Keeping waiting rooms as Kclear as possible is the goal of doctors’ offices in Ponca City at the present time.

In reaction to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, offices are revising the way they treat patients.

That also applies to urgent care facilities.

“We are still open normal hours at this time,” Wendy Bond, GM and CFO of AMC Urgent Care said. “To limit exposure to everyone, we are not allowing non-patients in our clinic. Adults are not allowed to have anyone accompany them in the clinic. Minors are allowed to have one guardian with them in the clinic. We are asking all other guests to stay home or wait in the car until the patient’s visit is complete.”

Those conditions are pretty standard to what other offices and urgent care facilities are doing.

“We are trying to keep as few people congregating in the waiting room as possible,” a worker at another urgent care clinic said. “We are only seeing people we have to see,” Marti from Dr. Michael Schiff’s practice said.

Dr. Schiff is a cardiologist and his specialized practice automatically determines the nature of patients that make appointments.

What is happening is that regular visits, like six-month check-ups, for an example, are being rescheduled, Marti said.

“We are still seeing patients for typical illnesses and injuries,” Bond said. “If a patient presents with a cough and fever, they are required to wear a mask while in our clinic. At this time, we have limited access to the COVID-19 test but we all hope this changes soon. Currently, if a patient presents to our office, we can not guarantee they will be tested. Certain criteria must be met in order to be tested for COVID-19. We are encouraging the community to contact the COVID-19 hotline with questions and to self quarantine.

“I want everyone in our community to know we are taking this very seriously. All of our staff have full personal protective equipment. The current testing is being sent out to an off-site lab and is taking anywhere from 6-10 days to get results. With our moderate complex lab, we have the ability to perform several tests and a test for COVID-19 is on the horizon. We will have in house testing in the near future with results in under 20 minutes. In addition, we are also working on a telemedicine program (for patients to seek medical treatment from the comfort of their own home) which will be operational soon.”

An order issued Tuesday by Oklahoma Gov. Stitt bans elective surgeries, minor procedures, or non-emergency dental procedures for the next 14 days. If patients have these scheduled in that time period, they will receive notice from their physician that the procedures will be rescheduled.