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How Southeastern NC is Preparing for COVID-19: Information on How Residents and Healthcare Professionals Can Protect Themselves During This Time
Dr. Andres Afanador shares everything you need to know about COVID-19 and what you need to do to protect yourself during the pandemic.
Featuring:
Andres Afanador, MD
Andres Afanador, MD is board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics. Transcription:
Bill Klaproth: This New Hanover Regional Medical Center Coronavirus podcast recorded on April 2nd, 2020. As the Coronavirus spreads, so does our concern and questions. So how is Southeastern North Carolina preparing for COVID-19? Well, let's learn more on how residents and healthcare professionals can prepare and protect themselves during this time with Dr. Andres Afanador, Internal Medicine and Pediatric Specialist at New Hanover Regional Medical Center. This is the Healthy Conversations Podcast from New Hanover Regional Medical Center. I'm Bill Klaproth, Dr. Afanador, so what is being done to support the increased restrictions in North Carolina and Southeastern North Carolina to prevent the spread of COVID-19?
Dr. Afanador: Thank you. The biggest thing we're doing right now is to support the stay at home order is promoting our telehealth options. We're offering video visits through our patient portal, My Chart video business through other free apps like zoom, and telephone visits. With these options, we can continue to see patients and treat them from home and the hospital. And specifically Dr. Phillip Brown had been doing a lot on social media to promote informational and situational examples where they give people examples on social distancing and hand washing.
Host: And that is important. So how are local physicians caring for both patients with possible COVID-19, visits as well as regular well visit patients?
Dr. Afanador: Yeah, great question. So we have several mechanisms in place to manage your well visits and your sick visits as much as possible we try and move patients to do the video visit to the best of our ability. We're trying to move all of these visits to that mechanism and to prevent a well patient from coming into the office and possibly getting exposed to anything you know, flu or COVID. If they physically come to the office, whether it's our express care or primary care, we have a triage table. So the triage tables outside ask very basic screening questions that help us determine what to do with the patient, if their symptoms are consistent with COVID-19 for example, a fever, cough or shortness of breath, we take down their contact information and they go right back to their vehicle to wait for a phone call. If they're sick, but maybe not with COVID symptoms, say with a runny nose, we'll send them to a sick wait area. And if they're well, and for example weren't able to do a video visit, they go to a separate designated well wait area. And then lastly we also offer drive through services. So this has been great and we've been doing it from early on. This is specifically for like flu swabs, strep swabs, and COVID swabs. And this is following a video visit where say a physician or an APP, an Advanced Practice Provider determines that one of those tests was appropriate and necessary and didn't think it required an in person office visits.
Host: So let's talk about technology. How has technology been used to serve the population that wants to adhere to the guidelines of staying at home?
Dr. Afanador: Yeah. So our patient portal has really been crucial for this. Not only can we do the face to face visits that we've been talking about, but patients can update their doctors via My Chart messaging. They can request prescription refills, they can update their history, they can even schedule appointments, video visits, and in person appointments. So Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, these are ways that we can promote the importance of things like social distancing, educating people on COVID-19, helping just get the information out to as many people as we can as opposed to, you know, traditional methods like TV or mail. There's just so much misinformation out there. And really this is a way to get legitimate information out there from legitimate sources.
Host: Great point about using social media to get the word out about proper hand hygiene. And speaking of proper hand hygiene, how can something as simple as washing our hands help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and what are the proper ways we should sanitize and disinfect our hands?
Dr. Afanador: Right. So the virus that causes COVID-19 is really easily spread. It can be really deadly, but it's actually easy to kill the virus. Washing your hands thoroughly with soap and water for 20 seconds. Using hand sanitizer with 60% alcohol can help prevent the spread. There's many, many videos available online where people can watch videos on how long they're supposed to wash your hands for 20 seconds, what songs they can sing, how many times they can sing happy birthday. But it shows you specifically for example, how to clean your fingernails, how to wash between your fingers, how to do the tops of your hands, how to get your thumbs, how to get the wrists, how important it is not to touch your face, how frequently we need to sanitize touch surfaces, frequently touched surfaces like countertops, doorknobs. All of these things are things that we can do that are relatively simple and will be hugely effective.
Host: That is so true. And actually there is an image floating around social media which shows the difference between washing your hands for six seconds versus 20 seconds and they use a black light. And it's amazing the difference between the two. Your hands are so much cleaner when you wash them for 20 seconds. One of the best ways we can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. So let's talk about social distancing. How does social distancing help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and what is the proper distance to keep from others?
Dr. Afanador: The best thing I can say is to stay at home. So this doesn't mean that you can't go outside. It doesn't mean you can't see your family, but if you do go outside, you should probably be with those in your immediate household. You probably shouldn't go visiting relatives, you need to be maintain a six foot distance between yourself and any others. This obviously doesn't mean your siblings or your children or your parents or anything like that, but people outside of your immediate household should be at least six feet apart from you. This is what I'm seeing now is a lot of people taking walks in their neighborhood, the and that sort of thing. If you're going to stop and talk to your neighbor, you need to maintain a six foot distance. And the point of this is to prevent droplets. The COVID-19 and the virus that comes with it is transmitted by droplets. And so by maintaining that distance, we can keep it from reaching you.
