The subject of infectious disease is something very important to us. In 1998, my father acquired nosocomial (hospital transmitted) VRE (vancomycin-resistant eterococcus) infection while in the hospital and, later, in 2013, died of a MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) infection that he acquired during a different hospitalization. These infections are both caused by bacteria that can live for extended periods of time on surfaces, rather than viruses, which tend to die quickly on surfaces in comparison. These two bacteria fall into the classification of “super bugs” which can often be hard to kill with antibiotics and can become deadly.
Given the experience I that had from the infections my father acquired, we have always gone above and beyond the requirements for sanitizing and sterilization in our office.
We use the same disinfectant that hospitals use, Cavicide, on all of our surfaces between clients. Cavicide kills MRSA, VRE, HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis, herpes, influenza, etc. There’s a reason it has been a gold standard for years.
Our tools are run through a sterilizer after each use, and, although we aren’t required to, we run a weekly spore test that we send to an independent lab to verify that our sterilizer and sterilization protocols are working as intended.
Finally, our probes come from the factory in individual, sterilized packs, and are thrown out after each client.
In a typical day, somewhere between 8-16 people come through our office and we each have a 15 minute buffer between clients to handle payment, rescheduling, and chatting, so it is uncommon for people to spend a lot of shared time together in our waiting room and we work one on one in our treatment rooms.
The risk of transmitting or acquiring the Corona virus, or any other infectious disease, in our office was already very low by design.
Because of the protocols we have always had in place, we are currently, and intend to continue to be open.
However, because of the ease of transmission, we do ask that people whom are feeling ill, especially if they have a fever, cough, and breathing difficulty, to please contact your doctor and reschedule your appointment(s) with us. Likewise, if you suspect that you have had contact with an infected person, please reschedule your appointment to a day at least 14 days after you had the suspected contact to ensure you are healthy.
There is no need to panic, much less devolve into hysteria, but we all should take the potential risks of this infection seriously, and, we ask for your cooperation in doing so.
Again, we are currently, and plan to continue to be, open for business.
Thank you,
Keri
