At the Center for Spine and Orthopedics, your health and safety are our top priorities. As your provider, we want to give you an update on the actions we are taking to ensure your safety as well as some information on receiving care at our practice.
Our office is currently open during our regular business hours. Our staff will be calling patients with appointments in advance to ask screening questions. Within the next week, we will be offering telemedicine appointments to patients who have coronavirus symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath and potential exposure) or to those who prefer to stay home for their appointment.
For those coming to our practice, you must sanitize your hands upon entering our front door. All magazines have been removed from our waiting area and all exam rooms to prevent contamination.
Social Distancing
Patients, if they choose, can wait for their appointment in their vehicle, and we will call them when we are ready to take them to their exam room. We will get elderly patients into an exam room as soon as possible. Any patient presenting with a cough, sore throat or fever will be rescheduled for a telemedicine appointment (though they should have already been pre-screened) unless they are here for their post-operative visit.
We will have an “Isolation Room” available for ill patients who must be seen, such as post-op patients with wound drainage or infection. Disposable gowns, gloves, mask w/shield or safety goggles are to be worn during their appointment.
For follow-up patients, pain diagram, Oswestry and PSL questions are to be filled out in the exam room. Lastly, we will not be seeing SNF patients for routine visits.
Other Precautions
If you have a runny nose or have traveled to “hot spots,” our staff will take your temperature. Each staff member will also wear gloves and:
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- Wipe down all chairs, doorknobs, tables, blood pressure cuffs, etc. in exam rooms and x-ray; and
- Wipe down clipboards and pens prior to patients filling out the Pain diagram, Oswestry and PSL questions.
Additionally, we will routinely take staff members’ temperatures; any staff member with a temperature of 100.2 or greater will be instructed to see a physician. Anyone with a temperature of 100.2 or greater or with a scratchy throat or cough will wait at least 48 hours before returning to work.
At this time, we will continue to operate during regular business hours but also make adjustments as necessary or required. Our goal is to keep you updated on any changes.