Host: You know, I never understood that when somebody said it travels through the air, but you know when the sunlight is shining brightly into your kitchen in the morning, early in the morning when it's really bright and you see all these particles floating in the air. Well that's what they mean by transmitted through the air. When you see these little particles, you're breathing in these particles, breathing out these particles. So if you're in the vicinity of someone, you're going to be breathing in those same particles. And that's how COVID-19 can be transmitted through the air. Is that correct?
Dr. Afanador: Yes, that's correct. It is not airborne like measles for example, but it comes by droplets, which can float through the air and then settle down.
Host: So that's why it's important to maintain a distance of six feet or more as we social distance. So how can parents protect their children during this time?
Dr. Afanador: Yeah, that's a great question. So with children, thankfully children are at much lower risk and much lower likelihood of complications from COVID-19, but we still don't want to take any chances whatsoever. And hygiene is, is the big one here, right? We can't, it's difficult to get children to keep from touching their face, to keep from sucking their thumbs for sure. So frequent hand washing, social distancing, play dates need to be postponed for right now. Maybe they can do them via zoom or FaceTime or other apps. But those are the biggest things that they can do.
Host: So lastly, doctor, what advice can you give to fellow healthcare professionals when coming home to family after caring for patients each day? How can you help keep them safe?
Dr. Afanador: This is a tough one. You know, personally we're all dealing with this. We're a two physician household in my home. I just wanted to say thank you for all these frontline healthcare workers and people focus on doctors and nurses and advanced practice practitioners. But there's also the respiratory therapists and the nurses aides and the front desk staff and environmental services. What we personally are doing in the home is obviously practicing hand hygiene. We get undressed before upon arriving to the house, clothes goes into the garage, into the laundry, we shower, we come out, and then we interact with our families. And that's tough. You know, the kids, they want to see mommy and daddy. They want to give us a big hug as soon as we get home. And that's something we've been struggling with. But the biggest thing that we can do is be dedicated with our hand washing in our PPE or personal protective equipment in healthcare settings, to minimize our exposure so we don't bring it home.
Host: Absolutely. And Dr. Afanador, we want to thank you and your wife and all of the healthcare professionals who are on the front lines in the fight against the Coronavirus. And thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it and stay safe.
Dr. Afanador: Thanks for having me.
Host: That's Dr. Andres Afanador. And for more information, please visit NHRMC.org/coronavirus for Up To Date information. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is the Healthy Conversations Podcast from New Hanover Regional Medical Center. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.
Bill Klaproth: This New Hanover Regional Medical Center Coronavirus podcast recorded on April 2nd, 2020. As the Coronavirus spreads, so does our concern and questions. So how is Southeastern North Carolina preparing for COVID-19? Well, let's learn more on how residents and healthcare professionals can prepare and protect themselves during this time with Dr. Andres Afanador, Internal Medicine and Pediatric Specialist at New Hanover Regional Medical Center. This is the Healthy Conversations Podcast from New Hanover Regional Medical Center. I'm Bill Klaproth, Dr. Afanador, so what is being done to support the increased restrictions in North Carolina and Southeastern North Carolina to prevent the spread of COVID-19?
Dr. Afanador: Thank you. The biggest thing we're doing right now is to support the stay at home order is promoting our telehealth options. We're offering video visits through our patient portal, My Chart video business through other free apps like zoom, and telephone visits. With these options, we can continue to see patients and treat them from home and the hospital. And specifically Dr. Phillip Brown had been doing a lot on social media to promote informational and situational examples where they give people examples on social distancing and hand washing.
Host: And that is important. So how are local physicians caring for both patients with possible COVID-19, visits as well as regular well visit patients?
Dr. Afanador: Yeah, great question. So we have several mechanisms in place to manage your well visits and your sick visits as much as possible we try and move patients to do the video visit to the best of our ability. We're trying to move all of these visits to that mechanism and to prevent a well patient from coming into the office and possibly getting exposed to anything you know, flu or COVID. If they physically come to the office, whether it's our express care or primary care, we have a triage table. So the triage tables outside ask very basic screening questions that help us determine what to do with the patient, if their symptoms are consistent with COVID-19 for example, a fever, cough or shortness of breath, we take down their contact information and they go right back to their vehicle to wait for a phone call. If they're sick, but maybe not with COVID symptoms, say with a runny nose, we'll send them to a sick wait area. And if they're well, and for example weren't able to do a video visit, they go to a separate designated well wait area. And then lastly we also offer drive through services. So this has been great and we've been doing it from early on. This is specifically for like flu swabs, strep swabs, and COVID swabs. And this is following a video visit where say a physician or an APP, an Advanced Practice Provider determines that one of those tests was appropriate and necessary and didn't think it required an in person office visits.
Host: So let's talk about technology. How has technology been used to serve the population that wants to adhere to the guidelines of staying at home?
