COVID-19 Safety Guidelines
(Adapted by EHP from CDC and other guidelines)

  • Call Ahead: Our receptionist, Clark Kellam, will contact you in advance of a visit. He will outline the purpose of the visit and will attempt to ensure that you are aware and available for the visit before entering the office or a telehealth appointment is initiated. Please call us at (336)659-6250 to schedule/reschedule a visit or if you have any questions or concerns. Please DO NOT come into the office without calling first, so we can confirm our availability, be ready to receive you, and make sure it is safe for you and our staff to hold an in-office visit.
  • Waiting Room: The glass door into the waiting room will stay locked, and patients will be ushered in at the time of their appointment. We request that you and any accompanying family member or friend wait in the comfort and safety of your car, until that time. We will temporarily discontinue utilizing the waiting room to avoid risk of exposure. 
  • Symptoms and what to do about them: If you are experiencing fever, fatigue, phlegm production, runny nose, cough, shortness of breath and/or loss of taste and smell senses, please call one of the few Acute Respiratory clinics (set up to receive COVID-19 symptomatic patients safely - see list below, and take a picture of it with your phone), to be assessed for further care. If you are experiencing any or a combination of these symptoms, please DO NOT come into Evergreen office to be seen in person. Unfortunately, currently, it is not safe for you and for our staff.
  • Temperature Checks: EHP staff will take daily temperature checks before coming into the office, to help ascertain, as much as possible, their health status. Please be aware: a person may be an asymptomatic carrier of the virus, and be contagious, unbeknownst to them. We request the same from you, our patients. Please measure your temperature, if possible, before you and any accompanying family member or friend enter, to help preserve the safety of all.
  • Personal Protection Equipment During Visits:  Both Evergreen Health Promotion staff as well as patients are required to wear a face mask properly (covering both nose and mouth) during the entire patient visit in the office. The staff is required to wear gloves as well, and we encourage you to do the same. We will make every effort, considering inventory and accessibility, to provide patients who do not have access to gloves with a pair for the duration of visit. If you do not have access to gloves, and we are unable to provide you with a pair,  you will be required to wash your hands upon entering the office as well as before and after using the bathroom.
  • Bathroom Use: Please use a paper towel to flush the commode and handle the doorknob. Also, lower the commode cover before flushing to prevent splatter. Use the sink outside the bathroom to wash your hands (splatter in small closed spaces proposes a higher risk). We would like to suggest that the safest practice would be to use the bathroom at your home prior to coming in, though we understand this may not always be a practical option.  
  • Disinfection of facility: At the completion of a visit, the staff will wash their hands and disinfect the exam room, any instruments used, (such as stethoscope), and surfaces such as door handles, desktops, and exam tables. Our staff will also practice social distancing to the best possible degree.
  • Vital Sign data collection: It is preferable for your healthcare provider to obtain vital signs at the beginning of every encounter. We understand that due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, and other reasons, it can become difficult or altogether impossible to collect that data. Therefore, we encourage you, per reasonable budget limitations, to purchase over time, as your budget allows, a scale, a blood pressure cuff (digital varieties are usually affordable to most budgets), a digital pulse/ox measuring device, and a forehead non-tactile thermometer.
  • Telehealth Video Calls: As an alternative to an in-person visit, we offer Telehealth video or phone visits. Telehealth cannot replace all functionalities of in-person encounters, such as collection of specimens for lab work, administration of vaccines, EKG, and vital sign data collection. But it offers a safe partial alternative for the time being. We will send you, via email or text a video link to conduct a virtual meeting.
  • Remember “the 3 W” s:
    • Wear a mask (and gloves)
    • Wash your hands frequently
    • Wait at least 6 ft apart (be generous!)     
                                           
Local facilities open to receive patients experiencing COVID-19 symptoms:
   
Screening/triage
  • Internal Medicine - Peace Haven | Temporary Respiratory Symptom Clinic | Wake Forest Baptist Health
    • Address: 1930 N Peace Haven Rd, Winston-Salem, NC 27106
    • Phone: (336) 713-7780
 
  • Internal Medicine - Kernersville | Temporary Respiratory Symptom Clinic | Wake Forest Baptist Health
    • Address: 861 Old Winston Rd STE 101, Kernersville, NC 27284
    • Phone: (336) 904 – 0043
 
 Critical Care