The H1N1 pandemic has Rockingham Memorial Hospital trying something new this summer.

Greeters stationed at hospital entrances are checking visitors and patients for possible infection. These screeners ask a series of brief questions to each person coming into RMH.

The question include, "Do you have a fever, sore throat or cough?" If the answer to any of the questions is yes, the hospital recommends wearing a medical mask inside.

Doctors say screening may help slow the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus.

"Some of our patients in the hospital have other medical conditions, which lead them to be compromised in some cases, which means they're more susceptible to infection than you and me who do not have that. So it's a protection for everybody," says RMH Medical Director of the Hospitalist Program Dr. Ganesh Kini.

Doctors encourage you to wash your hands often and stay away from others if you think you may have influenza.