Practice Operations Guidance

COVID-19 & Quality Gap Closure Resource Toolkit

• Sample call scripts for gap closures
• Safe return to care guide for practices
• Mailers to patients
  • Diabetes Management
  • Cancer Screenings – Men
  • Cancer Screenings – Women
• Preparing for a safe visit to your Primary Care Provider’s office for patients
• Preparing for a safe visit to the Ophthalmologist for patients
• COVID-19 and your heart for patients – English | Spanish

Employee/Staff Policy

• Establish and continually reinforce a policy that all of your office staff should stay home if they are sick, especially if they show signs of respiratory illness (cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing)
• Nurse Hotline | 682-236-7601 — available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday

Practice Preparedness Checklist

• Implement and reinforce staff sick policy
• Insist all patients call by phone before visits
• Screen patients for symptoms
  • Have them call 911 if emergent care needed
• Reschedule patients to telephonic or televisits
• After hours references are available for Physicians Hotline — 682-236-2101
• Patients can call the Nurse Hotline — 682-236-7601 — from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday

Patient Screening and Triaging

Screen every patient over the phone before any in-person visit:

• Do you have a fever, sore through, cough or difficulty breathing?
• Have you had contact with anyone known or suspected to have coronavirus/COVID-19?
• Do you live in a community with confirmed sustained community transmission of COVID-19?
• In the last 14 days have your traveled domestically or internationally anywhere with confirmed sustained community transmission of COVID-19?

Testing and Prioritization

Incubation Period: 2-14 days

The mean incubation period was 5.2 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.1 to 7.0), with the 95th percentile of the distribution at 12.5 days.

Sending Referrals