Hello patients and friends:
Hope your families and you are safe during this pandemic.
For the past month, I have mainly been seeing patients through video chat or over the phone.
While I can learn a lot from a video chat, nothing replaces the ability to actually look in the ears, nose, and throat to confirm the diagnosis.
I think ENT is a particularly difficult specialty for telemedicine since so much of it involves looking into small openings. There is really no way to look in someone’s ears or nose over a video chat, and a blurry video of someone’s throat is not the same as in person!
I am planning to start seeing more patients in the office in few days, with the following heightened safety measures in place:
- All patients must bring and wear a mask the entire time they are in the office. Cloth or other home-made masks are acceptable. We have a very limited supply and cannot provide masks. Any patient who arrives without a mask will be turned away and rescheduled to a later appointment.
- No patients will stay in our waiting room. Please wait in your car with your cell phone. When called, you would come straight to the examination room (At one time, Only one room with lights on).
- We will try to keep minimum number of patients in the office at one time ( Ideally one patient at a time).
- All patients must do their intake paperwork ahead of time. Also your copay, if any would also be collected ahead of time. New patients fill out information papers from our practice website. Ideally send them by email.
- Only the patient is allowed in the office. For children and adult patients who require a caretaker, one adult may accompany the patient.
- Dr. Kakani and staff will wear masks during all patient encounters.
- We are performing diligent hand washing and extra cleaning precautions.
- PLEASE DO NOT COME TO OFFICE IF YOU HAVE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING: fever, cough, shortness of breath, cold/flu symptoms, red eyes, loss of smell/taste, and body aches.
- Tele-medicine ( video-visit) appointments will still be available for higher risk patients and for routine follow up issues (like test results, etc).
- Please use restroom at home prior to coming to the office. This would reduce your need to touch any door knobs.
Once again, I hope all of you and your families are staying safe and healthy during these strange times. Please call us with any questions at 516 222 1105
Warm regards,
Rajesh S. Kakani, MD, FACS