Patient Management | Practice Reopening What should we do when a patient arrives at our practice? Once the patient arrives inside your practice facility, the following guidelines should be followed to prevent the spread of illness: Ask staff to stay home if they are sick Send workers home if symptoms develop at work Consider implementing universal source control for everyone entering your office to address both asymptomatic and symptomatic transmission Ensure that clinical staff know the correct ways to put on, use, and take off PPE safely Healthcare workers wear a mask Visitor and patients wear a cloth face covering If patient shows up without a mask provide one if available If visitor shows up without a mask/cloth face covering, you could request they wait in the car (unless patient needs assistance) then consider providing a mask Actively screen everyone for fever and symptoms of COVID-19 before they enter the facility Place hand sanitizer at entrances and exits Implement procedures to quickly triage and separate sick patients Consider scheduling sick visits together and well visits at different times. Consider high risk population precautions, such as scheduling elderly patient visits in the morning followed by well visits and then sick visits in the afternoon Clean often common areas touched Screen patients before arriving at your practice Provide symptomatic patients with tissues or face masks to cover mouth and nose Separate sick patients with symptoms Allow patients to wait outside or in the car if they are medically able Create separate spaces in waiting areas for sick and well patients, moving chairs six feet apart Place sick patients in a private room as quickly as possible with a closed door After patients leave, clean frequently touched surfaces using EPA-registered disinfectants—counters, beds, seating, door knobs, common areas For patients who screen positive for COVID-19, place mask on patient (if they don’t already have one) and follow the patient workflow process Resources https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/clinic-preparedness.html>CDC Clinic Preparedness Signs for Your Clinic and Infection Prevention Guidelines List of EPA-Registered Disinfectants Guidance for Preparing Workplace Fit Testing Procedures Process for Employee Exposures News & Knowledge All Curi recommendations are based on current CDC criteria at the time of publication. CDC guidance for SARS-CoV-2 infection may, or may not, be adopted by state and local health departments to respond to rapidly changing local circumstances. Providers should always check with their local health department to see if the CDC’s guidance on any given topic has been modified (particularly if more restrictive) from the CDC’s recommended guidelines. Follow this link https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/healthdirectories/index.html for contact information to your state/local health department. If local recommendations vary from those of the CDC, and you are unsure what recommendations to follow, then it is safer to follow the more restrictive guidelines/recommendations.