At Texas Retina Associates, we remain committed to preserving your eye health and vision while keeping our patients, staff and physicians as safe and healthy as possible during this pandemic. Our physicians and staff continue to follow guidance and recommendations provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). All of our offices currently remain open to serve you. However, we are taking some additional precautions:
- At this time, we will continue to care for patients with vision-threatening retinal conditions.
- If your health permits, we also recommend that patients who require ongoing treatments to maintain their vision keep their appointment to avoid vision loss.
- Patients with new vision changes can call to make a new patient appointment.
- Staff in our offices are available to assist you if you have questions about routine appointments or rescheduling.
- Our physicians are continuing with surgeries that cannot be delayed due to threat of vision loss. This decision will be made on an individual basis.
- We are limiting exam areas to patients only unless the patient requires physician or language assistance. We recommend all other guests wait in their vehicles.
- We are doing our best to get patients into an exam room or private waiting area as soon as possible upon arrival to help meet the CDC’s recommendations for social distancing.
- Texas Retina has always maintained an infection control process, and we regularly sanitize our offices to prevent the spread of infection. We are doing this even more frequently using CDC recommended products.
- We are ensuring that our care team members are vigilant about their own health, including staying home the proper amount of time if they are ill or have been exposed to someone who is.
As before:
- Any patient who is experiencing fever or flu-like symptoms, such as cough or shortness of breath, must reschedule their Texas Retina appointment and should contact their primary care provider.
- If you have come in contact with anyone who has COVID-19, please stay home for at least 14 days from the time you made contact and self-monitor.
- If you have recently traveled to any country with documented COVID-19 transmission, please stay home for at least 14 days from the time you left the area and self-monitor.
- If we suspect that you may have COVID-19, we reserve the right to arrange to send you to the nearest local hospital/healthcare facility that is equipped to deal with this condition. This is to provide you with immediate care as well as to ensure the safety of our doctors and staff.
If you have any questions regarding your appointment or need to reschedule, please call us at 1-800-695-6941. We are trying our best to promptly answer calls and accommodate all requests.
We will continue to post updates on our website, Facebook page and LinkedIn page.
For more information about coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), you can visit the following web sites:
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/
In addition, Texas Health and Human Services encourages all Texans in need of COVID-19 information and referrals to community resources to call the 2-1-1 Texas hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Texans, no matter where they live, can dial 2-1-1 or 877-541-7905 and select option 6 to get information and referrals to COVID-19 social services, including testing, community clinics, unemployment benefits and more. Texans can also dial 2-1-1 to find information about local community resources such as financial assistance for utilities or rent and food pantries, housing assistance, crisis counseling, utility payment assistance, and senior services.
If you have questions about COVID-19, you can also access the following local resources:
- Texas Health Resources Hotline: 682-236-2101
- Medical City COVID-19 HUB: medicalcityhealthcare.com/covid-19/index.dot
- Lubbock UMC COVID-19 Screening Hotline: 806-761-0111
- Waco-McLennan County Public Health District COVID-19 Hotline: 254-750-1890
.