Coronavirus Protocol

Dear patients,

Your health and the health of our community is very important to us. To meet this goal, we are implementing the current recommendations to manage and decrease the risk of the spread of the Coronavirus disease/COVID-19.

If you have a fever and/or a cough do not come to the doctor’s office.

Please call us. We will take care of you. We offer video visits and phone visits. We do not want you to infect other patients. We will be following the recommended guidelines to manage your illness. Please realize that the majority of patients who are ill will have the common issues that cause fever such as pneumonia, influenza, strep, viral infections, etc. We see sick people on a daily basis. We are the most well-equipped people to take care of you when you are sick and protect you from getting sick.

If you come in with a fever or a cough, you will be immediately moved to a private room to wait, so you will not be within an area to infect other patients.

We have enhanced preventative measures in our office to keep you safe. Our safety infection control measures start with you. We ask that you use hand sanitizer when you walk into the clinic/exam room. We use hand sanitizer between patients and in addition, we wash our hands after being in the room with a patient. We ask that you also use hand sanitizer before you leave the room.

Other basic measures we advise you to do:

1. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unclean hands.
2. Stay away from sick people
3. Use tissues to cover coughs and sneezes (and throw tissues away).
4. Avoid shaking hands
5. Use common sense

We have the ability to test for the virus and will do so according to guidelines when indicated based on a case by case basis. Please realize that Coronavirus has been around for a long time. Remember all the times you went to the doctor for an antibiotic and they told you it was a virus. You were probably mad because you waited for an hour and paid money, and the doctor told you to go home and rest and take cold medicine and drink chicken soup and lots of water. And not to go back to school or work until you did not have a fever for 24 hours.

Well, this is a virus. We don’t have an antibiotic to make it go away faster. You need to rest and drink fluids and take medicine to keep the fever down. Make sure you don’t infect other people, so stay at home, and call us. We will closely monitor you and will take good care of you. Do not worry.

Dr. Dharma

Medical Director

Southwest Family Medicine Associates

For more information on our office COVID-19 process please click here:

https://www.southwestfamilymed.com/contents/covid19-information

If you have a fever and/or a cough or if you answer yes to our COVID-19 assessment on our website:

• Email us at: triagenurse@southwestfamilymed.com (fastest and most effective way to communicate for COVID-19 inquiries)
• Or call us at: 214.393.2940
• Our on-call doctor is also available after hours: 214.393.2940