COVID-19

As we all change our habits to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus, we are exploring new, safer options to take care of our ob/gyn patients. Current recommendations are to avoid any routine office visit that can wait a month without harm. We have not yet been cancelling existing appointments, but that may be required at some point. In an effort to be available for our patients, we will now offer some Telehealth visit options.

We can currently use Facetime, Facebook messaging and will be adding an app called doxy.me to use as well. We will need your email to invite you to the visit.

For our pregnant patients: If you are low risk and feeling well and prefer not to come in for routine visits that don’t need bloodwork or ultrasound, please ask to reschedule to a Telehealth visit. We will ask you to get a home blood pressure cuff / a thermometer/ and a scale at your pharmacy and take your blood pressure, weight and temperature prior to the visit. We will email you a link and a time to log in for the visit like a regular appointment. You will have a 10-15 minute with Dr. Gottfried or Terri. For patients who need monitoring once or twice a week or have other issues needing in person evaluation,  we will see you in the office like usual. 

For our non- pregnant patients, if you would like to use Telehealth for a counselling or results visit, please schedule a time by calling in , texting , or using zocdoc. We will schedule a visit for you and this will be billed to your insurance using the Telehealth codes. 

For all patients who need to come in to the office for a visit, we are doing our best to protect you and to protect our staff . If you have a fever, cough, or are otherwise feeling ill, please call us first to receive specific instructions. For all patients, please come to the visit by yourself if possible to have as few people in the office at a time as possible. Please leave children at home as they may be carriers of the virus without symptoms. If you are coming in for an ob ultrasound, you can have one other person accompany you. We can include other family members in the ultrasound visit via your phone and a conferencing app.

For all of us, please observe social distancing- only leave your house when you have to. Walks outside are okay if away from other people who don’t live in your household. Store visits and food pick ups should only be made by one , low risk member of your household. If everyone goes out to the store or restaurant, it defeats the purpose of social distancing. 
Please do what you can to keep you and your family healthy. We are here for you to help you through this difficult time. Please call if we can help in any way.

As we are trying to limit patient traffic through our office during this difficult time, I am thrilled to announce new telemedicine options for ob and gynecology consults. 

What is telemedicine?  Telemedicine means that you can have confidential access to YOUR doctor or nurse practitioner from the comfort and safety of your home. A lot of what we do in medicine is listening and talking and counselling and coming up with a diagnosis and treatment plan, and that can be done just as easily in a remote setting. We can even look at incisions or bumps or rashes in this format since it is private and secure

How does telemedicine work? First, we schedule an appointment time for your visit and update your insurance information and any demographic information that may have changed since your last visit here.  Then, one of the medical assistants Eli or Pattie will call you to update your medical information, and finally, at the time of your visit (it can be a a few minutes delayed since we are still seeing urgent and pregnant patients in the office and are still delivering babies ) you will get an email with the link to your visit. Click on the link and Terri or Dr. Gottfried will be there to speak with you. 

What kinds of visits can be done with telemedicine? Any visit that doesn’t require immediate physical exam, ultrasound or lab test can start this way. Birth control consults, birth control pill refill visits, Abnormal bleeding, rash or new skin lesion checks, wound checks, questions about pregnancy symptoms or problems, menopausal symptoms, even consults for our new Viveve procedure, which treats bladder leakage (which can be very helpful if you are coughing or sneezing a lot or exercising more at home). Also, this kind of visit is ideal for consults about lab results or ultrasound or biopsy results. 

What are the costs of telemedicine visits? If you are pregnant, these visits are part of the ob package. For gyn visits, these are billed to your insurance just like an office visit, but using different codes Even AHCCCS and Medicare are encouraging patients and doctors to do visits using this technology. 

In summary, we are here for you both in person and remotely.  While we are asking routine visits to wait until the recommendation for staying at home has been lifted, we are available for pregnancy and gynecology problem visits and your other female health needs. We still are offering in house ultrasound and laboratory services for your convenience . Please call with any questions or book online through the website.