How COVID-19 is Effecting All Clinical Procedures
COVID-19 has changed many things including how clinic visits are handled now. Here is some insight from one of our staff member’s recent experience at a clinic.
Earlier this week, I called to get my 2-year-old son an appointment for an ear infection (he also has some minor congestion and a cough), a condition he has frequently. During the call, I was told that I had to talk to his doctor’s nurse first because he may need to go to the respiratory clinic. I was the last person to think I would ever have to go through some bizarre procedure to get my son seen for an ear infection.
In my mind I was thinking, what does this mean for him? What does this mean for my family and myself? Were they automatically going to test him for COVID-19? I mean, I was sure hoping they wouldn’t unless they absolutely felt the need to. From what I had seen, that test looked not only painful, but traumatizing to adults, let alone a 2-year-old boy. Luckily his doctor’s nurse called quickly and asked a few questions and was going to have his doctor call back for a follow-up. They then called the respiratory clinic and spoke with a physician there. From there, they decided to set up an appointment for him to be seen. The nurse with the respiratory clinic called and set up a time for him to be seen.
The instructions were to park on the south side of the building near the big orange construction barrels. The barrels were labeled for parking purposes and we were assigned to C1. I was to call upon arrival of the clinic and not get out of my car. When I called, she asked me all of the questions about my son that a nurse would ask when they bring you back to the room. What is going on with him today? Has he traveled in the last 14 days? She also talked about needing to wear masks and how important it is to keep them on. There was going to be two nurses who came out to the car to get us to come inside, but they said if my son were to take his mask off inside the clinic, they would need to shut the clinic down for 4 hours! She decided I needed to talk to the doctor and see how he wanted to proceed. He decided that he and his nurse would get their personal protective equipment (PPE) on and come and see my son in my car. I was told I needed to get him out of the car seat, put him on my lap and put my window down. The doctor came out within 5 minutes to do an assessment of his breathing and his ears. He diagnosed my son with an ear infection.
Out of curiosity, I decided to ask him his thoughts on the whole pandemic. He didn’t say too much on the subject, but one of his only comments was that they do not have a certain set of symptoms for COVID-19 in kids. With that being said it is extremely important to maintain good personal hygiene, a clean home, and social distance as much as possible.