Steps to Keep Your Patients and Staff Safer During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Chiropractors in many states are considered an essential business, and therefore, may remain open during shelter-in place orders. If you are treating patients in office, you may need to amend your operations in order to flatten the curve. On behalf of the profession, we researched some simple ways you can help to keep patients and staff safer while still providing excellent service and care.

Ways to Reduce Transmission at Your Office

• Decrease the risk of surface transmission by removing unnecessary objects including sign-in sheets, toys, magazines, literature, and candy bowls.
• Provide facial tissues and hand sanitizer.
• Stagger appointments in observation of social distancing guidelines and restrict congregation of people in the waiting room.
• Ask patients to call from the parking lot when they arrive in order to check-in.
• Only the patient is to come into the office. If a child is being treated, only one parent may accompany them. No siblings may attend the appointment unless being treated.
• Instruct patients to avoid touching the doors and other items in the office.
• Screen each patient for possible COVID-19 exposure or symptoms.
• Keep visits short.
• If possible, wear protective gear such as masks and gloves to reduce the possibility of potential transmission from patient-staff and staff-patient.
• Process patient payments using a “no touch solution” such as stored card on file or online payment. CTPayments, our integrated payment processing tool, is ideal for this.
• Wash your hands thoroughly and often.
• Thoroughly clean and disinfect all tools and equipment used after each patient visit.
• Thoroughly clean and disinfect all offices surfaces throughout the day. Follow the general recommendations for routine cleaning and disinfecting by the CDC.

Patient Screening Questions

Incorporating COVID-19-specifc screening questions at the beginning of each appointment can help track the patient’s risk factors as well as any symptoms. If a COVID-19 infection is suspected, you may choose to advise the patient how and where to seek testing or critical care, if you are not equipped to handle this yourself. As always, use your best judgement when providing care to keep yourself and your staff safe.

• Have you traveled in the past month? If so, to where?
  • Ask specifically about international travel or travel to hot spot areas including Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, or Washington. (update hot spot list as needed)
• Have you been in contact with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 in the past 14 days?
• Have you been in close contact with a person with an acute respiratory illness in the past 14 days?
• Have you had a cough, shortness of breath, fever, vomiting/diarrhea, myalgia or severe fatigue not associated with travel in the past two weeks?
  • Allergies should be noted as well.

Patient Alerts in ChiroTouch

To help ensure each patient is screened prior to their appointment, consider using the Group Alerts feature in the Front Desk, Patient Management area. Here, you can create the alert once and have it apply to all patients. Upon check in, the front desk will be prompted to ask your screening questions and then are able to document the information given in the Patient Daily Note section.

For more information about what you can do in these times, go to our COVID-19 resource center.

ChiroTouch provides this information with the understanding that authors or speakers are not experts in finance, regulatory policy or law. ChiroTouch shares this information to the best of our knowledge and experience. The information is subject to change as the COVID-19 crisis evolves.