Private Hospital to Turn Away Children Exposed to AIDS Virus

A private children’s hospital will soon begin testing all patients for exposure to the AIDS virus, and those who test positive will be referred elsewhere, hospital officials said.

The policy at the Alfred I. du Pont Institute is designed to create a safe environment for other patients, the officials said.

Beginning July 1, any patient seeking admission to the hospital who tests positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, will be referred to another facility.

“We are really going to do it with a lot of compassion as well as confidentiality,” hospital administrator Thomas P. Ferry said.

Employees also will be tested as part of routine physicals, institute officials said Thursday. Those who have been exposed will, if possible, be transferred from patient-care areas. Those already working in non-patient areas will be allowed to continue working there.

The American Hospital Assn. recommends against screening incoming patients for acquired immune deficiency syndrome and institutions that accept federal money are precluded from such action, according to association lawyers. But the privately owned institute does not accept federal payments, including Medicaid.

The Nemours Foundation, based in Jacksonville, Fla., administers the institute, Nemours Children’s Hospital and the Nemours Health Clinic for Delaware’s low-income elderly under the terms of Alfred I. du Pont’s will.

The foundation’s board of directors noted that Du Pont’s will specified that his fortune be used to help the elderly and children, but “not incurables,” Ferry said.