Dear Patients,
I am seriously considering a sideline to my medical career: writer, specializing in medical thrillers with impossible scenarios... Wait, we are living through one right now!
In a situation which is constantly evolving, with very few firm answers and many unanswerable questions this is what we know for sure:
1. This epidemic is serious and its course is unpredictable. Unfortunately, the situation is going to get more complex in the next several days, as the number of people affected will increase, and our ability to contain the infection will decrease proportionally.
2. It is really important to act now by attempting at all costs to minimize our contacts outside of the people living in our household. This cannot be understated. Social distancing is very, very difficult both psychologically and logistically, but it must be done. It is the only way to contain the virus and decrease the spread, and therefore the number of people infected. (For interesting graphs on the spread and the power of staying at home: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/ )
3. The symptoms of COVID-19 are very non-specific, the fear of it is great, and testing is scarce. Who should be tested? Only people who are very sick and have a minimum of these 3 symptoms: persistent fever over 100.5 degrees, severe, unrelenting dry cough, and shortness of breath on minimal exertion. All others, who are only mildly ill, will increase their chances of getting COVID-19 if they go to hospital emergency rooms, walk-in clinics or urgent centers where the very sick people congregate.
At DC Medical Care, our goal is to help you through these difficult times while also protecting the health of our staff and larger community. Therefore, we are not encouraging people to leave their homes to even visit our office. Instead, we will be switching to an on-line, virtual mode of tele-medicine in the following few days. To schedule appointment via our online mode, please call the office as you would to make an appointment in our usual hours of business.
Please read our website posts for our hours of operation, but all visits which can be done virtually will be done this way. All non urgent procedures will be rescheduled. In some ways this may prove to be much more convenient for many of you, and so feel free to call and request a virtual appointment with any and all concerns.
All the best,
Dr. Cernea