Can I see a doctor by video rather than in-person?
Yes, in many cases. Many symptoms and conditions can be cared for via video visits, including most follow up care for ongoing conditions, and even care for new symptoms that pop up. Just like an in-person visit, a video visit is a scheduled appointment with a provider – using secure video conferencing technology. All you need is 15 minutes, a smartphone or tablet, and a quiet, private location.
What are you doing to ensure physical distancing?
Hospitals
- We have separate treatment areas for patients with symptoms indicating possible COVID-19 infection or confirmed COVID-19 cases and patients with other symptoms in both of our hospitals (including our Emergency Departments).
Physician offices and urgent care centers
- We are screening all patients who call our physician offices for COVID-19 symptoms and patients who have symptoms of COVID-19 are being cared for either via video visits or in our respiratory Urgent Care locations, not in physician offices.
- In our waiting and reception areas, we have blocked off some furniture and placed floor markers to ensure six feet of separation between people. We have also installed clear plexi-glass dividers on our reception desks to provide further protection for you and for our staff.
- We offer e-Check In for patients who have activated their MyChart account with us – which enables you to check-in from home before you arrive, further decreasing any time you may have to spend in our reception area.
Behavioral Health Center
- We are transferring any patients with symptoms of COVID-19 to one of our hospitals for care.
Behavioral Health Center, Outpatient Services
- In our waiting and reception areas, we have blocked off some furniture and placed floor markers to ensure six feet of separation between people. We are also installing clear plexi-glass dividers on our reception desks to provide further protection for you and for our staff.
- In our group program areas, we have blocked off some furniture to ensure six feet of separation between people. We also ask that each patient use the same chair for the day.
Medical Imaging departments
- We are screening all patients who call our scheduling department for COVID-19 symptoms. If patients have symptoms of COVID-19, we are delaying their scheduled procedure when appropriate. If the procedure cannot wait, we bring patients who have COVID-19 symptoms through a separate entrance from other patients, and use appropriate PPE. This allows us to separate the patients that have COVID-19 symptoms from patients without COVID-19 symptoms.
- We have reduced the number of patients in our waiting areas by:
- increasing the length of our appointment times
- adding weekend appointments so that we are spreading our appointments out over more days
- In our waiting and reception areas, we have removed some furniture, blocked off furniture where appropriate, and placed floor markers to ensure six feet of separation between people. We have also installed clear plexi-glass dividers on our reception desks to provide further protection for you and for our staff.
What are you doing to clean and disinfect?
John Muir Health is following cleaning and disinfection guidelines recommended by the CDC and California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), as well as instructions from John Muir Health infection prevention specialists.
Hospital cleaning procedures
- We regularly clean all high-touch surfaces (anything people commonly touch such as door handles, armchairs, counters, etc.) using CDC-recommended cleaning & disinfecting supplies.
- We clean every occupied inpatient room daily. We also clean and disinfect every vacant room before the next patient arrives.
- We deep clean any isolation precaution rooms in our hospitals, Behavioral Health Center and outpatient facilities where we have cared for patients with symptoms of COVID-19.
Urgent care center and physician office cleaning procedures
- Waiting areas:
- We clean and disinfect hourly; special attention is paid to high-touch surfaces such as door knobs, chair arms, and the reception desk – including disinfecting pens. We also complete a room cleaning log.
- We have a number of clean pens and a location to put used pens to be ready for disinfecting, so it’s clear which pens are clean. You may also bring a pen if you are more comfortable using your own pen.
- We disinfect clip boards after every use. For credit card payments, we’ll have you swipe your own card.
- We have removed common-use items such as brochures, toys, magazines, books, etc.
- Exam rooms:
- We clean and disinfect each exam room thoroughly between patients, including any medical equipment used (exam bed, blood pressure cuffs, ultrasound machines, etc.) as well as counters, computer monitors and keyboards, chairs, etc. We also complete a room cleaning log.
- We have removed common-use items such as brochures, toys, magazines, books, etc.
