Our Path Forward
As the leading orthopaedic practice in the Virginia – Maryland – District of Columbia region, CAO is an essential business and thus has remained open during the coronavirus Public Health Emergency. Throughout the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, the safety of our employees, patients and visitors has and will continue to remain of utmost priority.
Since March we have seen reduced patient volume due to a number of factors including, the mandated hold on elective procedures and stay at home orders. Prior to COVID-19 our care centers utilized infection control best practices as part of our standard of care. Patients who have visited us since the pandemic emerged in the region have seen the safety measures we added to our existing protocols. In addition to adopting new in-office measures, we integrated Telemedicine for clinic and therapy patients, including support of patient accessibility needs through LanguageLine and TTY.
CAO always strives to provide a safe work environment and a safe and healing environment for patients. We are now starting to experience a return to normal patient capacity. The use of telehealth for patient visits and treatment will continue to be embraced when medically and operationally feasible. However, we seek to accommodate the renewed demand for in-person patient care in the safest way possible for both staff and patients. To accomplish this, we have implemented policy that encompasses measures for employees, patients, visitors and facilities to use to remain safe. If you have not yet reviewed the policy, it is available on CAO Central here.