Reference no: EM133910623

Question

Patient care has changed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the outpatient primary care setting. Changes I have noticed at my workplace is that we have transitioned many of our office visit appointments to virtual visits and Telehealth. Many of our normal procedures that used to require face to face office visits are now able to be addressed via virtual or phone visits.

One example would be, before the pandemic, patients that are suspected of having strep throat are required to have an in-person assessment or at least go to our Nurse's Clinic for a diagnostic test such as rapid strep test. Now, it is being treated over the phone, based on the patient's description of their symptoms without even having a diagnostic test. Our hypertension patients are now allowed to just take their blood pressure reading at home and send it to us via e-mail or message rather than coming in to have it checked in the clinic. We also have patients take pictures of their rashes, wounds, or any skin conditions they have concern about, with a description of the problem, and send it via e-mail to us. We then, in turn, send a message to a specialist to review, once we get the reply, we then inform the patient either via e-mail or by phone.

These steps were made due to the pandemic we are currently facing. It is to follow the social distancing, and to prevent/lessen the patients, providers and clinicians of possible exposure to the covid-19 virus.