Codman Re-Opens Doors for Routine Medical Care: Beyond COVID-19
Almost four months after we suspended in-person, routine health care visits to focus on COVID-19 care, Urgent Care, and patients who needed emergent, in-person care, Codman is happy to begin re-opening its doors, under strict regulatory guidelines, for most routine care visits.
Some routine care that can be and has been delivered via telehealth will continue as well. For example, our Behavioral Health and Nutrition departments are still conducting most of their visits via telehealth. Both departments have reported the effectiveness of this method.
Although Codman made many changes to its model of care and operations to address the pandemic, patients continue to receive the same high-quality care they have always received. These changes include:
- Curbside Appointment Check-In. Patients who arrive to their appointment in a car can check in over the phone and stay in their vehicle until their provider is ready to see them. This significantly reduces the number of people in the clinic and enables social distancing protocol. Patients just call 617-825-9660 and press 9 when they arrive.
- Appointment Time Buffers. We have increased the amount of time between each appointment to reduce the number of people in the Health Center.
- Socially Distanced Waiting Rooms. To ensure that patients stay socially distanced, waiting room chairs have been placed six feet away from each other, and staff are monitoring room capacity. If a waiting room fills to capacity, a patient service navigator can move patients to an overflow waiting area in our pediatric group room.
- Visitors Screened. Friends or family members who accompany a patient to an appointment are screened by front desk staff and receive a visitor’s badge while they are here. This enables Codman to monitor who is in the building.
- Transition to Mobile COVID-19 testing. After almost three months, we removed the testing tent standing in the parking lot. Now, patients and community members who want COVID-19 testing can attend one of our daily mobile testing sites. We also continue to test in our Urgent Care Department.