Catherine Gunn is no stranger to the IWK Health Centre. She volunteers as the Family Leadership Council Chair for the hospital and was a patient while pregnant with her second child.

“I spent 13 weeks here and I had 20 month old at the time,” she recalls.

Gunn’s husband and son were welcome to visit whenever they wanted, even sleeping over.

“Once my daughter was born we were moved into the NICU and again it was up to us to decide who came in, when they came in and how long they stayed.”

Jocelyn Vine is the VP of Patient Care and Chief Nurse Executive at the IWK. She says it’s up to the patient and parents of young patients to define who is family to them. Those people are allowed to come and go as they please.

“It is generally a philosophy within the organization that patients and families are really part of the care team and so we don’t really think of visiting as it relates to patients,” says Vine. “We think of them as part of the team.”

Vine says there are many benefits to allowing 24/7 family access – nobody knows the patient better than their family.

“When it comes to understanding the circumstance of a patient, their health, what their goals are, what are the things that they want to achieve in their healthcare journey, really they are the people who can help us and tell us that,” Vine tells CTV News.

According to the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, research into the benefits of family presence shows improved patient outcomes and experience of care, fewer medication errors and falls, better informed medical assessments and care planning, plus reduced lengths of stay, readmissions and emergency department visits.

For Gunn, having family by her side allowed her to feel more relaxed.

“It reduced our stress as a family and I already had a high risk pregnancy that I was stressed about so it allowed us to be together, just sort of celebrate normal milestones,” Gunn says.

Vine says the IWK has taken this approach to visiting hours for close to 20 years and she hopes to see more hospitals do the same.

“I think it’s an excellent way of working and I really think it’s part of the way healthcare is going.”