Is Seeing Your Doctor Safer Than Going Grocery Shopping?

For new or sudden changes, that’s when adults really may need to be seen in person. But for ongoing chronic healthcare maintenance, telemedicine is extremely beneficial. Some physical exam findings are easy to follow via the video chat. Additionally, for some of those patients, what you really need to do is get more information. And so telehealth allows for an easy way to converse with the patient in a secure setting that’s HIPAA-compliant. And it keeps them from having to travel to and from the office, which may be a good thing for families, because sometimes transportation is an even bigger issue when they have assistive devices to get them around—wheelchairs, walkers, things like that. So many patients actually prefer that kind of visit. And they can do all the elements needed to take care of the problem over the telehealth visit.

I can’t speak for all of BayCare, but in my own office, we are avoiding the use of waiting areas where possible. If they need to be utilized, we’re definitely practicing social distancing and using face coverings. In most cases, we have decreased the amounts of entrances and exits to our facility. Obviously, they can be used to leave the building in the case of an emergency, but our entrances have been streamlined so temperature checks for everyone, including employees, can be performed.

In our offices, we have designated sick and well rooms, and we’re sticking very consistently to that. So, if anyone has any illness symptoms, they’re being seen in rooms that are getting an extra special sanitation spray-down where they’re being left for an additional 10 to 15 minutes before anyone else is seen in that room.

We’ve made changes to our scheduling so that all our well appointments are in the morning and early afternoon. And at a certain time, we cut off those appointments, and then start seeing patients with symptoms or concerns at the end of the day. A lot of other offices are doing this timing as well.

We’re also making sure families are aware of what we’re doing. They don’t walk in the front door by themselves. They call when they arrive at our offices. We greet them at the front door and walk them to their appointment room. Additionally, when they get into the appointment room, we have a sign that says “This room has been sanitized” so they know the room was cleaned before they came in.

All of our patient registration has to be done online before patients come in. If someone drives up and they haven’t finished their registration, we make them wait and do that in their car so we have everything that we need to expedite their visit. And then as far as our staff members go, we wear masks at all times except when we’re eating and drinking. Even when we’re in our common rooms, we all practice social distancing as well. We take the care to only walk one patient in and out at a time, so they aren’t passing each other in the hallway. So, we’re taking lots of precautions! 

It’s important that all patients be open and honest with their provider. If they have any risk factors, extra precautions can be taken. For instance, if a patient is having new symptoms or feeling ill when coming in for treatment, we include eye coverings as well as masks to protect our providers. If we’re doing any specific lab testing that involves respiratory or nasal secretions, most likely our providers are going to have on an N95 mask, eye coverings, gown, gloves, etc. We even wear shoe coverings in our office. Patients should just be open and honest. We want to protect not only our patients, but also our staff so they can be there for the next patient that’s ill.

I think one of the other important things is to be prepared when you go in for your visit. Make sure you read whatever information is sent to you ahead of time and know what’s expected of you.

I’ll get patients that show up at my door and walk up and suddenly they realize there’s a sign there that tells them what to do, and they’re like, “Oh!” It was probably communicated to them no less than three times before they came to the office, and they didn’t pay attention.

The other thing is, be patient. We’re trying to keep the environment safe, so sometimes it does take a little longer to clean the rooms and protect all of us. It does take time to put on all those layers of equipment and take them back off in a safe manner. For an office visit, you have to take your time to make sure that everybody is safe.

Also, wash your hands and wear a mask!