03/17/2020
As your primary care physician, I wanted to update you on what’s going on with COVID-19 and
specifically how our office will be handling things for at least the next couple of weeks. For now, there
have been 2 reported cases in the CSRA although there have been numerous patients who have been
tested in the area. The majority of these tests have been negative but there are a few still waiting for
results. As mentioned before, the virus appears to be fairly benign in the young and healthy; however, in
those that are older (greater than 65) or chronically ill with lung disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease,
or immunosuppressed, the illness can be much more severe and rapidly progress to respiratory failure.
For those in this group, I recommend severely limiting exposure to others, especially large crowds or
those who could be sick. As of now, our office does not have the ability to do testing for coronavirus.
This may change sometime this week but, at this time, if you are experiencing fever, cough and
shortness of breath and have traveled to an area with the virus or have been exposed to individuals who
have been to these areas, please call our office (706) 733-4823 first for further instructions on how to
get tested.
For the next several weeks our office will be changing some of our procedures for handling patients. We
are doing this in order to prevent, as much as possible, patient-to-patient contact and to protect both
you and our staff. Our office will continue to be open during our regular business hours and, as always, I
will be available 24/7 by phone, email or text. All regularly scheduled appointments will be kept and our
staff will call personally to confirm these and to update you on our current procedures. Because of the
procedures we are implementing, we believe all patients are safe to come to their visits with little risk of
any exposure.
Most importantly, if you are experiencing respiratory symptoms as mentioned above, please call our
office first for instructions on how to proceed even if you are scheduled for a regular visit. For those
with regularly scheduled appointments or labs, please note that the front door will remain locked. If you
will alert our staff through the window that you have arrived, you may either wait on the porch or in
your car until your allotted time. At that point, staff will come outside and get you for your
appointment. All surfaces will be sanitized between each patient. We ask all patients that do not have
an appointment to call the office first so we can make the necessary arrangements to care for you
safely.
Finally, for those of you who may still be uncomfortable with visiting the office, I now have the ability to
offer telemedicine visits. These need to be arranged ahead of time with the front office and require a
smart phone or computer. Paula can walk you through how to do this by phone. It does require a credit
card for co-pays but those will not be charged for wellness visits as usual. For wellness appointments,
we will email all your labs and test results ahead of time so we can go over them.
Times, indeed, are strange. With adequate sanitation and precaution this illness is preventable. The
MDVIP portal and the CDC website have great resources as well. Don’t hesitate to call the office during
regular hours or myself after hours with any questions or concerns. We are here for you.
Dr. Danny
