April 20, 2020 4:17 pm Human Resources & Staff Management | Patient Management | Practice Finances Emerging Guidelines for Resuming Care As the medical community looks ahead to when pandemic restrictions begin to lift, government entities and other organizations are starting to offer recommendations for how to proceed once that time comes. CMS yesterday released its guidance, “Re-Opening Facilities to Provide Non-Emergent Non-COVID-19 Healthcare: Phase I.” Additionally, the American Society of Anesthesiologists has released its “Roadmap for Resuming Elective Surgery after COVID-19 Pandemic,” which, among other things, includes recommendations on case prioritization and scheduling that apply to all surgical cases. Furthermore, the American College of Surgeons has released a surgical resource document for facilities preparing to resume elective surgeries once COVID-19 has peaked in their area. In all cases, Curi encourages our member practices to keep abreast of and comply with all relevant state–specific guidelines and mandates—both to mitigate your risk and to enhance patient and staff safety. For additional guidance on resuming care, please reference Curi’s “Getting Back to Business” roadmap to reopening your practice. 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.