Shasta Ortho’s COVID-19 Protocol

Shasta Ortho’s COVID-19 Protocol
Protecting the Health of our Staff, Patients, Partners & Community

This article outlines the protocols and action items Shasta Ortho has been implementing to protect our community while maintaining a continuity of care to the greatest extent possible.

At Shasta Ortho and Liberty Physical Therapy our doctors and directors continue to monitor this event very closely and are making every effort to ensure our community, patients and staff are safe.

As a reminder, our response to COVID-19 was initiated on Saturday, February 29, 2020 and we continue to take this event very seriously. We initiated activities with the managers to coordinate a bulk purchase of a backup supply of steroids, needles, hand sanitizer, chloral-prep, masks and reinforce hand washing and hygiene requirements for all staff. We continue to monitor and maintain our backup supply of masks, chloral-prep and other essential supplies. We remind all staff to comply with appropriate hand washing, coughing, sneezing and hygiene techniques and ensure routine cleaning of keyboards, work surfaces, doorknobs, handrails, etc.

Mask protocols have also been distributed.

We have implemented patient prescreening protocols. We have initiated personal pre-appointment screening telephone calls to all patients. Those of our patients who do not have symptoms are instructed to come alone to limit the number of people in the office and maintain social distancing. Patients with significant mobility problems are allowed assistance. Patients who describe symptoms are referred to Mercy Virtual Clinic.

We have enhanced the signage at our entrances which state the following:

Telehealth are visits conducted by phone, computer or a video conferencing platform. Telehealth options have existed for some time, but are now a great option to protect our community and staff from COVID-19. Telehealth Visits are an effective and convenient option for care where being able to see the patient is necessary, such as looking at a wound site, injury or mobility.

Telephone Visits can be ideal for normal post-op follow-up, review of diagnostic imaging (e.g. MRI results), or lab results.

Patent notifications regarding our precautions as well as the availability of telemedicine and telephone encounters have been placed on our website. The information on our website is being constantly updated.

We have also received and distributed several non-contact thermometers, again to minimize physical contact of the patient and our staff. For those established patients of ours who may be demonstrating emergent symptoms which must be seen, we have established a “Containment Exam Room”. The “Containment Exam Room” is near the main entrance of the office to limit to a minimum degree their access to the office. This room is cleaned immediately after the encounter.

We want to thank our staff for their courage and vigilance in keeping our community, patients and staff safe as we navigate through COVID-19 (the coronavirus). We also want to thank our patients for their compliance with the extra safety measures and protocol we have put in place for the safety of our community, patients and staff.