time rule Delivering food brought in from home Involving the family in various tasks, including basic hygiene care	Intrusion of families into areas reserved for healthcare staff Use of mobile phones to communicate with patients	Providing rest/refreshment areas Attempts by the hospital’s social services to provide psychological support to patients Basic hygiene care by nurses Hiring of a catering service Allowing food to be brought from home
France	Prohibition of visits was strict at the beginning, then relaxed over time	Refusal to apply strict rules Case-by-case authorization with agreement of the department head Application of the one-visitor-at-a-time rule	N/A (no data)	Family support service Authorization to communicate between patients and families via tablets