(a) Every patient shall be permitted to receive visitors at regular visiting hours, except as herein provided. The head of the hospital shall: (1) Establish visiting hours, and inform all patients and their families and other visitors of these hours; and (2) designate the areas of the hospital where a patient may receive visitors, and inform all patients and their families and other visitors of these areas.

(b) If, because of extenuating circumstances, a patient's family cannot visit during the regular visiting hours, the head of the hospital shall designate one two-hour period per week, at a mutually convenient time, during which the patient's family may visit the patient.

(c) A patient's clergyman, lawyer or physician may visit the patient at any reasonable time.

(d) If the head of the hospital determines that it is medically harmful for the patient to receive visitors, he shall so inform the patient's family and other visitors. When the patient has recovered sufficiently to receive visitors, the head of the hospital shall immediately notify the patient's family and other visitors who have requested notification. A copy of the notification of any restriction of visitors, and the reasons therefor, shall be signed by the head of the hospital and placed in the patient's permanent clinical record.

(e) The provisions of this section shall not apply to any patient in a program or facility for the treatment of drug-dependent persons.

(f) No restriction of any patient's rights to send and receive mail, make and receive telephone calls, or receive visitors shall be made in any manner, or for any reasons, other than prescribed in section 17a-546 and this section.

(1971, P.A. 834, S. 8; P.A. 78-219, S. 3; P.A. 82-329, S. 2, 3.)

History: P.A. 78-219 added Subsec. (f) re patient's communication rights; P.A. 82-329 amended Subsec. (a) to require the head of a facility for the mentally disordered to designate those areas of the hospital where a patient may receive visitors; Sec. 17-206h transferred to Sec. 17a-547 in 1991.

Annotations to former section 17-206h:

Cited. 213 C. 548.

Cited. 17 CA 130.