At Physicians Hearing Care, the health and wellbeing of patients remain the number one priority.
As your local audiologists and professionals, COVID-19 has been closely monitored, and appropriate steps have been taken with immediate effect to serve the needs of the community and protect vulnerable populations.
As of March 18, 2020, a five-step protocol is now in place for all patients.
1. Hand Washing on Arrival
Upon arrival at our office, please use the hand sanitizer provided at our check-in desks.
2. Patient Health Checks Prior to Arrival
You’re asked to kindly review our “safety criteria” before visiting. This is to ensure that you do not have a fever that is greater than 100.4, a cough, runny nose, or shortness of breath.
In this situation, we kindly ask for you to reschedule your appointment when you’re symptom-free (without the use of cough or fever suppressing medications) for at least 24 hours.
3. Thorough Cleaning Between Appointments
Between appointments, additional time has been scheduled to thoroughly sanitize all surfaces and ensure each patient is entering a sterile environment, with the patient chair, headphones, button, tympanometer, pens, and audiometer thoroughly cleaned.
4. Minimized Waiting Times
Although all magazines have been removed from the waiting room for sterile reasons, processes are now in place to minimize waiting times through reduced paperwork and spaced-out scheduling of appointments.
5. Your Hearing Hotline
If you need any help, have any challenges, or need to speak to a professional during these challenging times, please call us before visiting us as walk-in appointments may be refused at this stage.
Our hearing hotline is available from 9 am – 5 pm, Monday to Friday, please call at (865) 693-6065 ext. 125.
Caring for the health of East Tennessee is the number one priority, and this protocol has been implemented to protect you, other patients, and our staff.
With further developments expected, our blog will be sharing live updates – please review the latest post before visiting.