As a mother of three children, I have found that doing my best to stay ahead of the game, usually keeps me pretty close to being on track. With that being said, there is nothing worse than having to play catch up when it comes to your child’s medical needs. My son turned 18 months old on March 10th 2020. I was relieved to have already scheduled his well visit for the following week. Unfortunately, right after receiving the reminder notification, I got an email announcing that a physician at the practice that we attend, had tested positive for COVID-19.
Immediately my mind began racing. Should I cancel his appointment? Am I being ridiculous? Should I just reschedule? If I reschedule, how will I know if the date that I’m given is safe? All of these questions came flooding in prior to the stay home order going into effect, and before COVID-19 had actually been declared a pandemic.
Well, I decided that I would rather be safe than sorry and cancel. I still had no real clue what was actually going on, and I preferred to get more facts before possibly putting my children at risk. A couple of weeks later, I was on a zoom call and voiced my concerns about taking my kids in to the doctors office for well visits. Another woman mentioned that she had a great experience, and suggested that I reach out to my pediatrician and find out what new practices they had in place.
I took her advice and reached out for some clarity. I trust our pediatrician, as she was briefly my pediatrician as well. My first question was: Does he need to come in for any vaccinations? The answer was yes. What I love most about our doctor is that she doesn’t tell you what you should do. Instead, she gives recommendations and leaves the parenting to you! Her suggestion was that I bring him in and since we were now almost two months behind, to simply stagger his two year visit by two months.
My next question was: So how does this work? She explained that there are now two screenings before you can even get into the office.
The first is a phone screening where they ask questions about exposure to COVID-19 and assess whether or not you or anyone in your home are exhibiting symptoms of the virus.
The Second screening is conducted literally at the front door when you walk in! They ask you to remove your mask and discard it. Then they provide you with a new mask and take your temperature. They have a list of all of the patients coming in that day, and once you have been checked in and cleared you can head up to the waiting room.
As a precautionary measure well visits are conducted in the morning, and sick visits are scheduled later in the afternoon. Our practice is also seeing babies and younger children first and then older children later on.
The process was exactly as she explained it to me. My son and I were only in the waiting room long enough to check in, and called in pretty much immediately after. I have to say whatever method they are using to schedule patients seemed effective as well. There was no one else in the waiting room at the time that we were scheduled. I assume that is why they made it clear that you may not arrive any sooner that 10 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time.
I had a great experience. Everything was clean, there was very little traffic, the whole process was extremely organized. I would encourage you to reach out to your healthcare provider and find out what their procedures are to minimize contact with other patients during these difficult times. I do believe that especially now, it is important to keep our children up to date with their vaccinations.These new precautions, definitely helped me get my little one back on track.
Have a question about our experience that I didn’t cover?
Leave it in the comments!
Wishing you all good health and happiness.