Keeping Our Patients Safe During COVID-19

We have a long-standing commitment to caring for your allergy and asthma needs and the needs of our community. Your safety continues to be our highest priority. During this pandemic, it is even more important to us to provide you a safe place to maintain your care. We are beginning to offer broader services to meet the needs of our patients.

How We’re Keeping You Safe

Our provider team of physicians and nurse practitioners are following the guidance of research and infection prevention experts. We have taken steps in addition to our standard infection control measures to keep our facility a safe place you can confidently rely on for care. We are committed to providing specialty care, we have not and do not plan to be a COVID-19 testing/treating facility, in contrast to other practices such as primary care.

In-Person Appointments

For some of our patients, an in-person appointment is necessary to provide an assessment and treatment plan during a time of increased health risk. We are prioritizing providing the necessary care, when it is needed, as safely and conveniently as possible. Most of our established patients are being cared for via Virtual Visits (telemedicine appointments). 

Allergy Injections

We significantly modified our allergy injection process in March to reduce the number of patients in the building at any time, to limit interactions with staff and to maintain recommended physical distancing. You have helped us by reducing your contact with surfaces in the building and keeping as many of your personal items as possible in your vehicle. We appreciate your continued help.

We temporarily allowed waiting in your vehicle to adjust the volume of patients in the building. We were able to accomplish this by having staff available in the parking lot to monitor your safety. It has always been our intention to move this process back inside the office. After review of recommendations and research, our provider team has determined that we can move the entire injection process back into the building. We ask for your continued participation by restricting the number of individuals that you bring with you for injections. Following are the supportive safety measures to allow for indoor waiting:

• Masks: All staff wear masks. All patients and anyone with them are required to wear a mask or face covering while in our facility.
• Eye wear: Eye wear and/or face shields are available to you as an additional protective option.
• Hand cleansing: Hand sanitizer is available at the entrance and multiple locations throughout the office. Staff is sanitizing or washing hands before and after each patient encounter.
• Screening: We are screening all staff, patients, and visitors for COVID-19 symptoms. Please do not come to the office if you think you are ill and contact your primary care provider.
• Expanded waiting options: we have 3 waiting areas, with physical distancing per guidelines and research article data.
• In office time, body position: Physical distancing while waiting pre-injection (face to back when in line) and post-injection (spaced seating in waiting areas), and minimal contact with staff at injection stations.
• Hours: We have expanded injection hours to 7:30-12 & 1-5 to allow for a more even distribution of patient volume.
• Cleaning and Reorganization
  • Common Areas: Waiting areas are cleaned often with special attention to frequently touched surfaces including doorknobs, armrests, and handrails. Toys, books, magazines, and other items have been removed from these areas.
  • Exam Rooms: Patient rooms are fully cleaned and disinfected between each patient.
  • Floor Markings and Furniture Rearrangement: We have made special arrangements to support physical distancing. You will see markers on the floors to suggest where you should stand. We have rearranged furniture in our waiting areas to create more space between patients and are scheduling appointments to ensure that fewer people are in our clinic at any given time.

You can be confident in the care you receive at Grand Rapids Allergy. Our provider team continues to monitor recommendations from local, state, and national and international organizations. Accordingly, we adapt our processes to prioritize your health. We are here for you.