How To Keep a Medical Practice Open During COVID-19 Pandemic

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The coronavirus pandemic has changed everything, especially how healthcare facilities work. As medical practices strive to stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are a lot of vital measures that need to you need to take. Limiting the spread of the virus is as necessary as ever, especially when running a medical practice.

Comply With Your Governmental Guidance

Because the virus can’t be predicted and controlled, protective measures are different in every state as well as cities. That is why you must follow your federal government as well as state laws.

Make a Plan for Your Medical Practice

A lot of people take this lightheartedly. But planning is of vital importance when it comes to having a successful medical practice and keeping it safe and open. You have to prepare yourself as well as plan for COVID-19 exposure in your medical practice. That is why you must plan how you will handle contact tracing, staffing and cleaning if someone who has visited your practices got diagnosed with COVID-19.

Plan in Increments for Your Medical Practice

Another crucial thing is adopting a stepwise approach. Therefore, your medical practice can very quickly address and identify any challenges that are being presented. To be safe, you need indemnity which visits can be done by telehealth or any other modalities and continue doing those visits remotely.

Institute All Safety Measures for Patients

To ensure everyone that comes into your medical practice isn’t coming in close contact with others, you need to make a modified schedule to avoid the high volume of patients. Another thing you can do to ensure that everyone is safe is to have your clinic design and fit-out changed in a way that fits all the requirements.

Ensure Workplace Safety for Clinicians and Staff

To say simple, you can’t have a medical practice if you don’t have staff. That is why you need to ensure that every employee in your medical clinic is safe. If an employee has any sign on COVID-19 or simply isn’t feeling well, and those who have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, should not come to work. It is easier to have one employee not at work than being severely understaffed and putting others at risk.

Continue the Practice of Screening of Your Patients Before Scheduling In-Person Visits

Before anyone enters your medical practice, you have to make sure that they don’t have any COVID-19 symptoms. If you can visit them through telemedicine, there is simply no need to have an in-person visit. However, if there is no way to avoid in-person visits, the patient should be contacted over the phone 24 hours before the office visit and screened for any possible COVID-19 symptoms. To make it easier for everyone, you should provide your staff with the script to follow when conducting these types of calls. There are much government made guides that you can forward to your employees.

Coordinate Testing With Local Hospitals and Clinics

When you are running a medical practice during COVID-19, will need to require your patients to have a negative test result to proceed. Something that will both help you and your patients is coordinating testing with your local hospitals. That way it will not only be close by, but you can also ensure that it is the right test. Also, make sure there are available tests and that they are done in time.

Consider Legal Implications

Because everything needs to run differently to keep COVID-19 contained, there will be new legal issues and different obligations. You will need them to do to keep your medical practice open. It should be in your best interest to follow all the laws and guidelines. You should keep up with all the recommendations to keep everyone safe.

As we continue to go through this pandemic, medical practises must balance their needs to provide all the necessary services while minimizing the risks of getting COVID-19 in the process. Educate your employees and your patients about all the changes they can expect to be implemented in your medical clinic. They should prepare themselves and be safe.

Alison Pearson
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