*This article has been corrected to show Vandal Health Clinic will be open
Gritman Medical Center announced several changes to their hospital Wednesday in response to COVID-19. These changes affect Gritman Medical Center, Moscow Family Medicine and the Vandal Health Clinic.
Vandal Health Education will be open for telehealth visits, or virtual visits. The website outlines these steps to step up a telehealth visit:
- Call us at 208-885-6693. We will ask you some screening questions about your symptoms and confirm your phone number and email address.
- If you are calling about respiratory symptoms, the respiratory triage nurse will call you to get more information
- If you have no respiratory symptoms, or if the triage nurse determines you need to be evaluated by a doctor, the telehealth doctor will contact you via text or email to invite you to a telehealth visit.
- On your smartphone or a computer with a video camera, you can click the link in the text or email we sent to be put in the doctor’s virtual waiting room. When the doctor is ready to see you, they will click your name on their screen and you will be connected in a video call.
ICYM: What to do if you might have the coronavirus?
Patients presenting COVID-19 symptoms at Gritman Medical Center will be directed to a location outside the hospital. Entrances to the hospital will be limited to the main or emergency entryways. Parking on Main, Seventh and Eighth streets near the hospital will be limited to patients and those seeking health and emergency services.
The Moscow Family Medicine QuickCARE and Westside clinics will remain open for walk-in and emergency services. The downtown Moscow Family Medicine location will provide all scheduled appointments.
Requests for doctor’s notes, release letters and absence excuses will not be accepted over the phone or in appointments to focus exclusively on treating patients.
The post states these updates are subject to change, but community members can stay up to date by visiting the Gritman Medical Center Facebook page and coronavirus website.
The Argonaut will provide more information as it becomes available.