(UPDATED 03/12/2020)
Letter from Dr. Launder on the COVID-19 Virus
Dear ECC patients,
As you’re now aware, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus infection known as COVID-19 has now been declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization. We have been closely monitoring updates and recommendations from state and federal authorities. We are committed to making sure our patients get the information and care that they need during this outbreak, while minimizing exposure of ourselves and other patients to potential infection. We’ve instituted policies to protect our patients and our staff in order to help keep our patients, families and communities as healthy as possible. This will be a “living” document which we will continue to update on a regular basis.
First and foremost, I would like to gently remind everyone to remain calm and follow the best personal hygiene recommendations for yourself and with your loved ones. We are still in the middle of an Influenza outbreak which can also be dangerous for the elderly and young children. Please remember that the majority of individuals with COVID-19 are recovering well. Many have mild symptoms. There are those with proven infection who are also exhibiting no symptoms at all.
PREVENTION
The chances of spread of COVID-19 and other infections can be greatly reduced by the following safety measures:
ABOUT COVID-19:
We now know that the onset for COVID-19 typically starts between 2-9 days post-exposure with a median of 5 days. The most common presentation was one week of myalgias (muscle aches), malaise (feeling ill), cough and low grade fevers which may lead to more severe trouble breathing in the second week of illness. It is an average of 8 days until shortness of breath may occur and 9 days for onset of pneumonia. The vast majority of patients patients do not progress to have these severe respiratory symptoms and they will feel as though they’ve had a “cold” or the “flu”. Other symptoms can include sore throat, nasal congestion, vomiting (rare) and diarrhea (rare). As you can see, COVID-19 generally has a much slower start than Influenza which known for a swift onset of fatigue, muscle aches, upper respiratory symptoms such as cough and fever. Your best and most trusted resource online for information about COVID-19 is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
People at highest risk for COVID-19 are those who have known contact with anyone who has traveled to one of the Level 3 countries in the past few weeks (China, South Korea, Italy, South Korea), those with known contact with anyone who has traveled to a Level 2 county (Japan), those who have completed recent cruise ship travel, older persons and people with chronic medical conditions (such as heart, lung or kidney conditions and diabetes) or those who are immunocompromised (chemotherapy, lack of a spleen, lymphoma, leukemia, HIV, inherited immune-deficiency syndromes or use of medications which suppress the immune system).
We are asking that our patients act responsibly and not enter the office with any of the symptoms described above. Please call us first. You should also avoid work and public life if you have become ill. Ask your employers about options for working remotely if possible. Please do not hesitate to call or message us directly with your Spruce app (please call Tom at 727-232-9739 if you need help setting up Spruce). We are proud to be a direct primary care practice that is already armed and ready to help you via telemedicine for no additional costs to you. Starting Monday 3/13/2020 we will advise patients that non-urgent follow up visits, physicals or wellness visits may be postponed at this time and telephone or video visits are available as an alternative.
At the present time we are not able to test for COVID-19 in our office but will be utilizing our local health department for testing when needed (Pasco County health department in New Port Richey: (727) 861-5250). COVID-19 testing is still limited but is becoming more rapidly available. Emergency rooms will not be performing on-demand COVID-19 testing. Unless you are experiencing serious or emergency symptoms as below, please avoid ERs at all costs. We want to do everything possible to avoid overburdening our hospitals and keep ourselves away from sick people.
SICK PROTOCOL
For now we will follow the protocol below for patients who are sick:
1) Upper respiratory symptoms WITHOUT FEVER.If you have symptoms an upper respiratory infection (cough, nasal congestion etc) and no fever (less than 100.4) and your symptoms have been present for less than 2 weeks in duration then we will recommend home care and that you not come in for an in-person visit to our clinic. This is similar to our current practice with common colds and suspected influenza but it is even more important to avoid clinic visits at this time.
2) Upper respiratory symptoms WITH FEVER.If you have upper respiratory symptoms and/or a fever WITHOUT signs of severe illness (such as shortness of breath), we will recommend a telephone visit to determine if testing, treatment, or an in-person visit is warranted. We are able to assist with many treatments and recommendations via these telemedicine visits. If we do determine that you need an in-person visit then this may occur at any Baycare Urgent Care center as they are one of few local facilities that are currently equipped to evaluate possible COVID-19 suspects and direct them to the health department if testing is needed. With or without testing, it is advisable you isolate yourself as much as possible for 14 days from the onset of symptoms.
3) Upper respiratory symptoms WITH FEVER and/or SEVERE symptomsBased on what we know so far in health people under 60, the odds of severe illness or death are very low with COVID-19 infections. But if you have upper respiratory symptoms with severe concerns such as shortness of breath then we will likely refer you directly to the emergency room or hospital.
IF SOMEONE WITH COVID HAS VISITED OUR CLINIC OFFICE
Why are we taking extreme caution for safety and avoiding clinic visits when possible?
If an individual enters our clinic carrying COVID-19 (found later by testing), we would likely have to close our clinic for 14 days or longer!
This would be necessary to avoid potentially exposing others, especially our older patients and those with more chronic medical conditions. If this were to occur, we would attempt to still offer telephone triage and telemedicine visits but we prefer to avoid closing our doors if at all possible.
FINAL THOUGHTS
We have put together these guidelines to prevent the spread of illness to the most vulnerable around us. We will all see our daily routines upended by this virus but we truly appreciate your understanding, patience and personal efforts to keep everyone in the ECC family as healthy as possible.
Thank you and we will keep you updated!
Yours in Good Health,
Dr. Launder, Tom and Amy
