6 Things You Should Know when Visiting a Doctor's Office during a Pandemic!

16 Jun, 2020

• COVID-19! We will be hardly forgetting its impact on our personal and professional lives until our last breath for sure. Earlier, businesses used to track a customer's lifecycle to know where they needed to improve to ensure a high rate of customer retention and acquisition.
• Now, due to coronavirus, businesses, especially physicians like Central Valley Medical Providers, have to read the minds of patients in advance and make arrangements accordingly at their premises that help their patients become assured of safety against coronavirus.
• This is the only way physicians can survive during the coronavirus crisis and ensure smooth business activities. So, let us dig deeper into the same.

6 Considerations for a Doctor’s Visit

1. First Protect Yourself

• It is important to protect yourself first before you step out of your home since there will be people out there who might be COVID19 positive with no symptoms at all.
• This is the reason, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending everyone to wear a cloth mask before visiting a doctor or moving out for any other purpose.
• So, do not simply rely on your physician’s office for providing you with a mask, but instead, wear it before you step out of your home.

2. Physicians are Practicing a Daily Cleaning Routine

• Although physicians follow strict daily cleaning protocols for their premises but keeping in mind the COVID-19 pandemic, they have augmented these protocols to achieve enhanced safety of patients.
• This includes taking care of the lobbies, exam/procedure room, and high-touch/common areas such as chairs, elevator buttons, tables, door handles. Apart from this, to secure waiting rooms, newspapers/magazines are being taken away from them.

3. Employees and Patients will be Masked and Screened

• Before any patient or employee enters a healthcare facility, he/she will be screened to ensure no COVID-19 symptoms are present.
• This will also take into account any recent symptoms related to shortness of breath, fever, or cough, along with recent diagnosis, pending COVID-19 test results, exposure to sick people, travel history, etc.
• All employees and patients, including your healthcare provider, will be wearing a mask; though there may be exceptions for children below the age of 2 years or patients who experience breath shortness.

4. Social Distancing Precautions are in Practice

• Offices of the physicians are rescheduling the appointments of the patients to make sure social distancing gets followed in the waiting rooms, with the reduction of seating capacity to a number that ensures maintaining at least six feet distance.
• Also, patients will be instructed to wait outside the offices in their vehicles until being directed by staff to come inside the examination room.
• Offices are stressing on limiting the number of people who should accompany the patients, with exceptional cases being of elderly who need a caretaker during all times.
• Every process is being conducted in a different manner, including registration. Physicians are getting the registration formalities done from within the vehicles of the patients.
• In case patients come inside for the registration process, they will be separated from the staff by proactive barriers.

5. COVID-19 Services are Separated from other Types

• There are people who develop COVID-19 symptoms and need to visit a physician's office to confirm their status. However, this creates no negative effect on the patients coming for routine check-ups and other health issues.
• The reason being COVID-19 cases are scheduled in a way that they do not interfere with the schedules of normal patients.
• Also, arrangements have been made in the form of outdoor sites for test collection so that people with COVID-19 symptoms need not enter the office.

6. You can Opt for Telehealth Services

• Most of the physicians are providing telehealth services to patients wherever possible.
• If they can be treated through communication over the phone, patient portal, mail, or any digital medium, they will not be requested to visit the physical premises.  
• This is a great option for people who wish to seek services concerning routine care, since they can receive the same service quality at their home itself.

FAQs regarding Medical Care

Q: Can I get a physician appointment not related to COVID-19?

Yes! By contacting leading medical care providers like the providers within MedPro, you can seek medical help concerning any injury or health problem.

Q: Should I opt for telehealth or in-person services?

It all depends on your health issues and their severity. You should call and consult the same with your physician.

Q: Can I trust MedPro for safety against coronavirus?

Yes, absolutely! All the preventive health and safety measures mentioned-above are being taken care of by its team proficiently.

Q: Ok, but what about preventive care?

If preventive health screenings, especially of elderly, can be rescheduled, it will be done accordingly. If it needs urgent care, it will be treated ASAP (following every safety guideline).

Q: Under the medical emergency, should I head to the ER, visit urgent care, or call my doctor?

Urgent care specialists are skilled enough to handle mild/moderate health issues, including COVID-19 symptoms. If you think your situation may be life threatening, you should head to the ER.

How to Prepare Well before Your Physician Visit?

• Create a list and prioritize your health issues
• Take this Information to the physician
• If needed, bring a friend/family member along with you
• Let your physician know everything, especially recent health happenings
• Request for an interpreter if you have difficulty seeing or communicating

Conclusion

• This tells us a lot about visiting a physician amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. Our healthcare providers are taking all the necessary precautions to ensure their patients do not contract the virus under any circumstances in their premises.
• However, patients need to understand that if their treatment is possible through consultation over the phone, they should consider this and not visit the premises of the physician.
• This will not only limit their exposure but enable the physician to allocate his time to a patient with high medical urgency.