We hope you and yours are well.
As the number of COVID-19 cases spike in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado Counties we are compelled to keep you informed of our concerns and safety measures. We have been proud of our proactive efforts to minimize exposure in the clinic. We have taken action to reduce the volume of people in the clinic, insist that everyone wear masks, take temperatures, minimized surfaces touched and have been persistent with rigorous sanitization procedures. We have also installed an ultraviolet filtration system above the filters in our HVAC ducts to eliminate any virus particles as they passed through.
Acknowledgement of Risk
Despite our efforts we have to concede that the virus is spiking in our communities. Consequently, it is prudent to assume asymptomatic carriers could be entering our building. We ask your understanding of the difficult position this creates for an essential service business. The balance between struggling to meet our overhead while upholding our ethical, moral and legal responsibilities to act honorably during the pandemic, combined with the reality of the presence of a virus that has no acknowledgement of the former is a daunting task. Due to our reduced revenue streams, perhaps it is most accurate to perceive our continued willingness to serve your physical therapy needs as a community service rather than a business model. Therefore, we feel justified in requesting your cooperation in sustaining our ability to provide you with ongoing care. As we cannot guarantee a transmission-free environment in our building, we believe open and honest pre-event communication is the best policy.
Staff Testing Procedure
Due to our strict COVID policies, we believe we have done everything in our power to minimizing coronavirus transmission inside of our building. Therefore, following the practices of larger medical institutions and unless there are extenuating circumstances, in the case that an asymptomatic person enters the building only to test COVID positive at a later date, we will ask our exposed staff members to get tested but we will continue our normal business operations until it appears a transmission has occurred. At that time we will contact all potentially exposed informing them of the event and ask the exposed staff member(s) to quarantine.
Access to Online Care
Because of the uncertainty of these unprecedented times anyone, staff or client, who is uncomfortable with this policy is free to not enter the building. Exposure to risk must be each individual’s choice. Entering our building implies your acceptance of the inherent risk of doing so and your willingness to strictly adhere to our guidelines while in our presence. Those in need of therapy services, but who are hesitant to enter to the building, can still interface with us by setting up a telehealth appointment.
Taking Precautions Outside of the Practice
We also want to take the opportunity to remind you that your actions outside of the clinic affect our potential exposure as your treating therapists. If you choose to seek our services, please help ensure our safety by being responsible while away from the clinic. Practice social distancing, wear your mask and wash your hands; we assure you that we are. We ask that if you have had a known exposure that you refrain from coming into the clinic until it has been 14 days since your exposure, and you remain symptom free. We assure you that if one of our staff members has a known exposure in a situation where social distancing/mask protocols were not followed, that our employee will be required to quarantine until their 14-day window is up.
As always, thank you for trusting us with your care and for weathering this storm with us.
Tim McGonigle, Michael Moore and the FPT Staff
