We are pleased to announce that we consider ourselves to be at a point when we can safely resume well-woman visits for patients under age 65. Patients 65 and over should consider whether they wish to delay longer before increasing their social interactions. We have made this decision because we have observed a general commitment by the public to adjusting social interactions to make them safer. Clearly, we cannot yet go back to exactly how things were a few months ago, however, we can move forward cautiously. There will be some changes to the way we operate under the “new normal”, including continuation and enhancement of the same protective measures we have already instituted during this crisis, including:
Wearing a mask to the office
Sanitizing your hands BEFORE you enter our waiting room
Taking your forehead temperature at the entrance. If your forehead temperature is 100 degrees or higher we will check your oral temperature. If it confirms over 100 degrees we will ask you to reschedule. This is for everyone’s protection.
After you arrive and check-in at the door, we may ask you to wait in your vehicle until our staff is ready for your visit. We will notify you on our new app when it is time for you to come in to the office for your visit. Please read on for more information about the app.
Sanitize hands again on entry into the waiting room.
Our target date is Monday, May 11.
We are very pleased to announce that we will also be activating our new app for apple (iOS) and android smart phones for ALL visits.
This will allow you to complete all forms and questionnaires before the day of your visit, therefore reducing your time in our waiting room.
You will be requested to pay your copay for the visit on the app and sign the forms that you usually sit down and sign in the waiting room. You can use your credit card one time or you can authorize it to be retained on file. We use Elavon, one of the largest credit card processing companies in the world to process and store data. They use strong encryption and apparently the storage of data is done in such a way that it would be useless to anyone fraudulently trying to access the information.
We have already been using the new app for telemedicine visits. New patients to the app will get an e-mail when you schedule your next appointment with instructions and a link to download the app. Patients that have had telemedicine visits, will already have the app and therefore already have a username and password for log in. You will only need to update your history and forms that require update. Information that you have previously completed on the app is retained and you will only need to review and update changes when appropriate.
The name of the app is currently “MyWomanCare”. Shortly it will become “OBGYN Specialists CarePlan”. All information will carry over and you will use the same username and password when the name of the app changes, however, you will need to download the new app from the app store of your smartphone once it is released. We will notify you when that time comes. For now, use the MyWomanCare app.
The app is not the same as our older Patient Portal. You can choose to use the same username and password when you register the new app that you may already be using for our Patient Portal, however, they are two distinct programs with some differences in function. You can do most things on the app, however, you cannot see or print lab results or chart notes from the app. Currently you must still use the Patient Portal for those functions.
As I mentioned in an earlier update. This is not a time for resistance to advances in technology that not only improve the quality of your care, but in these times, help us to provide safety for you and our staff during your visits. Two months ago we looked at this as something for the future, but things have changed. The future is now. Today it is an essential part of a transition to create a safer, more efficient, environment to meet your medical needs. Join us as we take a giant step into transforming healthcare for everyone’s benefit.
We are ready to schedule your well woman visit and look forward to your call. Some of our providers will remain out of the office as we phase in our return to normal and will not be available to schedule. Hopefully that will change over a very short period of time.
Once you schedule, you will receive an invitation to download the app. Then you will be able to fill out your forms in order to be ready for your visit. We are excited to see you!
