Due to the current situation, many doctor's offices are empty because the frightened public stays away. Private practice doc work every day and many have empty schedules for stuff like ingrown toenail procedures etc and labs. They of course have the safety methods in place blah blah. It will also give you a glimpse into how doctors are coping and what they are doing every day. I know our resident docs particularly the generous one in Houston understand. I am self employed and this is a real challenge for me right now. Think about.

As mentioned earlier dentists are working. There are four dental practices near my office and an oral surgeon. They of course are authorized to do emergency only but they are doing it and they need the business. So think about it. Is it safer to go to the grocery store on the doctor? Get stuff done NOW while you can. It is like TP was a month ago.

This is a very near-sighted opinion.

Exposure of the doctors and staff is very thing that needs to be accomplished. The doctors and staff is a VERY limited quantity of skilled individuals that are needed to treat those that are sick or back-stop those colleagues that have gotten sick.

In addition, if a patient hasn't gotten sick yet then bringing them out to an environment that his higher risk in nature is irresponsible.

In my practice, we continue to push off stable patients without significant issues to a later time/date to limit our exposure and theirs.

Do the medical community a favour - stay home for now.

Andrew

What’s going to change in a week? Two weeks? Or a month. I’m so sick of hearing to stay at home. At some point we’re going to have to be brave and try to start living again.

Folks that are are so afraid of their own shadows spreading diseases and want to stay home, fine. But, if you want to be seen, you are welcome and encouraged to check in and be seen. As I have always preached, good hand hygiene is number one. If you have fever or cough, wear a mask, or one will be provided to you. And, I'm saying this not because I depend on the number of patients seen. I don't.

^^^
The post above yours reflects the general opinion. That is sadly MYOPIC. Look about you. They dont get it do they??? Sad. The ER is slammed and ICU. What is wrong with these people?? Too much network TV????? Try getting needed labs for cholesterol CK levels in a month. I had rhabo, that put me in inpatient last November. I will just wait till I am deaths door and then show up at the ER. Jesus
what is wrong with these folks. I had Depression Era parents I am always prepared. Ammo stacked very deep, etc. I survived loss of home and my business in Katrina. WTF RANT OFF.

I work in Orthopedics and we are only treating acute fractures, following up on fractures we have already treated. No routine appointments for chronic joint pain, no steroid injections.
Today I saw a whopping 6 patients. Luckily I am salaried by the hospital so we will accept these slow days for now. Once people get out and about and break more bones and the people needing hip or
Knee or shoulder replacements start coming in, we will more than make up for it.
Been on call all week, not a single call for
An acute trauma/ surgical case. Do have the weekend to go, so we will see

I don't know about other states, but dentists here in Michigan will take *only* emergency appointments. I presume the same with my GP. I have a temporary crown, the permanent one probably sitting at my dentist's, a filling to be done, another crown to get started on, and a new partial. All at a dead stop. I've a referral for a colonoscopy. Stopped. Had a scan to check for susceptibility to an aortic aneurysm prescribed (precautionary, because I'm an ex-smoker). Stopped.

So, yeah, maybe now would be a good time to go to the doctor or dentist for routine stuff--expect you can't. Not here, anyway.

As you know healthcare is my deal. Also running a private practice so HOW would I have any clue. My brother is a firefighter and so is my nephew. So I guess I might have a clue. Four dental practices are behind my office. Chiro next door. You know your stuff with tech.
Our bud in Houston understands. I see why all that got stopped. It is elective. You could get a scan here for a Triple A. Yeah how come? Depends who you know. This is not special privilge crap. You think docs are waiting to get that scan done if they need it??? No because they work in the field, know the risks and only certain docs are slammed. My derm was not. I needed some stuff removed and it got done. It depends on your perspective. You are quite intelligent and will figure it out if need be.