Behavioral Health Center, Outpatient Services cleaning procedures
- We clean and disinfect frequently. Special attention is paid to high-touch surfaces such as door knobs, chair arms and the reception desk – including disinfecting pens.
- We disinfect program rooms during breaks as well as every night.
Medical Imaging departments cleaning procedures
- We are cleaning the rooms appropriately after each exam.
Are staff and patients required to wear masks?
Everyone who enters a John Muir Health facility is required to wear a medical face mask while in our facilities, including staff, physicians, volunteers, patients and visitors.
- All patients and visitors are given commercially produced medical face masks upon entry into our physician practices, hospitals, urgent care centers and Behavioral Health Center, Outpatient Services facility.
- Patients may not wear cloth face coverings, cloth masks, or masks that have a valve (small plastic disk on front of mask) while in John Muir Health facilities. This is because these masks do not provide as much protection against droplet release as medical face masks. Patients who arrive wearing one of these masks can either change masks or place a medical face mask over the one they are wearing.
- Patients and visitors (strict visitor policies remain in place) in our hospitals will be given a new mask each day.
Are you screening people before they enter facilities?
Before entering any of our facilities, all patients, visitors, staff and physicians undergo routine temperature monitoring and symptom screening.
- Checking temperatures and screening for symptoms helps us catch any potential illness that a person may not yet be aware of themselves.
- The screening process includes quickly having your temperature taken and responding to a few brief COVID-19 symptom screening questions.
- Anyone with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher, and/or who says yes to any of the COVID-19 screening questions will not be permitted to enter our facilities.
Can patients have visitors in the hospital?
For the safety of our patients, physicians and staff, we have implemented stricter visitor restrictions. We no longer allow visitors into the medical centers with a few exceptions. We encourage patients to leverage technology (cell phones, iPads) to stay in touch and update their family and friends. We will also provide regular updates to a patient’s primary contact person and encourage them to share the information with other family members and friends.
Our policies are consistent with the guidelines issued by the California Department of Public Health with Contra Costa and neighboring counties in the most restrictive COVID-19 Purple Tier.
Exceptions to hospital visitor restrictions:
- One (1) identified person for the duration of the patient’s stay with us in Pediatrics (including pediatric patients at our Behavioral Health Center), Labor & Delivery and Post-partum.
- Two (2) designated guardians are allowed for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Pediatric Intensive Care (PICU) visits. They must be the same visitors for the entire NICU or PICU stay. Both designated guardians can visit at the same time.
- One (1) identified visitor for patients with severe language or communications barriers or developmental disabilities.
- A limit of up to two (2) family visitors for patients near the end of life.
- Patients are allowed one (1) visitor if they need help understanding their care instructions when being discharged from the medical center.
- For any patients (admitted, to be admitted or outpatient) who have a scheduled procedure/surgery, they may have one (1) visitor for a 60 minute visit pre-operation and post-operation.
- For Critical Care patients, if a physician feels a visitor exception should be made, they will discuss the situation with the department’s Charge RN or Unit Supervisor and make a determination.
In limited cases, a visitor exception can be requested and will be reviewed by John Muir Health in discussion with our clinicians. If you have any questions, please email patient.relations@johnmuirhealth.com.
Can patients bring someone with them to in-person appointments at physician offices, urgent care centers or the Behavioral Health Center, Outpatient Services facility?
Physician practices and urgent care centers
- We are currently restricting visitors in our outpatient facilities, including our urgent care centers and many physician offices.
- Patients with in-person appointments should plan to have non-essential family or friends wait outside of the building or in the car.
- Exceptions:
- Pediatric patients or those patients needing assistance may be accompanied by one parent, guardian, or caregiver. Please call your doctor if you have questions about your specific situation.
Behavioral Health Center, Outpatient Services
- We are currently restricting visitors in our Behavioral Health Center, Outpatient Services facility. We are only allowing patients in our facility.
- Patients should be dropped off and picked up outside the facility entrance.
- Exceptions:
- Families participating in family therapy sessions or intake assessments with patients are allowed for those sessions only.