Today, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces the resolution of a religious discrimination complaint, thus ensuring clergy access to patients for religious purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic for the entire Mt. Sinai Health System in New York (Mt. Sinai). On August 5, 2020, a Jewish community advocacy organization filed a complaint with OCR alleging that several hospitals in various hospital systems in New York, including Mt. Sinai in Manhattan, were denying Jewish patients access to clergy in both COVID and non-COVID units. In one instance at Mt. Sinai, the complaint alleged that a Jewish patient was unable to obtain access to Kosher food; after asking for his rabbi to come to help the patient locate Kosher food, the hospital said that his rabbi could not visit due to concerns about COVID-19. Another Jewish patient at Mt. Sinai was denied access to a spiritual care volunteer after she gave birth to a stillborn baby and requested a spiritual care volunteer for spiritual comfort. The organization explained to OCR that religious visitation was important to their community because rabbis provide assistance with prayer rituals, including end-of-life rituals; spiritual comfort; translation services for those members of their community who do not speak English; and with other needs specific to their faith tradition.
In conjunction with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), OCR’s Conscience and Religious Freedom Division (CRFD) offered Mt. Sinai technical assistance to ensure that its visitation policy was consistent with best practices under federal guidance, which Mt. Sinai accepted. Mt. Sinai clarified that, although its visitation policy did not say so explicitly, one of the two visitors permitted to visit a patient each day could be a clergy member. Mt. Sinai then updated its visitation policy to include that clarification. Additionally, the updated visitation policy states that there is an exemption to out of state quarantine requirements for end-of-life visitations provided that proper precautions are taken. This allows clergy to be with patients in imminent end-of-life circumstances, even if they travel to Mt. Sinai from out of state.
To see Mt. Sinai Health System’s updated policies, please visit https://www.mountsinai.org/about/covid19/patient-updates.
For more information about how OCR is protecting conscience and religious freedom during COVID-19, please visit https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/religious-freedom/covid-19/index.html.