People will have their own perspective. If you have risk factors it is foolish to postpone needed labs. Your GP may be saying this it depends on multiple factors. Our docs are working. They do not all work in the ER. They do not want sick patients but others who missing checkups is not good. BTW we are in lockdown similar to you guys. Lots of docs work for hospitals. So guess who runs the show. All docs follow the protocols indicated. MY derm had a N95 mask on. Not a soul in the office. If it can be postponed that is fine. My needs were not critcal but I needed my Primary to figure out what labs I needed for a bunch of stuff. I do not want to be a burden on the system but these labs were critical for me. Thank God I have the knowledge to know that. Routine care is available everywhere IF needed. Telehealth is available and Medicare will pay the full bill. I am trying to learn that. Imagine figuring all of that cell phone compatiblity etc. (I may shoot you an email about that if OK.]

If you are willing I may shoot you an email and we can talk at length some time. I will need assistance trying to configure headphone setup with iphone and computer. James helped me out with headphone stuff. Yeah us and technology. Look I am a Chicago guy and in the same age group I think. Take care. I need to head home and get rest for some more patients tomorrow. More later. Thanks again

My doctors have gone to video appointments when at all possible. No issues so far. I’ve gone in for a couple labs and been the only patient in the office. The eye exam coming up requires an office visit so I think I’ll reschedule.

In my region (Oregon), our ER's are not slammed. I've stated this in other threads before. My wife in an OR nurse at a level 1 trauma hospital. There's nothing happening. She got paid for a full 40 hour week this week and she spent exactly 16 hours at work this week. Four hours on Monday, Tuesday paid day off, eight hours on Wednesday, four hours today and has tomorrow as a paid day off.

They're sending people home because there's nothing to do unless you're attending to one of the ELEVEN Covid-19 patients that are in the hospital or unless an emergency trauma comes in. Since this whole thing started, her hospital has seen a grand total of 95 positive Covid-19 patients. I was one of them. There's 500 beds in her hospital.

My best friend is a dentist and owns his own practice. He is one month through his mandatory three month shutdown. He had to lay off his whole staff except one person so they can handle emergency cases.

My state needs to reopen. I had the Chinese Bat Flu and with hand-washing, air filters, changing clothes and sheets every day, staying in my room while I was sick and wiping down things we touched, we were able to keep anyone else in the family from getting sick. One of the people who lives in my home is my 79 year old mother. She did not catch it, even though she lived under the same roof as me the whole time.My 41 year old wife and my 9 year old son did not get it either (although I could have caught it from my son if he brought it home from school).

Tony.

Part of the issue with dentists is that they are working on the portal of infection for the most part. Of the 70+ doctors that died in Italy a large number were dentists. If you come into my ER we can mitigate the chances of my exposure by both the patient and I wearing masks. That’s not possible for dentists. Some stats show that prolonged exposure to the virus can lead to greater mortality. A dentist sticking his face in your mouth for 20-30 min at a time is dangerous to the dentist.

On a personal note I have never felt so short of breath and claustrophobic as I do wearing all this PPE. An N95 with a surgical mask covering it, surgeons cap, goggles over my glasses, and wearing a plastic gown to boot just sucks. Running from room to room in the ER, glasses fogging up, hot as hell, trying to intubate a patient with sweat running into your goggles fucking sucks. I wish I would have purchased a good PAPR with a hood before this all started. The positive pressure fan makes your head and face nice and cool.

Our hospital here, which serves three counties, has been so slow they’ve furloughed employees and filed for bankruptcy. If they close down, we’re screwed. The next closest hospital is 70 miles away.

Thanks to you guys who shared your hospital situations and locations - we’ve been waiting for our city to be overwhelmed by sick people, and along with most other small business owners, watching our business ice.

I’ve seen 2 major hospitals in our area lay off hundreds in the last weeks, but it’s been stated that they’re mostly folks whose skills can’t translate to nursing, etc.

Our offices are almost completely empty, but we now have payroll protection money that we have to use and the clock started ticking. With stay at home orders through mid May, it is going to be very tough to get completely up to speed and stay on our feet with no patient load to carry us through once that money is gone, as people will still be too frightened to justify going to the eye doc, and continue to put it off. Add to that the typical minimum two week delay in being paid by most insurances. We are walking a tightrope.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: irreverent,

ZSMICHAEL, are you honestly calling me short sighted because I don’t want to see the economy crash and hospitals face massive budget cuts and lay offs and possibly even close? That’s happening in my neck of the woods, pay cuts and potential layoffs were just discussed in an emergency meeting yesterday. This hospital is losing millions EVERY SINGLE DAY because elective surgeries are all being put on hold. How sustainable is that? It’s not the same everywhere. Not every hospital is swamped. Some areas are barely impacted by the actual virus but the fear of it has been catastrophic.

