Southeastern Retina Coronavirus/COVID-19 Patient Update 4/30/2020
Southeastern Retina doctors and staff know this has been a challenging time for our patients and their families. We understand that anything affecting your eyes can be frightening. Our mission during the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic will continue to be to remain committed to preserving our patients’ vision and eye health. Southeastern Retina Associates will do everything we can to serve our patients’ retinal conditions while protecting patients, families, staff, physicians, and our communities.
All our offices have remained open to serve our patients with their emergent/urgent eye conditions. Over the next 4-5 weeks, we will be opening our regular schedules. While we are excited about welcoming more patients back to our clinics, keeping everyone safe and healthy remains our top priority. Our current COVID 19 safety protocols will remain in place. We have also initiated additional operational changes and wanted to share some of the changes you may see or experience
- We are asking all patients to bring and wear a mask for their appointments. This additional precaution is to help protect the health of our patients and our team. All staff members will be wearing masks. If you need instruction on how to make a cloth face covering, Google “CDC face masks”, or visit the CDC coronavirus website at www.coronavirus.gov.
- We are limiting patient companions to one at most, preferably zero. We recommend all other guests wait in their vehicles.
- We will be asking patients if they have concerning symptoms, travel, or exposure histories. If the answer is yes, we will ask them to return to their vehicle and we will call them with advice from their Southeastern Retina physician. If patients call about upcoming appointments, a Southeastern Retina representative may ask the same questions.
- We will arrange to send you to the nearest local hospital/healthcare facility if we suspect you may have COVID-19. This is to provide immediate protection for you, your fellow patients, and our doctors and staff.
- We will continue to ensure that our staff members are vigilant about their own health, including staying home the proper amount of time if they are ill or have been exposed to someone who is.
- We are taking additional precautionary steps, following CDC guidelines, to ensure all our offices are sanitized regularly, and remain as clean as possible throughout each day.
We appreciate your patience and support as we ease into this new routine. As always, we’re available at the numbers below to assist you if you have any questions about upcoming appointments.
Chattanooga Area Offices – (423) 756-1002 or (800) 365-0105
Knoxville Area Offices – (865) 588-0811 or (888) 566-9738
Tri-Cities Area Offices – (423) 578-4364 or (888) 773-7287