Covid-19 Update

In general advice updated:

Dr. Pierce and Dr.  Sharkey agree with the advice from our Maine CDC and they recommend social distancing by avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people, staying home, frequent hand washing especially after being out in public, and calling us if you'd like to get tested for covid 19.   Now that testing is expanded in Maine most results are back in about 1-2 days.   

Symptoms include:  

• Fever or Chills
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Cough
• New onset headache
• Body aches
• Sore throat
• New loss of taste or smell
• Lack of appetite
• Nausea, vomiting, or Diarrhea

To avoid getting yourself and others sick:  

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth
• Stay home/work from home when possible and avoid close contact with others
• give 6 ft distance between people and use a cloth face covering when you cannot maintain 6 feet or if you are indoors anywhere that is not your own home. 
• Your cloth face covering protects others and their cloth face covering protects you.  Show you respect other people.
• Avoid unnecessary travel, and limit grocery store trips to one every 2 weeks
• Avoid crowds, public places that are indoors and avoid any meetings with more than 10 people.  Stay home if you’re sick until you’re afebrile and feeling better + 5 more days.  
• Cough or sneeze into your sleeve at your elbow. 

If sick:  

• Drink plenty of water
• Eat your fruits and vegetables
• Go to bed 1/2h early every night to get enough rest
• For congestion:  Mucinex 12h taken every 12h
• For cough:  daytime pseudoephedrine (sudafed PE) every 6h only if you do not have high blood pressure and nighttime Benadryl 25mg safe for people with and without high blood pressure
• For muscle or throat pain:  Tylenol 500 mg every 4-6h.  
• Call us at 207-847-9200 for shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, fever more than 100.4F, worsening, or any questions.  

Here's an update on tests that are available: 
Covid-19 RNA, Qualitative:
For patients with symptoms:  
cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing 
OR at least 2 of the following:  
fever, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, new headache, sore throat, new loss of sense of smell or taste.  Other symptoms of covid-19 could include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea
IgG antibody testing:  
Must be over 10 years old and no symptoms x 14 days.  
Overall We do not recommend Antibody testing at this time because most of the tests out now have not been validated by the FDA (UEA/Emergency Use Approval means the test was self validated and not validated by the FDA).  Additionally their specificity and accuracy is unknown.  For example the test may show a coronavirus antibody positive if the patient has had a cold by a different coronavirus (not covid-19).  
Additionally we do not know if presence of antibody confers immunity and if so, for how long. 

Office protocols:  
If you have an appointment scheduled:  Our staff will be contacting you 1-2 weeks prior to see if you'd like to convert your appointment to Telemedicine or if you are planning to come in person.   

Please do not schedule an appointment in the office if you have had contact in the last 2 weeks with a sick person.  We prefer to communicate through Telemedicine in those cases so we can reduce risk of Covid-19 transmission to ourselves and other patients.  We use Doxy.

How does my doctor do the Telemedicine?
Patients need a computer with a camera and microphone (most have this built in).  We like to use doxy.me which is the most secure/HIPAA compliant but can also use Zoom and FaceTime.At scheduled appointment time:  
Doxy.me and Zoom:  provider will have sent pt an email with an invite that they click the link or cut/paste into browser to get connected at time of visit.  Note they need to use Safari, Chrome or FireFox for doxy.me 
Facetime:  provider will call pt on their computer/smartphone/ipad/tablet and they will need the FaceTime app installed. 
Patients who should consider Telemedicine instead of in person visits include:  

• People 65 years of age or older
• People who live in a nursing home or long term care facility
• ​People with immune compromise or taking care of someone with immune compromise
• People of all ages with certain underlying medical conditions, such as chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma, severe obesity, diabetes, liver disease, serious heart conditions, hypertension or people  undergoing dialysis.
• People with weakened immune systems from illness, steroid or immunosuppressive therapy, smoking, cancer treatment, bone marrow or organ transplantation, or immune deficiencies.
• People caring for others who are high risk.

Patients will be scheduled to minimize person to person contact in the office and allow for time to disinfect the rooms between patients. Please follow these procedures when coming to the office to help us in our efforts:

• Patients are required to wear a mask when coming to the office
• Please come to your appointment alone unless you require physical assistance or are assisting a minor.
• Sanitizer your hands upon arrival
• You will be sent directly to your examining room so you will not need to sit in the waiting room
• Please do not bring any excess personal items into the office. No outside food or drink will be allowed. Please put all personal items (e.g. wallets, glasses, keys, etc.) in your coat pockets or in the sanitized receptacle provided in the treatment room.
• Please check out at the front desk after your appointment to pay your copay and schedule another appointment.
• While in the building please maintain at least 6 feet distance from all others at all times.

We will be continually reevaluating and adapting our protocol as conditions require and as advised by the Maine CDC. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding as we weather this COVID-19 outbreak and continue taking care of you!

COVID-19 Resources:  

• Maine CDC:  https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/
• Also Avi Schiffman’s webpage with accurate world map and covid-19 case counts:    https://ncov2019.live
• This site has very nice tables, charts, and graphics to help put covid-19 into perspective with other infectious diseases in our world:  https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/covid-19-coronavirus-infographic-datapack/