Friday, July 17
Hello patients and friends,
It’s been a while since I sent a note and I wanted to follow up with a few updates on the COVID-19 situation in Oregon, our practice accommodations, and my thoughts about the coming months.
For the moment we’re very busy catching up in the office from months of being mostly closed to “routine” physicals and follow up visits. Julia and Dr. Biemer are also working hard at staying healthy so we can continue to care for you.
Since the beginning of June, we have been open from 8 am to 4:30 pm on Monday to Thursday and 8 am to noon on Friday. As always I am available after hours for urgent matters by calling my cell phone 503-481-5871 and for non-urgent questions I’d encourage you to use our Athena Portal.
VIRTUAL VISITS:
We have continued to use the DOXY.ME platform for virtual visits. The sign on is very simple and patients who have used it are impressed with its ease and how closely it resembles an in-person visit. During the early months of Covid we had a lot of visits with patients using this platform and we are still very much interested in its use going forward. I am hoping for the best but it would be expected that during the fall and winter flu season it will again be risky to leave home if you have medical issues complicating your health. Please let our staff know if you’d like assistance in setting up a virtual visit.
COVID-19 TESTING:
Really a huge disappointment that locally and nationally testing continues to be a problem. In addition to testing patients who have a new cough, or fever etc., we have many patients who have been exposed to someone with Covid, or are going to be traveling soon and need to test negative within a short window before travel. We are working with 3 labs (and working on a 4th) to try and accommodate your requests. We have a few test kits, but due to shortages of both testing KITS (swab, tubes for transport etc.) and REAGENTS (testing solutions for the lab) it is a fact that nasal swabs for Covid often take between 3 and 5 days to be returned. I agree this is NOT very helpful. See list below as well, with some urgent cares that are doing testing.
A LOOK AHEAD:
Although the state of Oregon has had a significant increase in cases compared with a month ago we’ve avoided the dramatic increases that have been seen in many large populous states. St. Vincent and Providence Portland continue to take on all the Covid patients for the 8 Providence hospitals in the state and currently we have just over 10 patients in the hospital. We’re doing well with equipment for protecting health care workers in the hospital and I think we’re ready for a “surge” should it occur in the fall. I am concerned though that the virus has shown no signs of slowing in the summer, and with relaxed distancing and groups gathering we’re likely to continue to see significant numbers in the months ahead. Please protect yourself by wearing a mask and think twice before traveling to an area with high prevalence of disease.
Stay well!
Jim Biemer, Julia Jones and the team
|
