What precautions should we be taking at home to protect ourselves from contracting the virus?

We would like to share with you some additional tips and guidance suggested by our CEO, Eric Dickson, MD:

Tips to Keep You Well at Home and/or at Work:

  1. Wash your hands often and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
  2. Avoid sharing personal household items. Don’t share utensils, dishes, cups, towels, etc.
  3. Stay home if you’re sick, and if so, follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations on how to avoid spreading COVID-19 (link below).
  4. Cover coughs and sneezes.
  5. Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces at least daily.
  6. Wash your work clothes thoroughly yourself. Use a normal laundry detergent according to washing machine instructions and dry thoroughly using the warmest temperatures recommended on the clothing label.
  7. Social Distancing: Put distance between yourself and other people. This one is my personal favorite because my teenagers at home have been teaching me this for years!
  8. Keep your sense of humor! It doesn’t have anything to do with infection control, but it will help us all get through this!

Additionally, at Work:

  1. Easy to clean: Wear clothing to work that can readily be washed at home.
  2. Consider bringing a change of clothes to wear home at the end of your shift or upon arrival to home.
  3. Consider going to “bare below the elbows” so that it is easier to wash hands/forearms and avoid the possibility that long sleeves are inadvertently contaminated.
  4. Don’t wear ties as they are harder to clean and might be contaminated.
  5. Wipe before you type; disinfect a shared computer keyboard before you start to use it.
  6. Disinfect your cell phone, pager, laptop computers or other devices before you go home.
  7. Try to have social distancing while at work and avoid having your rounding team cluster around a single computer.

There is great information on the CDC Website https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html for those who are sick at home as well as household members of those who have COVID-19 or are symptomatic.