On April 19th, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Recommendations for Re-opening Facilities to Provide Non-emergent Non-COVID-19 Healthcare:
With regard to planning for patient flow and physical distancing in your office, here is an excerpt from the recommendations:
Develop an action plan for your staff before you open your doors for both routine and emergency care. Effective intra-office communication can help to your staff route and prioritize those patients who require urgent or emergent care, those with original appointments and those patients who need to be rescheduled.
Identify strategies for your office that manage patient flow and ensure appropriate physical distancing.
- Comlite provides a real-time view throughout the office of the status of all your exam rooms and location of each provider.
- Notifies and displays patient arrivals/check-ins to the clinical staff. The clinical staff can acknowledge the front desk check-in.
- Page staff to an exam room only when you need them. Simply press a button to page the appropriate person when you need them.
- Helps to avoid staff coming to rooms when it is not necessary.
- Maintains office efficiency while adhering to CMS recommendations.
Instruct patients that companions should remain outside of the facility and not accompany the patient into the facility unless they are a parent/guardian of the patient or if they are a true caregiver and need to assist the patient. Comlite allows for communication from the operatory to the front desk to pass information to a parent, family member or caregiver in the waiting area.
As you re-open it is important to reassure patients of your office’s commitment to maintaining up-to-date infection control procedures.
Stay safe!
