FAAC COVID-19 UPDATE

Dear patients,

FAAC strives to be a source of accurate, helpful information for our community. To that end, we would like to share the following information with our patients.

1. In the spirit of caring for our community and assisting our healthcare colleagues on the front-lines of the current pandemic, FAAC is committed to staying available to you, our patients. We are here for you, wherever you are.  While you are at home, we have Telemedicine up and running.  We are also seeing patients in the clinic with added protections. These policies are updated often based on current evidence. Current protections include:

• Disinfection of all surfaces every 2 hours and between patients.
• All staff wear masks at all times and are screened daily for fevers.
• In-person appointments are only scheduled at your Physician or Physician Assistant’s discretion after you are seen through a telemedicine visit.
• When a provider feels that their patient should be seen in person, the patient is pre-screened, checked for fever, and wears a mask while in the clinic.
• Appointment times are spaced out to allow adequate physical distancing.
• Only well patients enter through the front of the clinic.

2. The symptoms of the novel coronavirus can overlap with allergies and asthma. We want all of our patients to stay as healthy as possible, which is why we are continuing immunotherapy with added protections. Currently:

• All immunotherapy patients are pre-screened by a nurse at the door.
• The number of patients in shot waiting room is strictly controlled. If there are more than 10 patients waiting, you may be asked to wait in your car until you are able to receive your injection. All patients must still remain in the clinic during the post-injection wait period in case of allergic reaction.
• The post-injection wait period has been shortened to 20 minutes for patients with no asthma or history of systemic reactions in order to reduce the amount of time that patients are in the clinic.
• Patients older than 60 years on immunotherapy are encouraged to come in the morning to minimize their exposure to others.
• We request that all patients wear a mask when coming into the clinic for allergy shots. Masks help protect your family in addition to other patients and our staff.

3. To stay healthy, we encourage you to review the following guidelines:

• Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds as often as possible.
• Follow social distancing guidelines from the CDC.
• To find trusted and accurate information about the pandemic, we encourage you to turn to public health institutions like the CDC and state health departments.
• If you are experiencing an allergic reaction and there is time, please call us first before going to an ER or urgent care. This helps limit your possible exposure to COVID-19 and decreases the burden on emergency and urgent care centers during this time.
• For our patients with life-threatening allergies: be sure to have at least 2 working epinephrine auto-injectors with you at all times.
• Finally, if you have any medical questions, we highly encourage you to schedule a telemedicine visit to discuss your concerns with our providers.

We are grateful for all of you and each other in these times. To those of you working to keep our utilities, grocery stores, pharmacies, and other essential services running: we appreciate you.  To our patients who are immunocompromised: we are here for you.  To everyone: help keep your friends and neighbors safe.

FAAC is taking this journey together with you, and we are committed to our mission of bringing good health and peace of mind to our patients and our community.