CHANGES WITH COVID-19
Reopening
With the gradual reopening being permitted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as the Covid-19 pandemic decreases in intensity, we will be reopening our office on Thursday June 4th to patients. We hope to resume surgery on Monday June 8th for patients whose health will be compromised by further delays.
In order to keep our patients and staff safe, and in compliance with recommendations by Federal, State, and City authorities as well as our Hospital, our routines will remain significantly altered for the time being.
Continued Changes
While some of our staff will be working remotely, we can always be reached by phone during business hours. We ask that you only come to our offices for confirmed visits. Please contact us by phone (617-860-6130). If you are put through to voicemail, please leave a message and we will respond to you soon.
We continue to ask you to utilize our our Patient Portal as much as possible when appropriate, rather than phone calls. We will respond to messages generally within one business day, and often much faster than that. You can reach our Patient Portal at 18109.portal.athenahealth.com
In order to maintain social distancing, many of our visits will continue to be performed remotely using our Telehealth platform. We have been pleased with our implementation so far, and you will find details on our TeleHealth page under "Your Care With Us".
Office Visits
Some situations will require evaluation in person. We will do our best to accomodate as many patients as we safely can. We have had to suspend use of a waiting room, at least for now. This means we can only accommodate patients at times we have scheduled them for their visit. We will need to have you arrive in our office around 15 minutes prior to your appointment, but not earlier. You will need be screened at the hospital entrance prior to admission. This is being done to ensure that
Surgery
Surgery scheduling has been resumed from Monday June 8th. There is still ongoing transmission of Covid-19 in the community, so the hospital has developed a set of practices to maximize patient safety. We are confident that we will do everything we can to keep patients safe will preparing for surgery, and through their surgical admission.
However, we are likely to have to defer surgery for some patients who are felt to be at higher risk of a Covid-19 infection in the perioperative period, because of the stress/decreased immunity they may experience. We will also defer patients who are at risk of more serious complications if they were to develop a Covid-19 infection after surgery. We realize this will mean delaying surgery for some patients who wish to proceed sooner than later, but we will do everything we can to balance risk and benefit of proceeding.
Patients are being tested for Covid-19 infection within 48 hours of surgery, to ensure no one is operated on who is actively ill.
Hospital Restrictions
New England Baptist Hospital is limiting escorts/visitors in order to maximize patient safety. You may be required to come into the hospital unaccompanied after being dropped off at the entrance, with a few exceptions. Please see nebh.org/visitorinfo for current visitor guidelines.