As we emerge from the pandemic, medical practices must balance the need to provide necessary services while minimizing risks to patients and healthcare providers and mitigating financial impact. Awareness of COVID-19’s progression in your community remains critical. Health care organizations must remain prepared to meet patient needs to the greatest extent possible. As the situation changes, continue planning for best utilization of your facilities, equipment, and consumables while minimizing the risk of infection.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, patients have cancelled preventative care appointments and surgery, and have fallen behind on vaccinations. Appointments that were cancelled as a result of previous practice closure and appointments that were postponed (possibly due to fear of presenting in person for healthcare) should be reviewed in detail to ensure patient safety. A strong follow-up and recall system will aid in this process. If your practice has not yet developed a system, this is highly recommended as a means of assuring important chronic conditions are managed, and screenings, vaccinations and other preventive care services continue on schedule.
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Enforcing mask-wearing, changing waiting area furniture arrangements, reducing the number of patients scheduled from the number seen pre-pandemic, and separating well-patient services and sick patient services, either by facility set-up or through scheduling are all strategies for reducing potential exposure among patients, healthcare providers, and visitors. Communicating with patients at the time the appointment is made, and closer to the time of the appointment date and time is critical for assuring patients understand infection control processes and procedures. Providing information through various mediums, such as phone calls, email, text, and your practice website may be helpful for reinforcing this information.
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It is likely that the pandemic has changed the delivery of healthcare forever. Some changes are already apparent with the adoption of telehealth and virtual meetings. It is important to prepare for new challenges and learn from past successes and failures.
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In addition to managing interruptions to healthcare operations and healthcare delivery, and reducing the risk of patient infection, protecting both your clinical and non-clinical staff remains critical. Healthcare Personnel providing onsite services must ensure their health and wellness for the safety of your patients and for other members of the workforce. Vaccine hesitancy among members of the healthcare workforce is a continuing challenge.
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The pandemic has affected hiring, firing, furloughing and/or laying people off as well as re-hiring and returning furloughed employees to work, which may implicate employee protections such as FMLA leave, emergency leave, and workers’ compensation. Accommodating additional time off for illness and dependent care and facilitating remote work strategies are new challenges that can make maintaining safe staffing levels challenging. Questions about incentivizing and mandating vaccination present additional challenges.
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