Dr. Afanador: Yeah. So our patient portal has really been crucial for this. Not only can we do the face to face visits that we've been talking about, but patients can update their doctors via My Chart messaging. They can request prescription refills, they can update their history, they can even schedule appointments, video visits, and in person appointments. So Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, these are ways that we can promote the importance of things like social distancing, educating people on COVID-19, helping just get the information out to as many people as we can as opposed to, you know, traditional methods like TV or mail. There's just so much misinformation out there. And really this is a way to get legitimate information out there from legitimate sources.
Host: Great point about using social media to get the word out about proper hand hygiene. And speaking of proper hand hygiene, how can something as simple as washing our hands help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and what are the proper ways we should sanitize and disinfect our hands?
Dr. Afanador: Right. So the virus that causes COVID-19 is really easily spread. It can be really deadly, but it's actually easy to kill the virus. Washing your hands thoroughly with soap and water for 20 seconds. Using hand sanitizer with 60% alcohol can help prevent the spread. There's many, many videos available online where people can watch videos on how long they're supposed to wash your hands for 20 seconds, what songs they can sing, how many times they can sing happy birthday. But it shows you specifically for example, how to clean your fingernails, how to wash between your fingers, how to do the tops of your hands, how to get your thumbs, how to get the wrists, how important it is not to touch your face, how frequently we need to sanitize touch surfaces, frequently touched surfaces like countertops, doorknobs. All of these things are things that we can do that are relatively simple and will be hugely effective.
Host: That is so true. And actually there is an image floating around social media which shows the difference between washing your hands for six seconds versus 20 seconds and they use a black light. And it's amazing the difference between the two. Your hands are so much cleaner when you wash them for 20 seconds. One of the best ways we can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. So let's talk about social distancing. How does social distancing help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and what is the proper distance to keep from others?
Dr. Afanador: The best thing I can say is to stay at home. So this doesn't mean that you can't go outside. It doesn't mean you can't see your family, but if you do go outside, you should probably be with those in your immediate household. You probably shouldn't go visiting relatives, you need to be maintain a six foot distance between yourself and any others. This obviously doesn't mean your siblings or your children or your parents or anything like that, but people outside of your immediate household should be at least six feet apart from you. This is what I'm seeing now is a lot of people taking walks in their neighborhood, the and that sort of thing. If you're going to stop and talk to your neighbor, you need to maintain a six foot distance. And the point of this is to prevent droplets. The COVID-19 and the virus that comes with it is transmitted by droplets. And so by maintaining that distance, we can keep it from reaching you.
Host: You know, I never understood that when somebody said it travels through the air, but you know when the sunlight is shining brightly into your kitchen in the morning, early in the morning when it's really bright and you see all these particles floating in the air. Well that's what they mean by transmitted through the air. When you see these little particles, you're breathing in these particles, breathing out these particles. So if you're in the vicinity of someone, you're going to be breathing in those same particles. And that's how COVID-19 can be transmitted through the air. Is that correct?
Dr. Afanador: Yes, that's correct. It is not airborne like measles for example, but it comes by droplets, which can float through the air and then settle down.
Host: So that's why it's important to maintain a distance of six feet or more as we social distance. So how can parents protect their children during this time?
Dr. Afanador: Yeah, that's a great question. So with children, thankfully children are at much lower risk and much lower likelihood of complications from COVID-19, but we still don't want to take any chances whatsoever. And hygiene is, is the big one here, right? We can't, it's difficult to get children to keep from touching their face, to keep from sucking their thumbs for sure. So frequent hand washing, social distancing, play dates need to be postponed for right now. Maybe they can do them via zoom or FaceTime or other apps. But those are the biggest things that they can do.
Host: So lastly, doctor, what advice can you give to fellow healthcare professionals when coming home to family after caring for patients each day? How can you help keep them safe?
Dr. Afanador: This is a tough one. You know, personally we're all dealing with this. We're a two physician household in my home. I just wanted to say thank you for all these frontline healthcare workers and people focus on doctors and nurses and advanced practice practitioners. But there's also the respiratory therapists and the nurses aides and the front desk staff and environmental services. What we personally are doing in the home is obviously practicing hand hygiene. We get undressed before upon arriving to the house, clothes goes into the garage, into the laundry, we shower, we come out, and then we interact with our families. And that's tough. You know, the kids, they want to see mommy and daddy. They want to give us a big hug as soon as we get home. And that's something we've been struggling with. But the biggest thing that we can do is be dedicated with our hand washing in our PPE or personal protective equipment in healthcare settings, to minimize our exposure so we don't bring it home.
Host: Absolutely. And Dr. Afanador, we want to thank you and your wife and all of the healthcare professionals who are on the front lines in the fight against the Coronavirus. And thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it and stay safe.
Dr. Afanador: Thanks for having me.
Host: That's Dr. Andres Afanador. And for more information, please visit NHRMC.org/coronavirus for Up To Date information. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is the Healthy Conversations Podcast from New Hanover Regional Medical Center. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.