We hope everyone is safe and well during this difficult time and practicing Social Distancing. We are in our 3rd week of Telemedicine at Hebert Medical Group and things are going well. We have been able to reach almost all of our patients and some new patients who request our services for ENT care. We are trying to keep the ball rolling, so when we return to the office, we can hit the ground running! Going forward, Telemedicine visits will forever be part of our system!
With that said, it was a difficult decision to temporarily close the physical office to patients converting to a 100% virtual office setting. But, as we have seen the spread of Covid 19 throughout our communities, state, country, and the world, we realize it was the best thing to do for everyone. Now, every day is an adventure as we learn to maximize our IT skills and navigate this new way of providing healthcare to our patients. It has been exciting to watch them embrace this technology, as individuals and families. Personally, I have been impressed with the skills and determination of our older patients and watching their younger family members teach them how to communicate electronically.
When do we return to seeing patients in the traditional office setting? This is the BIG question. We are continually gathering information and opinions and will keep our patients abreast of this start-up date. When do we start performing elective ENT surgery? This is another BIG question. It will depend on the hospitals and surgery centers where we currently perform surgery. As soon as there is a safe consensus from the medical ENT community, we will resume. We will first notify and reschedule our patients that were postponed due to the initial wave of cancellations, and then proceed to schedule those patients we are seeing now that require surgery. We are still able to operate on urgent and emergent ENT cases.
Today, I would like to share a few pics of our Telemedicine office setting! I hope you enjoy them.
God Bless,
Dr. Hebert
