March 22, 2020
This afternoon, Governor Edwards announced a stay at home order for the state of Louisiana in an attempt to further combat the Covid 19 pandemic and specifically its rapid spread in our state. The official announcement is on the Governor’s website www.gov.louisiana.gov.
Based on our expectation of this announcement, Hebert Medical Group transitioned to a virtual outpatient clinic this past week. By the end of the week, we had everything in place to go 100% virtual visits through telemedicine on Monday, March 23, 2020. We did this in order to protect our patients from possible infection and our staff. We are available for all of our patients and new patients, even if it is just a quick question or a full office visit. So do not hesitate to contact us during our normal hours at 8:00 am- 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. After you contact us through the website portal or call us ( 337-210-2098; 337-550-8530), our front office staff will set up an appointment for you that day. A staff member will contact you at the time of the visit. If you are the parent of the patient (child), please make sure the child is with you in order to complete the video telemedicine visit. I, or one of our ENT nurse practitioners, will then complete the telemedicine visit with you. This past week all of our telemedicine visits went well, and the patients seemed engaged and enjoyed the format of the visit. If you have an emergency after-hours, the on-call ENT surgeon will take care of you.
Last Wednesday, we began canceling all elective surgeries as directed by the CDC and State. Our staff contacted all scheduled patients and informed them of the need to postpone. We will contact you, if you were one of our canceled surgery patients when we are able to perform elective surgeries again safely. Urgent and emergent surgeries will still be performed on a case by case basis after a telemedicine visit with me. Currently, after hours, any emergency surgeries on our patients will be handled in the usual manner. Call our office number, and you will be contacted by the ENT surgeon on call for my call group. We operate on adult emergency cases at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center’s main campus and emergency pediatric cases at the Women’s & Children’s campus. I will be the ENT surgeon on call for the week starting March 30, 2020, through April 5th.
Regarding our ancillary departments at Hebert Medical Group, I have included a brief message from our Allergy, Audiology and Fyzical PT departments below.
Allergy: Melanie Rose
After much consideration, the Allergy department has decided to postpone all scheduled allergy tests at this time. If you have a test scheduled in the next two weeks, a staff member will be contacting you to reschedule for a future date. For the time being, we will continue to administer allergy shots in Dr. Charice Hebert’s office (our old office) on Wednesdays and Fridays. We will not be administering shots in our Jennings office for the next two weeks. We are asking all Jennings allergy patients to come to the Eunice office to receive their shots in the interim. You will enter through the side door to receive your injection. At any time, if you feel uncertain about receiving your shot, or have any questions, please contact the Allergy department 550-8530 ext 4.
Audiology : Naomi Theriot / Loren Thibodeaux
We wanted to let all of our Audiology and hearing aid patients know that our clinic will be closed for Audiology patients for the next few weeks. In order to continue to serve our patients, we will be available by phone and patients can call the office numbers 337-550-8530; 337-210-2098 and ask the receptionist to notify us in order to set up a phone call. It is possible that we can possibly walk through hearing aid issues over the phone. We hope to see you all soon.
Fyzical: Scott Boudreaux
In light of the current events surrounding the spread of COVID-19, we will no longer be holding a therapy clinic in the short term to do our part in preventing further spread. However, we are currently working diligently to maintain our communication with you in order to reach your therapeutic goals. We are taking advantage of every opportunity to make sure all FYZICAL patients get what they need! Whether through Telehealth for our private insurances or by the newly established E-Visits for Medicare, we will continue working with you to deliver the highest level of care and greatest safety possible for both our patients and our staff. The circumstances continue to change but our goal always remains to help you LOVE YOUR LIFE! So if you need us ( current or past patients ) or have any questions what so ever regarding your Fyzical therapy, please do not hesitate to call us at 337-210-2098.
In closing, I ask that everyone out there, please do your part in fighting this pandemic and crisis by following the recommendations of our State and National leaders. I realize at this time in our lives, This crisis seems surreal, and maybe has not hit home for some. But, all you have to do is look at the conditions in Italy and see where we could be in 2 weeks if we do NOT practice social distancing to a high degree!
Sincerely and God Bless
Richard L. Hebert, II, MD
