Wow, it’s been 8 weeks since we launched our #VirtualFirst approach mid-March!

As part of this approach, patients are generally seen via phone or video with a small number being assessed in person as needed.

Surveys are indicating that many people are worried about getting infected when visiting a clinic in person; here’s an inside look at how we’re working to keep everyone safe.

* - many thanks to the parents of this cutie for consenting to sharing this photo!

As you can see from the photo, physicians don full PPE (personal protective equipment) to physically examine patients of all ages.

Other precautionary measures include but are not limited to:

spacing appointments sufficiently apart to support physical distancing of patients,
limiting the accompanying adult to one parent,
pre-screening patients for symptoms prior to assigning appointment times,
minimizing staff and patient interactions,
disinfecting exam rooms after each patient encounter,
regular disinfection of high-contact surfaces,
providing masks to patients as needed.

Recently, we even made our COVID-19 pandemic processes available to other primary care clinics and physicians in an effort to promote collaboration and discussion between primary care providers.