COVID-19 Policy/Procedures Update, 5/11/20
Our plan is to start seeing patients on a limited basis beginning Monday 5/11/20 and slowly see more as we continue to fine-tune our office flow in this new age.
We have taken protective measures as outlined by the American Optometric Association (AOA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) to ensure that our patients and staff remain safe as we continue serving our community.
While the Shelter in Place (SIP) remains in effect for Alameda County we will have the following restrictions for patients coming in for comprehensive eye exams. Our goal is to reduce the risk for both patients and staff as much as possible by limiting the total number of people in the office as well as their total time in the office. We fully expect to remove these restrictions once SIP is lifted and social distancing requirements are relaxed:
- Minors must be mature enough to sit in the exam room with the doctor without parental supervision
- Patients must have enough communication skills to speak directly to the doctor without the need of a translator
- We highly encourage patients 65 and older with stable vision, working glasses and no immediate ocular health concerns to postpone their comprehensive exam until after SIP is lifted
With these restrictions in mind, we will still make exceptions for emergency cases. We will be going through our schedule and calling those that had cancelled appointments during our closure and reaching out to them first. Please bear with us as we may have to push you out just a bit on the schedule in order to “catch up” with re-booking everyone once again.
Our office flow will be quite a bit different than it was pre-COVID:
- We will be using a Curbside Waiting Room
- When you arrive, please text our office and we will let you know when to come in as to minimize your in-office waiting time
- We are working on digital forms that can be filled out at home or on your mobile device. They’re not quite ready, but should be within the coming weeks. For now, please fill out a history form that can be downloaded and printed from our website: https://fremont2020.net/patients/patient-forms/
- Masks are required at all times, hands must be sanitized before entering the office and temperatures will be taken upon entering
- During frame selection, our opticians will bring frames to you based on your conversation with them. Please do not pull frames off the board yourself. We will be washing and sterilizing all frames before placing them back on the board.
- We will not be taking any walk-ins for exams, frame selecting or dispensing
- Contact lens orders can be picked up without appointment. Text us when you arrive and we will text you back when it’s ready to pick up at the front door.
- We encourage the use of Optomap retinal imaging in replacement of dilation if indicated to decrease your time in the office and to reduce exposure risk for both doctor and patient.
- Contactless payment: We can accept Apple, Google and Samsung payment via mobile devices
Until further notice we will be open Monday – Friday, 9am-6pm (closed 1pm-2pm for lunch). We apologize for no Saturday appointments, but plan to bring them back in the intermediate future.
This is all new territory for us so we appreciate your patience as we continue to iterate on this process for both safety and efficiency. We’re always a phone call, text or email away!
Respectfully,
Fremont Optometric Group