March 27, 2020: COVID–19 Notice for Patients

There is a lot of anxiety and confusion relating the current Covid-19 epidemic. At APC, we are following CDC guidelines for distancing, handwashing, healthcare personal preventive equipment and thorough disinfection.

The gold standard for information and guidance is the CDC and the WHO.

Containing and minimizing the viral outbreak is accomplished through isolation and minimizing contact. Patients and APC will operate on the following principles:

Ongoing Management and Treatment Of Chronic Pain Patients

• We will continue to treat patients on a 28-30 day cycle through the use of office visits and if required through telemedicine
• If you have a fever, cough, chills or are not feeling well please contact our office so that we may decide the best course of action to maintain your treatment plan.
• The following patients should avoid coming to our facility if they have traveled outside of the country or have taken a cruise within the last 14 days, or have known contact with an individual diagnosed or presumed to have COVID–19
• If your chronic pain symptoms and problems are stable your visit will be focused and rapid visit concentrating on the essential components of treatment.
• Upon arrival patients are recommended to use the outside bathroom to thoroughly wash their hands and/or use hand sanitizer provided in the office.
• To minimize contact, patients are asked not to bring family members into the office. Family members should stay in their car and wait for the visit to be completed. Exceptions are for patients requiring assistance.
• APC staff will be diligent in monitoring their health daily and will not come to work if showing any flu symptoms. We will be monitoring staff temperatures daily.
• APC staff will use masks, appropriate personal protective equipment and wash hands and/or alcohol hands before and after all patient encounters.
• APC staff will practice enhanced cleaning with wipe down and disinfection of all contact surfaces and areas with hospital grade disinfection.
• Take your medications as prescribed. There will be no early refills for any reason!

Office-Based Procedures

In order to help treat suffering and pain we will continue with injection therapy procedures for patients with significant pain that is not adequately controlled through medication management. These procedures are not deemed elective as they are required to help treat poorly controlled pain and flareups of chronic pain. Decision to perform or postpone procedures will be made on an individual basis with consultation between the patient and healthcare provider.

Patients who wish to have or continue with injection therapy procedures that treat their chronic pain will be accommodated. Hospitals and surgery centers have deferred all non-emergent surgeries and procedures until further notice to focus on COVID-19, and therefore we will not be performing any procedures at these facilities at the present time. However, APC is very fortunate to have an office-based surgery suite that provides a lower cost, lower risk option for patients who wish to continue with injection therapy to treat their chronic pain condition. Our surgery suite minimizes exposure and the risk for hospital infections. Hospital cleaning and disinfection procedures will be performed between each case with terminal cleaning every day.

See our Facebook page for additional and ongoing updated information about COVID-19 and our practice.