Dear patients and trusted Physician Partners,
We want to keep you fully informed of our action plan for continuing to provide quality health care through the COVID-19 challenge.
We will be temporarily modifying our appointment process for our neuromedicine patients. The changes will allow us to ensure that patients who need immediate care receive it promptly while also preparing us to meet the evolving needs of our community while COVID-19 is still a threat.
Beginning immediately, we will evaluate existing and new patient-visit requests to determine the urgency of care required. Visits considered non-urgent, routine clinical appointments will be set 30 – often 90 days out when possible. We have already begun reviewing appointments currently on our 90-day schedule and deferring those when we are able. We will continue to set urgent care visits as usual.
These steps, which are consistent with the present CDC guidelines, will help us reduce elective surgeries and procedures, preserve personal protective equipment and allow capacity for treating COVID-19 patients if needed. This is, of course, an evolving situation so we will reevaluate as needed and keep you informed.
We hope you will share these temporary changes with your patients.
We appreciate your understanding and support during this unprecedented time. Please reach out to me if you have any input as to how we can enhance our collaboration and further support our community as we all respond positively and proactively to the coronavirus.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Brian L. Hoh, MD, MBA
James & Brigitte Marino Family Professor and Chair of Neurosurgery
Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Florida
Michael Okun, MD
Adelaide Lackner Professor and Chair of Neurology
Executive Director, Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases
University of Florida Health
Medical Director, Parkinson’s Foundation