{"id":650448,"date":"2026-05-06T00:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/650448\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:44:19","slug":"new-one-bag-one-visitor-er-policy-expands-to-stollery-u-of-a-hospital-with-exceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/650448\/","title":{"rendered":"New \u2018one bag, one visitor\u2019 ER policy expands to Stollery, U of A Hospital \u2014 with exceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

More emergency rooms in Edmonton are introducing a policy to limit how many people accompany a patient and how many personal items a patient can bring in with them.<\/p>\n

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Alberta Health Services<\/a> has expanded its one bag policy to the ERs in the University of Alberta Hospital<\/a> and the Stollery Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a>, both of which are located side-by-side in the Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre on the U of A campus.<\/p>\n

All patients and their visitors will now be limited to one bag per person before they\u2019re allowed entry into the ER, and AHS said security will have methods in place to secure extra bags if needed.<\/p>\n

Reducing the number of bags laying around will help by keeping floors clear of tripping hazards, AHS said, as well as ensuring chair and table space is available for patients and whoever accompanies them.<\/p>\n

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Exceptions will be made for those who require additional bags for medical devices, essential supplies or supplies or child-care items, or in circumstances involving severe medical distress.<\/p>\n

In addition to the new bag policy, AHS says all patients seeking care in the U of A ER may only be accompanied by one visitor or support person.<\/p>\n

AHS said that limit will help reduce noise and provide more space for those who need to be there.<\/p>\n

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Exceptions may be made in some circumstances where patients require additional support, AHS said, such as for patients in life-threatening condition or experiencing severe medical distress, and that decision will be made by the patient\u2019s care team.<\/p>\n

The expansion comes a week after AHS launched the policy at the Royal Alexandra Hospital<\/a> in central Edmonton,\u00a0where a stabbing took place<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew \u2018one bag, one visitor\u2019 policy at Royal Alexandra Hospital E.R. after stabbing\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

At that time, Royal Alex emergency physician Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti said the policy is reasonable as long as it\u2019s implemented with common sense<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The physician said the policy will be an issue for families of children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one visitor, per patient, I can tell you where it\u2019s not going to work \u2014 if a young child comes in,\u201d Francescutti said last week.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, both parents will show up in emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what are you going to do? You\u2019re going to pick one parent over the other. So it\u2019s not going to work there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, AHS initially said the one-visitor policy would apply to the Stollery but after being questioned about the logistics, the health authority updated its guidance.<\/p>\n

AHS now says the visitor restrictions will not apply in the Stollery emergency. More than one parent or guardian, and siblings, will continue to be able to accompany Stollery patients.<\/p>\n

The policy changes come after a stabbing occurred in the packed Royal Alex emergency room waiting area on April 3. A fight broke out between two men, leading to a 42-year-old man suffering serious, life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

Police said the other man was found with three \u201cedged weapons\u201d and has since been charged.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRoyal Alex emergency room stabbing sparks conversation over Edmonton hospital safety\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

AHS said people with questions about the one bag or one visitor policy can reach out to its patient relations team online or at 1-855-550-2555.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More emergency rooms in Edmonton are introducing a policy to limit how many people accompany a patient and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[17225,49,48,23752,84,75940,167403],"class_list":["post-650448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alberta-health-services","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-health","tag-stollery-childrens-hospital","tag-university-of-alberta-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}