03/23/2020
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To our patients:
We would like to provide you with an update on clinic staffing and procedures in the face of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Most of you have underlying lung disease or immune problems which put you at higher risk than the rest of the population. We encourage all patients with COPD and/or asthma, as well as all patients aged 70 and older to self-isolate and avoid crowds, public events and spaces, and practice scrupulous hand hygiene. Social distancing has been discussed at great length in the media and simply means standing at least six feet from others while greeting or talking. Follow the advice of Dr. Fauci at the CDC, avoid travelling on public transportation, and self quarantine if you develop fever, cough, shortness of breath, etc.
At this time, our office will remain open during our regular business hours on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We will be closed Wednesdays, except for phone calls from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. In the near future, we may convert routine follow-up appointments to phone appointments whenever possible.
If you are requiring refills or have contacted your pharmacy regarding refills, please be patient as we are experiencing an influx of refill requests. The fastest way to receive your prescription is to call our office and we can typically take care of it while on the phone with you.
We will continue to see patients for routine non-urgent follow-up appointments. For our patients who need allergy shots or other care that requires an office visit, we will still be here to serve those needs! Please call us before you come in for allergy injections or appointments. We may ask you to stagger injection times, and evaluate the safety of attending the clinic on a case by case basis. Skipping an extra week between allergy injections will not adversely affect the benefits of receiving injections, so we are encouraging our patients to do this. The fewer times you go out, the fewer chances you are taking of coming into contact with the virus.
We have implemented safety measures to prevent cross exposure. We are not currently having patients fill out paper forms when coming to our clinic, so we will be asking the questions directly. We ask that you keep your distance, six feet is the current recommendation, from other patients in the clinic, as well as the support staff.
If you are sick, you should call us for further advice. We will not be able to see patients in our office who present with cough, fever, or other respiratory symptoms outside of their usual asthma and COPD symptoms.
We do not have the capability to do COVID19 testing in our office. This is due to a shortage both of the needed test kits and the protective equipment to obtain samples. There will be more ample community outpatient testing opportunities in the coming weeks, and we will apprise you of these options as they occur.
We encourage you to get your online information from reputable sources only. Please continue to refer to CDC or WA Department of Health websites for the most accurate information.
We want to keep our clinic as safe as possible for you, and we want to keep our staff healthy to be able to serve you.
As always, we are here to serve you. Please call us with any questions or concerns and will work through this pandemic with you.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Garges, MD
Cheri Rash, APRN
Tracy Adkins, APRN
Jan Whitehead, APRN
Elissa Roberts, RN
Evelyn Kirk, MA
Sydney Israel, Receptionist
CDC:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Public Health Seattle and King County:
https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/communicable-diseases/disease-control/novel-coronavirus.aspx
Washington State Department of Health:
https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a virus (more specifically, a coronavirus) identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China.
