Dec 24, 2020 2 min read

In response to Karen Mansfield’s Dec. 1 article that summarized Allegheny Health Network’s visitor policy changes, Allegheny Health Network clearly is disregarding the negative impact on one of its vulnerable populations — pregnant women.

As a health system with a program specifically designed to support the mental health of pregnant and postpartum women, this policy change to prohibit support people from attending appointments alongside patients is the antithesis of valuing perinatal mental health, is surprisingly tone deaf, and removes the focus on the patient’s individual needs.

The system should provide options, such as submitting negative COVID tests, offering virtual visits, and confirming that support persons dwell in the same household as the patient, instead of eliminating them from the equation.

Allegheny Health Network provides little means of escalating concerns or providing feedback. Any attempt I have made to engage with individual physician departments via phone or in person over this issue has been met with “we’ll make note of your concerns, but there’s nothing we can do.” Is that what we tell women when they bring us mental health-related concerns? Is that not the job of a health system — to provide care for the whole person and to value each patient’s needs?

Gina Ciarrocchi Zech

Pittsburgh