Kind staff, clean office, sanitization procedures enacted, and social distancing enforcement. If…read moreyou absolutely have to go to a clinic in these times, these are the things you hope to see once you get inside. Most of these things existed here in one way or another, and some were strictly enforced, with a few exceptions in their lobby/waiting room.
Reception folks had masks. They had a "used pen" basket, but pens and old papers were left on the counter from previous patients. I would have liked to have seen mask enforcement on other waiting patients in the lobby; roping off chairs seemed insufficient as the waiting room is quite small.
I would have also liked to have seen hand sanitizer stations near every door with a handle (my glove ripped opening one, which made me afraid to touch anything).
The doctor (or APRN) is only allowed to enter your room once, to limit exposure, so he has to make sure he's doing it at the exact right time. For my visit, it was at the end of my appointment, after he had spoken to me on my cell twice, after one nurse asked general history questions (do you smoke, etc), another nurse recorded my symptoms over the phone, and a radiologist took me to get an X-Ray.
During the APRN's short time with me, he took my BP, listened to my lungs, took my temp, recorded my RHR, and said he was pretty sure what I had was related to asthma and allergies. He also explained, "We have seen a lot of COVID here," so that I knew why he was unable to remain in the room for more than 5 min. The "a lot of COVID" statement scared me and had me grabbing paper towels from the patient room sink, just in case I had to touch anything on my way out.
Most of my visit was by phone call from within the patient room; four phone calls in total to various nurses and the APRN. Why didn't they just do this with me from the parking lot? I spent all day trying to avoid exposure (this all started by a TeleClinic mandating I see someone in person because my symptoms necessitated an "in-person evaluation and diagnosis"), so leaving me in a room where numerous COVID patients were recently shedding for at least an hour each, felt like unnecessary risk to a non-COVID patient if evaluation was all to occur via phone anyway.
During my visit, I also had a chest X-Ray due to chest pain, tightness and difficulty breathing; I was told I'd be given another mask, but they let me wear my personal, homemade mask.
When all was said and done, I (an otherwise healthy patient, with asthma), was exposed the second-hand COVID germs for almost 90 minutes and was left to ensure my own sanitization for much of that time (mostly by avoiding touching anything).
All in all, it was likely safer than shopping at Costco, and they had a lot of the right procedures in place, but I would prefer better enforcement and more safeguards and consideration be applied from the patient's perspective, and not just the clinic staff's perspectives. However, they were very kind and attentive, and I felt they truly did care about ensuring a correct diagnosis before I left their building.
