To our Patient Family,

We know you have seen a lot of information regarding Coronavirus (COVID-19), but please read this message in its entirety as it specifically pertains to our office.

Innovative Pain Treatment Solutions and Surgery Center is open and seeing patients at this time. Should this change, we will update you.

With growing concerns regarding the COVID-19 virus, we would like to reassure you that patient safety is our number one priority. As a medical clinic and surgery center, we already have strict guidelines and protocols in place to protect the health of our patients. In addition to those protocols, we are taking extra steps to further ensure patient and team safety.

During this time, it is our goal to maintain patient safety with minimal disruption of services to our patients. Please be assured that our facility is a safe place. We will continue to closely follow the CDC recommendations and will adjust our protocols as advised. In addition, we are asking all of our patients to comply with the following new policies.

**All patients will be pre-screened prior to their appointment. This includes a phone call from a member of our staff and a specific intake process that will include the staff obtaining your temperature prior to being checked in.

**Important – To comply with Social Distancing – we ask that you limit the number of people accompanying you to your scheduled office visit to yourself and/or your primary care giver. Please do not bring any additional adults, family members, or children to your appointments.

**Our staff has been updated on best practices as distributed by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control.) We continue to uphold hand washing and hand sanitizer guidelines and are increasing cleaning practices throughout the office. We use an EPA approved, hospital-grade disinfectants throughout our office. Exam and treatment rooms continue to be cleaned with extra attention.

**Our staff has been reminded to monitor their own health and stay home should they begin experiencing flu-like symptoms as well.

**If you are sick, the CDC recommends you stay home to prevent spreading to others. If you are experiencing cold or flu-like symptoms including fever, cough, shortness of breath, we will require that you reschedule your appointment at this time.

Telemedicine

If you are age 65 and older with a compromised immune system, or have self quarantined for your protection, we are implementing Telemedicine services effective this Friday March 20th. You will be contacted by our office to schedule a Telemedicine medicine appointment if appropriate.  To complete a Telemedicine appointment, you must check in through your patient portal and connect to the provider using an audio and visual  HIPAA compliant system.  When scheduling, a member of our care team will walk you through this process.

As a community, there are some things that we can all do. We ask that you please follow these best practices in our office and at your home:

• Frequently washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
• Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
• Sneezing or coughing into a tissue or your elbow.

Please remember, we are here for you.  We will get through this together.  Thank you for your efforts to protect our incredible community.

Warmest Regards,

Dr. Heather Barrett
Chief Operations Officer
Innovative Pain Treatment Solutions and Surgery