One of the first two CDC-confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus in the Houston area turned out to be a patient from one of VillageMD's owned and operated Village Medical practices. Clive Fields, MD, VillageMD Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder recently had a conversation with the Texas Academy of Family Physicians to share the ways Village Medical has prepared for such patients and to recommend that physicians nationwide adopt similar screening protocols.
Per Fields, "The reality of what’s happening is far different than what I think people would like to believe so there are two things I’m happy to help you with; one: the real need to prepare in a much more concrete checklist-type fashion, and two: how this brings out the lack of investment in community-based physicians over the last 50 years. This is exactly why the country needs to invest in its primary care base, because it’s only with a high-touch and high-tech approach that you can really allay patients’ fears and anxieties and deliver the kind of education and health care they need."
Read the full conversation here.