Ask The Doctor

We have begun in-office visits for appropriate urgent problems that are best handled with direct doctor-patient contact. We will continue to use primarily video visits through July (which are effective), but are considering offering some in-office checkups and routine follow-ups in August if allowed by the state, though such routine visits may not happen till after Labor Day. We all need more experience handling in-person care, which is now much more complex because of sanitation, separation and PPE requirements during this epidemic.

We are doing relatively well in Massachusetts. Wearing masks, frequent handwashing, and keeping social distance combine as an effective barrier against Covid-19. We need to maintain these practices and stay vigilant. Certain normal activities like going to the supermarket or Costco are low-risk, as is socializing outdoors. Cleaners and service-people are low-risk in your home. But indoor activities including in your living room or a restaurant remain high-risk to all concerned.

We are now doing in-office visits for patients with urgent problems. Most visits will continue via remote video links. We have reconfigured our procedures to include previsit screening for remote or office visits. We will ask people to wait in their cars. We will minimize the number of patients in office and keep the visit itself to essentials. In addition, we now have ability to test every patient for active SARS-CoV-2 virus by a nasal swab and get results in 15 minutes. We expect to integrate this in all our visits now.

During May, we saw a steady decline in daily new cases and deaths in Massachusetts from Covid-19. Masks, social distancing and staying at home largely worked. All good news for a change.

Day 4 of Week 2: We are all in self-quarantine in our circles of safety, or should be, and approaching the very small tail end of likely infection from prior exposure. Covid-19 infections are most likely to continue increasing substantially in our communities at least through the end of April. Our office is staffed by our nurses for communications, but we are arranging all visits and contacts remotely. That has worked well so far. We request email contacts to alleviate the phone burden. PPE’s are still needed to be redirected to hospitals in short supply.