(Last updated — March 20, 2020)
Attention Patients and Website Visitors
We hope everyone is well and taking the advice of local, state, and federal health officials. While the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak caught people off guard, we’re at the point where there’s nearly universal agreement about just how important it is to follow the guidelines of social distancing, self-quarantining, and getting tested if and only if you exhibit all of the symptoms associated with the virus.
Since we’re located in Orange County and the OC Health Officer has issued a ban on all gatherings — public or private — please take a few moments to read the following, which covers:
- The decision we recently made to temporarily close our Irvine clinic
- Our decision to use telemedicine to care for patients
- How to contact our office to request a telemedicine appointment
- How to seek COVID-19 testing
- Additional resources for information on COVID-19
We’re Offering Telemedicine
Here at Restoration Healthcare, we’ve chosen to temporarily close our Irvine clinic effective immediately. At the same time, we’re offering patient appointments via telemedicine. That means effective immediately and through at least March 31, patients with existing and new appointments on our schedule will be able to meet with their Restoration Healthcare provider using the Beam Telemedicine Platform, fright from the privacy of their own home. If you have an appointment, your Restoration Healthcare provider will send you a text message inviting you to use the Beam platform — and the text message will include registration instructions.
For questions about this — including how our telemedicine program works — please use the OnPatient Portal (https://www.onpatient.com/login) to send us a message. You can also call our front desk at (949) 535-2322, ext. 1 during the regular business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Please note, however, that we’re a small staff, we’re not ‘on-call,’ and we’re all adjusting to working from home — so a little patience while we work out the kinks would really be appreciated.
With everything that’s occurring right now, we will reassess the status of reopening the clinic again on March 31. And while we hope to reopen quickly, we cannot say for certain when the Irvine clinic will be back up and running. We are closely following the COVID-19 crisis both here and elsewhere, so rest assured that once we know anything about reopening, we’ll let you know with a follow-up message similar to this one.
Testing for COVID-19
The crafting of government policymaking and the testing processes for COVID-19 have been a fluid situation. We recommend Hoag Urgent Care Centers for COVID-19 testing. More information about this is available online at https://www.hoag.org/locations/urgent-care or by calling (800) 400-4624.
Hoag requires you to call in advance of arriving at one of their facilities. Additionally, you should not expect testing unless you exhibit symptoms which include fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath — or you have had close contact with a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patient or close contact with someone who has a history of travel from affected geographic areas within 14 days of the onset of your symptoms.
Additional Resources for Information on COVID-19
For more information on the current status of local (Orange County, Calif.), state, national, and global efforts regarding COVID-19, please visit the following web pages:
- Orange County Health Care Agency: https://www.ocgov.com/gov/health/
- State of California Dept. of Health Care Services: https://www.dhcs.ca.gov
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
- World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Finally, we appreciate your understanding during this difficult time for all of us. If you have any questions, please use the portal (https://www.onpatient.com/login) to connect with us in a safe and secure online environment. Also, with the high demand we’re currently experiencing, please note that it may take up to 24 hours for us to respond. As a result, if you feel your situation is a health emergency, please seek immediate help from Hoag, Marque Urgent Care (https://www.marquemedical.com), or your local emergency room.