A Time for Everything...
and a season for every activity under the heavens
Communication Upgrade!
Do you prefer to communicate by text? E-mail? Secure messaging? Phone? We can do all of those! Want telehealth? We have you covered!
We recently changed our phone system to a complete communication system designed specifically for healthcare. Because of this, we have more options to communicate with you. I WANT you to get in touch with me for all of you healthcare needs (don’t call me if you need toilet paper, I can’t help with that!).
1. Secure messaging – This is going to be one of the BEST ways to stay in touch. PLEASE download this app! I am using it for COVID-19 screening already! We value your privacy, so the Spruce Health app is secure and HIPAA compliant Through this app, we can message just like texting but in a secure way. The app is easy to install and use and only requires your name and cell phone number to get in. No memorizing password required (Hallelujah!!).
DOWNLOAD THE SPRUCE APP NOW!
2. Regular Texting – Many of you have asked for this, so we now have it. In order to use regular texting, it is VERY important that you understand that there is no possible way for me to ensure the privacy of regular text messages. If you value the convenience of SMS (or prefer to use SMS to using data on your phone), you can use this but we will ask that you give us explicit consent to communicate this way. We need to follow the law and we don’t want to be responsible for the security of technology we can’t control!
TEXT NUMBER IS THE SAME AS OUR OFFICE NUMBER – (931) 644-0262
3. E-mail – If you prefer e-mail, we have that as well but the same warnings apply as do for texting. We don’t have secure e-mail and if you want a secure option, see #1.
HELLO@SEASONSFAMILYMEDICINE.SPRUCECARE.COM
4. Phone – As always, you can call us – No changes there! We have been experiencing higher call volume and may not be able to get to the phone as quickly as usual, so PLEASE leave a message. PLEASE do not just call repeatedly as this slows us down in answering calls and getting in touch with people. We are very careful to always call people back if they leave a message (although it helps a lot if you tell us who you are!) During the COVID-19 crisis, we may need to be seeing patients dressed in protective gear, we may be seeing patients outside — anything is possible. We can’t answer the phone while doing those things, but we will call you back. The most common reason patients don’t get a quick answer to a message is that they don’t answer when we call back and their voicemail is either full or not set up.
5. TELEHEALTH is available NOW!! If you want to have your visit via telehealth, please let us know. This is all done through the Spruce App, so download that today so that you are ready if you need a telehealth visit. I have been planning to start offering this for a while but the insurance coverage was murky at best. As of last week Medicare is now covering telehealth and it looks like just about every payer is as well. Considering the risk of in-person visits, I encourage anyone that can to have their visit via telehealth if possible. Obviously, there are some things we can’t do over video, but there is a lot that can be done very effectively this way. Give it a try and stay home!
Please contact me FIRST. Urgent cares and ERs are going to be overwhelmed and full of sick people and their germs. Even on evenings and weekends I am available for urgent needs and I would prefer to either answer a quick question or do a telehealth visit than to have you go to an ER or urgent care and risk further disease exposure. I can’t promise to always do this, but if I am available (my weekends belong to my family first), I have been known to come in on a weekend to suture a laceration or to see a patient that I have to see in person to take care of. I can also help you if you aren’t sure if you need to go to the ER or if it is something we can take care of at home. So, please, call/text/message me!
In uncertain times, you are not alone. We are here for you!
Responding to COVID-19 threat
The news is full of information regarding Coronavirus/COVID-19. I am not going to try to give all the information available at the moment, but I will link the sites to trust here. Overall, my opinion from everything I have been reading and learning about this threat is that this is NOT a time to panic, but it is a time to be smart, careful and prepared. There is a very real potential that the panic about this threat may cause as much or more harm than the virus itself. The information about this virus and the threat itself is literally changing daily, so our response will HAVE to remain flexible as well.
We are implementing some important changes to our systems and protocols to try to keep our patients as safe as possible, to continue to care for non-coronavirus health needs (because these don’t go away just because there is a new threat), and to be able to respond if and when this virus reaches our community. Currently, there have been NO confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Putnam County, but that doesn’t mean that no one in the county has had it with mild symptoms. So far, we have not had access to broad testing, but I am hopeful that this will be improving very soon. As testing increases, I would expect the number of cases across the country to increase as we cannot confirm a case of coronavirus without being able to test for it.
Our office has made the following changes (some of these were already planned but will help us greatly with managing this threat).
1) We are implementing a new communication system called Spruce. This will allow us to communicate better with our patients. Our current patient portal is still available for communication if you have been using that, but the new one will be more similar to texting and allow us to be able to get to urgent messages more quickly. If you prefer to use normal texting to communicate with us, we can do that as well, but you will need to understand that there is no way to make standard texting secure.
2) We are changing our scheduling to try to keep the patient with respiratory illnesses from being in the office at the same time as the patients who are not sick. I understand that this will limit some of our appointment time flexibility, but I believe the benefit of decreasing potential exposure to COVID-19 as well as to other viruses such as flu (which is still far more common in our community than COVID-19) will outweigh the inconvenience. We will adjust the amount of time dedicated to the patients with respiratory illnesses based on the volume we are seeing in the community. If we have high rates of need, we may need to reschedule some routine appointments to a later time after the crisis has passed. We do NOT want anyone to avoid getting treatment for other medical issues due to fear of getting sick at the doctor’s office!
3) We are offering telehealth visits effective immediately! This will also be provided through the Spruce app. These visits can help keep people who are well and don’t want to risk exposure to potential infections to stay home. It will also allow us to triage sick people that can be managed at home without bringing the virus to the office. I believe this will turn out to be a particularly valuable tool if we have high infection rates in our area. Because this is a new thing for us, please be patient with us as we work through insurance coverage and logistical issues. There are many things I can handle over video, but some issues still require an office visit. There are some things I can’t assess without being in the same room as the patient.
4) Although we always practice infection control practices, we are being especially vigilant about wiping down surfaces between patients and thoroughly sanitizing the office regularly.
Overall — Stay calm, don’t panic, but don’t believe it can’t come here! Wash your hands regularly, stay home if you are sick and only wear a mask if YOU are sick!
