COVID-19 Announcements
A Message from Dr. Waddell and Acumen Health and Wellness Center
Right now, there is a lot news surrounding COVID-19 with the situation changing constantly. So let me start by acknowledging the fluidity of the situation and assure you that I am taking extra precautions and looking for ways to adapt and best support my patients and the community. COVID-19 is real and the current health situation continues to evolve. Within the last week, the global cases of COVID-19 have doubled and we now have confirmed cases in Butte County. Those facts alone should prompt all of us to take this serious and reflect on what we need to do to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.
Change to Telemedicine for Most Visits
Because of the rapid spread over the past week, I will switch to Telemedicine (video or phone visits) unless there is an acute situation that demands someone be seen in office. I truly feel like telemedicine and phone visits are the best approach both from a medical and from an ethically perspective. The virus can show up as much as 14 to 20 days after exposure and much of the research is showing that asymptomatic individuals are a major contributing factor to the spread of the virus. None of us truly know if we are walking around spreading the virus and due to the lack of testing, medical resource and the rate of transmission, it is most responsible for each of us to behave as though we have the virus and stay home as much as possible.
Teleconferencing is easy since we now offer telemedicine through Charm, our health records and patient portal system. And a very recent change to regulations allows us to provide a teleconference without the need for specific telemedicine consent forms from the patient. If you have a visit on the schedule, you will receive a phone call from our front desk a few days prior to coordinate doing your visit by teleconference or by phone.
Additional Acumen Procedures to Combat COVID-19
In addition to switching to Telemedicine and Phone visits, we are maintaining best practices in our clinic. We are providing greater flexible about rescheduling and cancelling appointments. Wherever possible, we try to accommodate same day phone visits or telemedicine for patients with an acute illness. For those few patients that we do see in-office, we are taking extra precautions to adequately sanitize between visits and are scheduling extra time between patient visits to limit contact with others.
We continue to ship supplements free of charge so there is no need to come to the office. If you do come, we will bring your supplements out to your car if you call ahead and make arrangements. In case a patient is acutely ill and in in need of supplements, we will do our best to accommodate and will try to do home deliveries.
Thank You!
We want to thank all of our patients for their understand during this unprecedented time. We are here to support you while doing our part and protect you and our community. Remember to do all the basic health supportive things like getting quality sleep, meditating, eating a healthy diet, intermittent fasting, exercise, engaging in family time, and having fun. We need to remember to be kind to our partners, friends, family and neighbors now more than ever. This is a stressful time and a lot of people will need extra love right now. Be a kind person, partner and loved one and help where you can. Be a good listener, call a friend, wave at a neighbor.
