Navigating the “New Normal”: How to Safely Open Your Surgical Practice After A Pandemic

A new but different normal. That’s what we expected after a few months in isolation. With the changes, elective surgery went from none to starting up again at various levels across the country.  

Exactly how and when each state reopened depended on risk factors and the local governor’s orders. Here are some tips to help your practice operate safely for patients and staff after a pandemic.

Less Congestion in the Surgical Practice

In the pre-coronavirus days, practices tried to see as many patients as possible each workday. Although it may mean continuing to take a financial hit (we know it’s hard to see unused appointments or surgical slots), to keep patients and team members safe, you must limit the number of people who pass through your doors. 

Stagger Appointments And Surgeon In-office Days 

Staggering the days and hours that surgeons see patients in the office should help reduce the traffic in the practice. Depending on the size of your practice, this may happen organically due to split OR time.

However, on days when surgeons are in the clinic, some can see patients in the morning, while others can see them in the afternoons. During the hours surgeons aren’t seeing patients in person, they can run their telehealth visits. 

Additionally, spacing appointments further apart rather than going back-to-back will ensure large crowds aren’t congregating in a communal waiting room and also give sufficient time to disinfect in-between each patient.

Finally, limit the number of people allowed to accompany each person to their appointment (but make sure you explain to them why).

Continue Telehealth Visits

Where patient numbers are concerned, the easiest option is to continue with telehealth visits. After months of lockdown, people are more open to taking their health care online. Even with conditions loosening, many people remain cautious about where they’re going and who they’re interacting with, so telehealth is definitely here to stay. 

Keep Staff Working Remotely Where Possible

Consider which team members can continue working remotely. Can your schedulers continue working from home or mostly work from home with only occasional office visits?

Anyone who does not need to be client/patient-facing can technically continue working remotely. You might want everyone back in the clinic again, but if they don’t need to be, keep staff off-site for as long as possible. 

By taking these steps, you can keep numbers safe and acceptable (which will differ for each practice) while still working through the backlog.

Working Through the Backlog of Surgeries

While it’s natural to want to schedule as many patients and procedures as possible to make up for the huge backlog of canceled surgeries, that’s just not possible right now. The same goes for the OR.

Depending on your local hospital/ASC’s regulations, there will need to be increased buffer time in between each procedure to clean adequately. So, slow and steady will win the race. However, using a tool like Surgimate’s Prioritization Feature can expedite rescheduling. 

Institute Safety Measures for Patients

Limiting the number of patients coming through the doors is a great start, but if even one sick person crosses the threshold, it’s game over for a while. Everyone takes a risk when leaving the house, but you must do your best to ensure anyone who enters your practice is healthy.

• Screen patients before their in-office visit: Take their temperature, question them to ensure they have no symptoms, and ask if they have been in close contact with anyone who might be sick.
• Insist everyone wears a mask (and make sure they are wearing it properly).
• Keep a supply of disposable masks in the office so patients can take one if they don’t have their own.
• Keep sanitizer on the counters within easy reach to encourage people to use it.
• Wipe down iPads used for patient check-in after every use.
• Require testing for patients who will undergo surgery. If your practice cannot do that, make sure prospective surgical patients get a test elsewhere to ensure they have a clean bill of health before their surgery. 

Ensure Workplace Safety for Clinicians and Staff

Patients are very important, but monitoring clinicians and staff is also critical. The best way to keep people safe in the workplace is to follow the same protocols for allowing patients through the doors.  

In addition, try to minimize contact between team members as much as possible. If you have space, rearrange the office setup to keep desks at least six feet apart. If you can’t, think about creating extra office space elsewhere or, as mentioned above, keep employees working from home to ensure a safe working space for everyone.

You should also ensure employees aren’t sharing computers to reduce the risk of cross-contamination. 

Finally, even if you’ve missed your co-workers’ incredible baking and dreamt of their chocolate brownies throughout lockdown, insist no one shares any food. 

Communicate All Updates With Patients 

Keeping patients physically safe is one thing; ensuring they’re mentally okay is another. Many people fear entering a medical setting — especially a hospital — for fear of contracting COVID-19.

It’s worth investing time in alleviating and addressing patients’ anxieties about surgery or even just visiting the practice. This is especially important if you’re keeping the number of people who can accompany the patient on their visit to a minimum.

Without telling your patients about the steps you are taking to keep them safe, they won’t know. Use every means of communication at your disposal — social media, website, email, written newsletter, SMS (without annoying them), and phone calls (for the elderly) — to let them know what changes you have made. 

Similarly, update patients about changes in hours or the way surgeons see patients so they are informed and confident before they visit the practice. And don’t forget — everyone needs a little extra support and love right now.

We All Have to Do Our Part

There are a lot of unknowns in elective surgery and beyond during a pandemic.

We hope for semi-normalcy. But to ensure our eventual recovery, every one of us needs to do our part. It is far from ideal, but precautions need to be taken to keep everyone safe and healthy and to keep the doors of surgical practices open nationwide.