Beech Tree News Network

With the Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc across the globe, it seems no one is immune from making major changes in their lives both personally and professionally. Beech Tree News (BTN) is grateful for other businesses in our community that, when facing challenges related to Covid-19, have risen to be a bright spot during a difficult time. Recently, BTN asked many local businesses how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted them. Below is five in a series of articles featuring those businesses that have responded. In this article, we feature Dr. Hammad’s Office.

For Dr. Hammad’s patients, Covid-19 exposure is more of a concern than in other businesses. Therefore, Dr. Hammad has implemented a new service, telemedicine. With this service, patients obtain an appointment and at their designated appointment time, receive an email with instructions to log in to a secure chat with Dr. Hammad or one of his nurse practitioners. Although some patients must still enter the office for x-rays, labs or some other services, this cuts down greatly on the number of patients entering the office.

Due to less traffic in the office, it is now closing at 4:00pm instead of 5:0opm.

Dr. Hammad and his staff are also taking extra precautions to keep patients who do have to come to the office safe. They are using more personal protective equipment as well as providing masks to anyone entering the building. They are also screening patients for a fever at the entrance to the clinic. Patients are no longer waiting in the waiting room. They are also careful to schedule patients who are sick with symptoms relating to Covid-19 at different times than those need to be seen for other things.

While Dr. Hammad is grateful that he has been able to retain his entire staff, he realizes that some other medical staff are not as fortunate. He also feels frustration that his office has had to put things like routine health screenings for his patients on hold for now. However, he and his staff are grateful to serve the community as much as possible, during this trying time.

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If your business or church has not been contacted yet but would like to be a part of this series, contact us at [email protected].