COVID-19 Office Policies and Procedures

Dr. Griffith is following NYS guidelines for re-opening and providing for client safety for all sessions held in person. You should be aware of the following office safety precautions in effect for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic:

Office seating in the waiting area and therapy/testing room has been arranged for appropriate physical distancing of 6 feet apart.

I wear a mask and gloves (PPE), changed before each patient, and glasses, that are sanitized before meeting each patient.

I maintain a safe physical distancing of 6 feet apart between myself and patients, with no physical contact permitted, except for the safety of young child patients.

Restroom soap dispensers are available from me and maintained, and all patients are required to wash their hands thoroughly, for 20 seconds, with soap and water upon entering and exiting the OBPA building.

Hand sanitizer used in all sessions contains at least 65% alcohol and is available in my waiting and therapy/testing rooms.

I schedule all appointments at specific intervals to minimize person to person contacts in my waiting and therapy/testing areas, with at least 30 minutes between patients, for office sanitizing.

All patients must call when they arrive no more than 5 to 10 minutes before their sessions, and wait outside to be escorted into the OBPA building by me for their appointments. They must bring a mask, and wear it on exiting their car to enter the OBPA building, during sessions, and through the time they re-enter their car in the parking lot to go home. If a patient forgets a mask, a limited number of masks will be available from this clinician. Patients must also, after sessions, wash their hands again before exiting the OBPA building, go immediately to their cars, and then leave the parking lot, without visiting other offices.

Pens, cell phones, sign-in surfaces, checks/money for co-pays collected, mail, and areas that are commonly touched are thoroughly sanitized after contact for each patient before and during sessions.

Physical contact, except as is necessary for the immediate safety of younger child patients, is not permitted.

Tissues and touch-less, covered trash bins are available in my waiting and therapy/testing rooms. Trash and used PPE are disposed of safely, in closed separate bags, after each patient session, before being disposed of at the OBPA, at a session day’s end.

Common areas are also thoroughly disinfected again, with approved disinfectant cleaners, at the end of each day of sessions.

Clients are also, for in-person sessions, required to sign an additional informed consent for in-person services, which requires agreeing to take their own temperature and complete a COVID-19 symptom checklist prior to each session, agreeing to wear a mask throughout sessions and while in the OBPA building (for all patients over the age of 3 years of age), and agreeing to provide a contact address and phone number for the purpose of contact tracing by public health, should any COVID-19 exposure, or suspected exposure, occur.

Clients must realize that, for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person sessions will not be guaranteed, and phone sessions may need to be implemented, based on the updating of guidelines and/or this clinician’s perception, or a client’s perception, that phone therapy is safer to pursue than in-person sessions. Clients must also realize that guidelines, including those opening and closing the U.S.-Canada border that this clinician must cross to see patients in person, are regularly changed, and this may have an impact on the scheduling of in-person sessions.

Clients must finally realize that they assume some risk when attending in-person sessions, and must notify this clinician if they have been exposed to COVID-19. They must agree to stay home and cancel their appointments if they feel ill, if they suspect they have been or have been exposed to COVID-19, and if have tested positive for COVID-19. This clinician will also do the same for her clients.

Should phone therapy sessions need to be implemented, insured patients need to know that their copay charges are no longer waived by their insurers, and that their copays will be billed for each session, by this clinician’s billing service, Regional Medical Management of Watertown, N.Y. In the event that telephone therapy is not covered by a patient’s insurance, a minimum charge of $35/clinical hour session will be billed. For private pay clients, session fees will need to be paid, by check or money order, prior to a phone therapy session being held. Failure to pay required insurance co-pays or private pay fees in a timely way may result in clinical services not being provided and a patient’s case being closed.