COVID-19 and Remote Therapy options

I’m writing today to update you on our plans for safe and efficient continuity of care at Circle Speech. As a member of this local community, I have many of the same concerns you do for yourself and your family.

I have been in this field for over 25 years and started my career working directly in various acute care and rehab hospitals. In these settings, universal precautions and infection control are paramount, even in everyday interactions. I am familiar and comfortable implementing these hospital safeguards and have trained my staff at Circle Speech Services to follow these precautions to keep everyone healthy.

Because we are a small and flexible practice, we are grateful to be able to offer multiple therapy options (in office, at home, or online video) in the weeks going forward. Please review some of the options below and allow us to help you arrange what works best for you.

In-Office Therapy

In the recent weeks, we have added increased infection control methods to our routine cleaning and handwashing, as noted below. Know that since some families will choose out-of-office options, any client seen in-office will be exposed to fewer people with reduced risk of exposure.

1. Wearing gloves during contact with face and hands
2. Using dedicated toys for each pediatric client and then removing them from the room to be cleaned
3. Removing soft toys that can’t easily be cleaned from all therapy rooms
4. Disinfecting therapy materials, rooms and surfaces between clients
5. Disinfecting bathrooms, doorknobs, waiting rooms and other surfaces in the office throughout the day
6. Scheduling clients 1:1, never in groups, allows us to see everyone without having large groups of people in the waiting room together

Alternative Therapy Opportunities – At Home or Telepractice

We have been closely monitoring the CDC recommendations to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. For families who are interested, we are happy to offer the following alternatives to in-office therapy for you. We think that these choices will help keep everyone healthy and allow for therapeutic progress to continue.

At Home Visits

We can arrange for home visits for families that prefer to avoid visiting the office. Therapists in the home will observe strict universal precautions including handwashing and gloves.

Telepractice Visits

We can provide therapy services online using Zoom Telehealth, a HIPAA-compliant and secure telepractice platform. This option allows you to continue to reach therapy goals without requiring either an in-office or in-person session with your therapist. Zoom Telehealth supports online video therapy sessions using either your personal computer, tablet, or mobile phone.

Billing and Payments

As always, we can accept payment in person, over the phone or you can be billed for services. As an added convenience, we have recently added Venmo to our payment options to allow for easier remote payments.

Choose what works best for you

If you interested in one of the alternate therapy options (at home visits or online video telepractice), please just contact us to let us know what works best for you. You can also feel free to try any of the options if you unsure, and then let us know if you would prefer to switch to another delivery model.