You have to consider that the economic impact could be equally as painful and destructive as the spread of the virus. How long do you think people should shelter in place? How long do you think our economy should take a beating? A week? A month? A year? What exactly are we waiting for? You couldn’t answer that yet decided to call ME myopic? At some point we have to let those willing to live their life have that opportunity.

^^^^ I could be wrong, but I think he was referring to the post by El Cid 92, not yours.

I must agree. The fear factor is extreme. As you know, many non-covid deaths are being counted as cover, because the fed is covering cover patient's bills. Even so, we're only at 28k deaths. A moderated flu season kills 40k. WTF? Are were going to start locking down every year? I very much resent my piss ant mayor of 30k people issuing "orders" enforced by cops. That's some commie style shit. Now I gotta stand on a blue square 6 feet away from others, waiting to get into a grocery store that may or may not have what I need. That's a bread line, comrade. I gotta wear a mask to get on a bus, and no masks to be had? Insane.

12131, I think you are correct. I don’t believe he was referring to me.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
As you know healthcare is my deal. ... You know your stuff with tech.

I suppose this is in response to my comments. (If not: Disregard.) This isn't a question about knowing the healthcare system. Doctors' and dentists' offices here simply aren't taking appointments for elective or otherwise non-critical issues. Period.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
If you are willing I may shoot you an email and we can talk at length some time. I will need assistance trying to configure headphone setup with iphone and computer.

Again: If this is me to whom this is directed: If it's Bluetooth and an iPhone there's really nothing to it. You go to the Bluetooth section in Settings, follow whatever the wireless thingy's directions say to put it in discover mode, select it when it appears on the iPhone, enter the PIN (if required). Done.

As for your computer: Can't help you. Don't do MS-Windows, have yet to have ever owned a Mac, have never done any Bluetooth anything with Linux. Sorry.

As someone 65 years old, with Heart Disease, COPD, and Emphyzema I feel like I am walking around with a big target on my back. BTW, ever since my CABG and Mitral repair I've made it a habit to check weight, temp, and blood pressure every morning. I also exercise every other day.

Because of this and my use of Lisinopril I normally see my primary every 3 months and the cardiologist every 6 months. The first week of April I was due for my normal checkup with my Primary and when they called to confirm I was coming in I told them I would have to decline. Because I don not care a whit about all the precautions taken, no one will guarantee that walking the same path as someone who might be a carrier is not a path to infection.
Typically for these appointments, after spending up to 2 hours in the waiting room, all that is done is check my weight, blood pressure, and temperature. Then the doctor listens to me complaining about the arthritis in my wrists and thumbs. BTW, NOTHING has been suggested to treat that Artritis and it's getting worse. Note, first and now second joint of both thumbs and the radial head of both wrists.

So, Doctor let me ask this. Does your office have a vestibule that can trap emitted breath vapors, coughs, or sneezes? Do you have the door from the vestibule to the Outside (preferred) or waiting area blocked open? Are you avoiding ANY use of the waiting area? Are you providing a mask for every patient walking into your office? Do you have someone monitoring every single patient and wiping down any surface touched by a patient immediately? If you have to answer NO to any of these questions your office is NOT safe for any patient with a high risk profile.

Saw my cardiologist Wednesday. Limited entry into the building. Call when you arrive, paid the copay from my car. Then screened at the door and go straight to his section and into the exam room. Everyone with masks including me. I did not wear gloves, although I carried some in, because I didn’t touch anything.
Saw the doc had our discussion quickly and outta there.
Going back Monday for work up prior to cardiac cath at 0700 on Thursday. It was the soonest they had available. I’d go today if they called me.
He did tell me if I ended up in the ER to make damn sure they called him right away and he’d get me out of there and into a room, he does not want me in the ER for any length of time.