First, we hope everyone is healthy and practicing social distancing. The COVID-19 virus has been a shock like none of us have ever seen. It has disrupted lives, ended lives and put on hold surgery for patients requiring hip or knee replacement. In Washington, the governor suspended elective surgery in mid-March. We at Proliance Orthopedic Associates have initiated telemedicine to stay in touch with our patient community. This has worked out surprisingly well, allowing us to check in with our post-op patients, check their progress and answer questions. We have been able to "see" new patients discuss treatment options pending later X-ray evaluation. Our office has remained open on a somewhat limited basis for urgent and emergent cases. We hope to get back operating by the end of May or the first part of June depending on our countries success at "flattening the curve" We have used this relative downtime to revamp our patient education material that will be available on-line and in binder form. We are fine-tuning our policies and procedures for the fall opening of our new ASC which will allow us to perform outpatient joint and spine procedures.
Our hearts go out to all of those who have suffered on so many fronts with this pandemic. We will get through this and emerge better, stronger and hopefully more compassionate for those less fortunate. We look forward to providing state of the art joint replacement care to our patient community in the near future. Until then please be safe.