The facility itself is very nice, and many of the ...

The facility itself is very nice, and many of the staff here seem very caring and polite (hence the 3 stars). However, despite this, I found their ID requirement for minors to be rather absurd. I am seventeen and drove with my mother from North Carolina up to Maryland back in August to see my nephew after he was born, and, because I did not have an ID, was initially denied access. The staff were nice enough to allow me upstairs on the first day (even though they were technically violating hospital policy), but on the second day that we were going to visit, they refused. I found this peculiar, as I was allowed entry on the first day but was then denied by the same staff member the next day. Regardless, I see no need to pick fights with or complain about individual staff (who were honestly just following hospital policy), and instead would like to turn my attention to the strange ID requirement that this hospital has. There was no reason to deny me access on the second day after I had been granted it on the first day, and there was really no reason to question whether or not I was a "trustworthy" individual, given that my family members went downstairs and explained who I was.

For sure, this is a problem that I was grateful to have (compared to many other "negative" hospital experiences that people have), and, once again, I am glad that the staff was willing enough to let me in the first day. But I feel that the rules are unnecessarily strict, and I believe that they should be changed. I especially feel for anyone in this situation who might be trying to visit a dying family member or someone in serious pain but could, according to hospital policy, be rejected just because they don't have identification. The actual risk associated with a more lenient approach seems to me to be fairly low, so I don't see why such an approach couldn't be implemented at this hospital.