Is COVID-19 Affecting Your Medical Practice?

If your medical practice is being affected by COVID-19, you need to make sure your patients have the most up-to-date information about your office. For example, if you have adjusted your office hours or if you have any information you want your patients to know before they come in, you should update your Google My Business (GMB) page to let them know.

We suggest 4 updates that will keep your patients informed. You can go into your GMB pages and make these changes on your own, or let us know what changes you need made, and we can do a bulk change across all your GMB pages! (You’ve got enough on your hands right now!)

1. Update your business description.

You can share any extra precautions your medical practice is taking to minimize the risk of exposure, training your staff have received, extended hours for your help line, or community efforts you are involved in. 

2. Update your business hours.

If you have altered your business hours for any reason, you need to update them on your GMB listing. Your new hours will show when a patient visits your business profile so they will know what their options are.

3. Create a new post about COVID-19. 

If you want to help alleviate your patients’ worries about COVID-19 or give them the latest information before they visit your office, it’s a good idea to do that in a post on your GMB page. You can provide information on when they need a mask (or if they don’t need one), hand washing tips, or when they should and shouldn’t come into your office if they are experiencing concerning symptoms. Whatever you want to communicate to them can be included in the post. 

Example COVID-19 update post:

COVID-19 Safety Measures for Our Office

The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak cannot yet be measured, but we want to inform you of the steps we have taken and the steps you can take to minimize your risk of exposure and keep you healthy.

What our office is doing

Our entire staff has been through multiple trainings on COVID-19 and are up-to-date on the current situation in our area. In addition, we are monitoring the CDC COVID-19 website for updates so we can stay informed of any changes. We have asked our staff to stay home if they are exhibiting any symptoms and are actively screening patients for symptoms before they come in.

What you can do as a patient

Minimize your risk by thoroughly washing your hands and avoiding touching your face. If you are experiencing cough, fever, shortness of breath, or if you have reason to believe you have been exposed to COVID-19, please call to reschedule your appointment so we can keep our healthy patients healthy. If you have visited any countries that have a Level 3 Travel Health Notice in place, we ask that you honor the CDC recommendation to stay home for 14 days. Those countries currently include China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea. 

4. Double check your phone number.

It’s always a good idea to make sure you’re sharing the best phone number for your patients and prospective patients to reach you with any questions they have. If you want to direct calls to a special number to ask questions about COVID-19, you can designate that phone number here—and we can help with that. 

The original version of this page was published at:  https://socialclimb.com/is-covid-19-affecting-your-medical-practice/