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Clinician combines in-office visits with telehealth during pandemic
November 30, 2020 - The necessity for quarantine during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led many specialties, including eye care, to adapt to new technologies for telehealth and develop procedures to best meet patients’ needs.
Healio Primary Care Optometry News spoke with Scott Schachter, OD, a practitioner at Vision Source in Pismo Beach, Calif., and the founder of the Ocular Surface Academy, on alterations he has made in his practice over the last few months.
Healio: What changes have you made in your practice because of the pandemic?
Schachter: To limit exposure to COVID-19, we developed new office efficiencies and condensed the schedule to reduce patient days from 5 per week to 3. Due to my travel schedule, my practice was already primed for this scenario, and it was not a huge leap to make. To achieve this without creating a patient backlog, we emphasized the importance of filling all appointments each day to avoid wasted slots and implemented protocols to streamline the patient experience. This included training additional staff to work the technical aspects of outpatient visits to smoothly and safely move patients through their appointments on the designated days.
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