COVID-19 Primary Care Update

Dear OHT Physicians,

A quick update on COVID-19 efforts.

Markham Stouffville Hospital will be opening an Assessment Centre on Wednesday, March 18. It will be located in a trailer at the back of the hospital. Patients will be able to self refer, however not everyone will be tested. The criteria of who to swab has yet to be finalized, and I will send more information when that is available. I believe our goal as community family physicians is to help triage and counsel patients with mild disease to self-isolate at home and not overwhelm the assessment centres and emergency departments.

We received word this morning from York Region Public Health that a patient tested on Mar 12 at Markham Stouffville Hospital ED is a presumptive positive for COVID-19. Status of cases in York Region can be found at https://www.york.ca/wps/portal/yorkhome/health/yr/infectiousdiseasesandprevention/covid19/

New temporary telephone billing codes came into effect yesterday. See OHIP bulletin for more information. http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/ohip/bulletins/4000/bul4745.aspx.

If you are interested in joining our local COVID-19 WhatsApp group, please email me your phone number. Some changes that offices have implemented include moving from walk-in to pre-scheduled urgent care visits, having an on-call MD that front desk can patch calls through to help with triage, a wait in your car policy for sick patients, separating the office area into "clean" and "dirty" sides with 1 physician staffing each side, bringing well-baby and prenatals in the mornings.

This is a critical time to ensure all family physicians in our community have timely communication about the ever changing response to COVID-19. So if you know any family physicians who are not receiving my OHT emails, please forward this email and have them contact me to be placed on the mailing list. There is no requirement to join the OHT and no need to sign the primary care association agreement at this time.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will continue to keep all of you updated as to what's happening, including updates about the MSH Assessment Centre that is opening this week.

Thank you,
Emilie Lam