Main Family News

We realize the importance of staying connected and intend to provide weekly updates in this format for some education, encouragement and challenge. Each week is different as our lives shift and change with the complexities we experience personally and jointly in these days. Our desire is to give you the facts as known at the time of these letters and assist in filtering the poignant developments for your consideration and application. As your healthcare team, you can count on receiving authentic communication from us and our remaining a positive force in this journey together.

 

COVID-19 Updates From Dr. Gee

March 24, 2020

We want to encourage each one of you to respect the implications Covid-19 has on your friends, neighbors and loved ones. Compliance with the “6-foot rule” for social distancing will grant better outcomes for all of us. You may have heard that meeting in groups of 10 or smaller is OK at this time; we would discourage this with the current knowledge of the virus. Asymptomatic viral shedding is one nefarious feature of this virus enabling greater spread; any of us in apparent good health can behave with illegitimate confidence because of this viral characteristic. Our opportunity to help the community is contingent on each of us adopting this behavior to flatten the curve of new infections.  It’s not theoretical, it’s not political, it’s real. Thank you for honoring others in this way.

Good news is progressing with the diagnosis and management of the virus:

  • March 21st the FDA announced approval of rapid testing tools for same day results. This will help with containment and more aggressive management of the at-risk population for recovery and for healthcare workers to return to work more readily. This will not be available to lower risk individuals on initial rollout due to demand limits.

 

  • There are several, not-yet-approved by the FDA, medication regimens that are under rapid clinical trials for the treatment of Covid-19. These are in our pharmacies BUT are now being dispensed with positive Covid results only as controlled by the State Board of Pharmacy (which is for the benefit of all to prevent the analogous toilet paper run). These will be reserved for the seriously ill with the protocol for the average healthy patient to not receive this regimen.

 

  • Serum from Covid-19 recovered patients is being collected and shown to be promising in a Johns Hopkins’ report. This is really just reviving a very old technique from years ago which we used for decades with the old gamma globulin shots for hepatitis A (Johns Hopkins’ Serum News Article) This is another very realistic tool that will roll out and be added to our options for the very sick.

*Vaccine trials have already begun in Washington state. This will ramp up in the months ahead.

This is all good news in the right direction. Parents, again, take confidence in the data not bearing increased risk in the pediatric population with our knowledge today, but take CAUTION in that your children are significant transmitters of this virus potentially with lower level symptoms while having active viral shedding. They don’t need testing. They need isolation from others until well (exact timing and studies are not clear on this yet). Again, our job altogether is social distancing.

Prevention with healthy diet, good sleep and exercise remain relevant. Turning off the flow of information through electronics and having a good conversation with someone is a very good thing for each of us. Clean a closet, finish a project. A sense of control in some of these more menial things can be therapeutic.

Our office will remain open to care for your many needs. Our team at Main Family Medical has protocols in place to remain compliant with the above recommendations to protect you while visiting our office. The waiting room is not being used and each patient will check in via the phone from our parking lot. Our nursing staff brings each patient in individually and directly to the exam room. Additionally, face to face telemedicine visits with Laura and Michele are being scheduled this week for established patient visits performed from your office or home. Our office will have normal hours to care for those who need to be seen in person. More than ever, we are here to support you and address your health needs in the midst of daily changes and developments. Know that your concerns and calls will be addressed and cared for as we work through logistics with office and remote staffing. We appreciate your patience and want to assure you of our understanding of the personal impact these events have on each of you. Thank you again for entrusting your health needs to our team.

Sincerely and gratefully,

David Gee, MD
Laura Bainbridge, FNP
Michele Miles, PA-C
The full team at Main Family Medical

 

Follow Up – COVID & the New School Year

Follow Up – COVID & the New School Year

We’d like to thank those of you who attended our Zoom meeting last night. We hope the information we provided helps as you navigate the start of the new school year.

We welcome your feedback! If you attended the meeting and have anything you’d like to share with us please reply to this email to share your thoughts.

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COVID-19 Update 4-20

COVID-19 Update 4-20

A tremendous amount has transpired since our last correspondence on COVID-19. The great news is that we have reached our first benchmark in our new, overused, pandemic lexicon of “flattening the curve” in Idaho. This is based on significant reduction of new cases reported given the profile of patients that have access to testing.

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COVID UPDATE – 3-19-2020

COVID UPDATE – 3-19-2020

It is important that we maintain communication and connection in these unprecedented times. Each of you undoubtedly is feeling stress and tension for various reasons of altered plans, schedules, expectations, financial loss, inconvenience, loved ones’ health risk, and the list could go on.

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COVID 19 Update

COVID 19 Update

Information on COVID -19 (Coronavirus) is rapidly increasing and daily evolving. Your healthcare team at Main Family Medical is continually seeking up-to-date and accurate information from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and local Health Departments.

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Better Health Care is Our Mission

Delivering excellent and personal care that positively impacts people in a changing healthcare system.

(208) 336-7722

(208) 336-9284 - FAX

203 W. Main St., Boise, ID 83702