Practice Guide Suggestions During Coronavirus Pandemic

Following are recommendations for protecting your practice and how to best respond to your patients, based on recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Texas Medical Association, UT Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Resources.

Establish and continually reinforce a policy that all of your office staff should stay home if they are sick, especially if they show signs of respiratory illness (cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing).  Insist that all patients call ahead before they come to your office. This is for their own protection as well as the safety of the community as a whole. Screen every patient over the phone before any in-person visit: Do you have a fever, sore through, cough or difficulty breathing? Have you had contact with anyone known or suspected to have coronavirus/COVID-19? Do you live in a community with confirmed sustained community transmission of COVID-19? In the last 14 days have your traveled domestically or internationally anywhere with confirmed sustained community transmission of COVID-19?

If patients respond YES to number 1 and any of numbers two through four:

CALL the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) at (800) 705-8868 and tell them that you have a suspected case. ALL suspected novel coronavirus or COVID-19 cases are classified as a notifiable condition. Discuss with DSHS what your next steps should be, which could include working with your Local Health Department (LHD) to determine where to send the patient for testing. (DSHS 3/12/2020). If the patient is having difficulty breathing and, using your clinical judgment, it is an EMERGENCY situation, refer the patient immediately to an emergency department (ED) and CALL the ED immediately IN ADVANCE of the patient showing up to the ED, so that the ED can prepare for the patient. Do NOT automatically send the patient to your local ED unannounced. (CDC 3/6/2020)

For more information, please go to the Texas Medical Association .

When scheduling appointments for routine medical care (e.g., annual physical, elective surgery), reschedule their appointment if they develop symptoms of a respiratory infection (e.g., cough, sore throat, fever) on the day they are scheduled to be seen. Refer to screening questions above to evaluate the patient for potential COVID-19 infection. Consider offering and implementing telemedicine services (telehealth or phone visits) for your patients, to establish social distancing and yet provide your patients the care they need. Guidelines for billing these services are forthcoming. After hours references are available for physicians through the THR Clinician COVID- 19 Hotline: 682-236-2101. Patients can talk to a nurse 24 X 7 by calling the THR nurse hotline: 682-236-7601.

Southwestern Health Resources | www.southwesternhealth.com