I'm late to the conversation again!
Speaking from my experience, the amount of friends, family, and supporters varies depending on the social/ cultural group, as well as the reason for the hospitalization. Once a few years back, we had a whole herd of Red Hat Club ladies schedule their colonoscopies all on the same day, with the same surgeon. The ones who didnt get their colonoscopies showed up to support their club members, drive them home, etc. And their friends from the hospital staff kept making excuses to come into the preop/ post op area. They were a fun group, but just as disruptive as the not so fun large groups of supporters.
On the occasions I have been called in to do labor epidurals for high school teens, there is generally a sea of high school letter jackets in the hall, waiting room, and patient room (if the nurses havent chased them out yet), regardless of the culture or ethnicity of the laboring teen. We have several immigrant populations in our region, and they are known for bringing large numbers of supporters and relatives to the hospital to support a laboring mom, as well as during other more serious accidents and situations. ERs have to deal with this issue of crowd control every day, from large urban areas to remote rural hospitals. Part of delivering "culturally competent care" is learning about these cultural behaviors, and developing strategies to respect them, and also enforce the necessary rules and policies of the hospital.
I worked locum tenens at a hospital on a reservation a few times, and crowd control and behavior control of visitors was a problem in every area of that particular facility, from preop to OB. This particular facility had formally made signs in every waiting room advising that open bottles and consumption of alcohol on hospital property was not permitted, yet I saw empty liquor bottles in trash cans in that hospital, even in the preop area, and hidden in supply cupboards in patient care areas.
Crowd control does get to be a real issue, sometimes, and is a distraction and a headache for the staff, the patient, and the other patients. You have to do your best to set limits, be polite, be consistent about the rules, and keep the focus on the patient, and call for help when necessary. Very few people in these large crowds of supporters that show up think the rules apply to them, in my experience. Sometimes the best thing to do is to try to find an empty conference room for them to gather in. This can be a win-win situation if it is presented to the large group in a sensitive and respectful fashion-- the other families and patients are given their quiet and privacy, and the large group has their own space.
It is generally accepted that this is just something that we have to deal with off and on. Some hospitals have more security features and security staff than others, to help with diplomacy and crowd control.
