The Doctor Is In
They may have gotten the green light from Gov. Tom Wolf, but area medical offices are proceeding with caution.
Butler County moved into the green phase of reopening for business June 5.
That opened the floodgates as far as Michelle Bable, the practice administrator for Wigton Eye Care Associates, a five-doctor practice with offices in Butler and Grove City, was concerned.
“We are so busy. We are booked and trying to accommodate all of our patients and their needs,” Bable said. “We are trying to think outside the box to accommodate the patients.”
Patients are coming to the office to take care of the situations they had put off when they were under COVID-19 lockdown.
“The emergent situations we saw were retinal tears, retinal detachments, red eyes, foreign bodies and other urgent eye conditions,” said Bable. “Urgent situations we handled were broken eyeglasses and repairs so that patients could continue to see properly.”
But it's not business as usual. Wigton Eye Care has, in accordance with CDC and OSHA guidelines, has enhanced sanitizing procedures and is limiting the number of patients in its offices to make social distancing easier.
Bable said this means it will be necessary to schedule an appointment for any visit to the office.
“We are limiting the number of appointments. We have to adjust our schedule to accommodate COVID-19 scheduling for the new normal,” she said.
Masks or face coverings are required at all times, and patients are asked not to bring visitors with them.
The staff has implemented OSHA-recommended environmental and administrative controls, including breath shields and sneeze guards.
Patients will have their temperatures checked with a touchless thermometer and be asked to fill out a COVID-19 questionnaire.
Patients with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or more will be asked to reschedule their appointment.
Wigton Eye Care has a phone check-in service available for patients upon arrival to the office.
Bable added glasses repair and adjustments will be done in the parking lot.
Frame selection and additional optical services will be done during scheduled in-office visits.
Direct shipment for contact lenses, as well as online ordering options, are available.
The pace has picked up since the county went green, but the office never really closed completely during the quarantine.
“We actually were seeing emergency and emergent care patients during that time,” Bable said. “If a patient had broken their glasses or had an eye emergency, we were able to take care of patients at that time.
“Our patients have been excited for us to return.”
She asked clients be patient through the new procedures designed to increase patient safety.
Patient safety is why the dental practice of Butler Smiles, 291 Evans City Road, is not back to full capacity, said its owner Dr. Bob Todd.“It's going to be a couple of weeks before we are back to running anywhere near a normal schedule,” the dentist said.For now, Todd and his staff of six are adapting to new procedures and new equipment in the wake of the CORVID-19 shutdown.“We are adopting quite a few new things, like a special air cleaner for the HVAC system, multiple layers of PPE from the masks we wear to face shields, hair coverings and disposable gowns,” Todd said.He's added barriers at the windows of the business office, as well as text check-ins from the parking lot to keep the waiting room empty.“Everyone gets their temperature taken, employees and patients,” Todd said. “For now, we will cut into the number of patients seen in a day. It's the choreography of how we have to do business, not crossing paths in the hallway.“It's a lot of work to figuring out how to make this as efficiently as possible.”Location changeIt might be a lot of work for patients of Butler Eye Care to find the office, according to Dr. Michael McGrath, who co-owns the practice with his wife, Jennifer McGrath. The optometrist said the practice moved during the lockdown, from 297 Evans City Road to 391 Evans City Road.“When we reopened, we didn't know what to expect,” he said. “We've been very busy. There's a lot of pent-up demand.”He assured returning patients that new protocols and procedures follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Optometric Association recommendations.“Our staff and doctors are to wear masks at all times,” McGrath said.
