COVID-19 Policies

COVID-19 Policies July 14, 2020

As our regular patients know, we have gotten in the flow with all the new procedures and cleaning routines required to safely treat.

We are once again offering cupping, gua sha and e-stim. We are offering more appointments, so in addition to the individual room air purifiers and an open window, we have added a UV filtration system to the building's air conditioner system.

All other rules below still apply.

May 4, 2020

Getting treated at Steel Creek Acupuncture during Covid-19:

If you are immune-compromised or should be self-isolating, we ask that you not schedule an appointment at this time.
The CDC is encouraging everybody to wear masks in public. We can’t enforce that, but we do encourage it not only for your own protection, but to protect your fellow humans.
If you live close, please use the bathroom before coming to your appointment. We will be disinfecting the bathroom toilet, sink, towel dispenser, soap dispenser and door handles between each use, so we would like to cut down on that as much as possible.
Do not enter the clinic until you have had your temperature taken. One of us will meet you at the door at your scheduled appointment time to take your temperature with a no-contact forehead scanner.
Hand sanitizer will be available at the door. Use it upon entering the clinic.
You will be taken straight to a treatment room. Pretend the lobby doesn’t exist. There will be no sitting or standing allowed in the lobby or at the reception desk.
Windows will be left open in the treatment rooms. Yes, this means there will be more traffic noise. We will turn up the music to try and compensate.
Between treatments, we will be disinfecting the face cradle, massage table, patient chair, patient table and door handle. The door will be closed to the treatment room and an air purification system will be used for at least 90 minutes before the room is used again.
For checkout, please remain on the plexi-glass side of the reception area. The ipad and chip reader will be disinfected between each use. We are not accepting cash payments at this time, but can accept paypal and venmo and credit/debit cards.

To protect the practitioners and staff, we will be wearing KN95 masks and learning to smile with our eyes. We will be wearing gloves during the treatment when needling points on the face and will be offering limited cupping, gua sha, and estim at this time. We have added an air purifier to the open area of the clinic. There will only be one practitioner working at a time and we are decreasing our daily patient load to ensure social distancing between patients. This all may change at any time. If patients follow these guidelines, I know we have the equipment and space to safely treat. If cases of Covid begin to spike or the first second I feel like we are putting patients or ourselves at risk, I will not hesitate to shut it down.

March 18, 2020

Patient care and public safety are our top priorities. Above all else, do no harm. We are dealing with a highly-transmissible virus that is passing from human to human asymptomatically. It is time we all do our part to flatten the curve so our hospitals do not become overwhelmed.

This means, unless we begin practicing flying needle technique from across the room, it would be unethical at this moment in time for us to continue to use our close-contact modalities on patients. This includes acupuncture, cupping, and gua sha.

Yesterday we shut the doors on the clinic for the next two weeks, but we are still providing our patients, established and new, with the following forms of care:

Herbs-

-If you are a patient already on an herbal formula, we will refill it and mail it to you or set-up a no-contact pick-up at the clinic.

-If you are in need of herbs for any health issue or would like to start taking a formula to help strengthen immunity and lung function, we can do telemedicine and send the herbs by mail or arrange no-contact pick-up.

Ear seeds-

Many of our menopause, migraine, and digestion patients receive intradermal needles at the end of the treatment. While I can’t give you needles to use at home, we can provide ear seeds which use acupressure to provide some stimulation to the acupoint.. It is still a sticker that is worn up to 1 week before removal. We will provide you with pictures of point locations and how to find the points you need to use. We can mail them or arrange a no-contact pick-up.

We appreciate our patients’ willingness to abide by the new rules we had in place for the clinic. Everybody needs to take COVID-19 seriously to stop the spread now. Please wash your hands. Please limit your interactions with others and put physical space between you and your fellow humans. Please stay home.

March 15, 2020

In order to ensure public safety during this pandemic, we need all of our patients to do their part. Until further notice, we are asking our patients to reschedule their appointments for at least two weeks out if they meet any of the following criteria:

Any symptoms of COVID-19 or any other respiratory illness. Including fever, cough, sneezing, body aches, fatigue.
If you are elderly or care for an elderly person.
If you are have conditions that would compromise your immune system or you care for people that have compromised immune systems.
If you are currently caring for a person at home who has COVID-19 or other respiratory symptoms.

We are taking the following steps to remain open and ensure public safety:

Patients will use hand sanitizer or wash their hands upon entering the clinic.
Only patients will be allowed into the clinic. Please ask your ride to wait in the car.
Please arrive no more than 5 minutes early to your scheduled appointment to prevent crowds in the waiting room.
There is no longer a sign-in sheet, please check-in with the receptionist.
Disinfecting wipes are used on massage tables, face cradles, tables, door handles, faucets, light switches and computer screens between patients.
As always, we change sheets, pillow cases, blankets and pillows between each and every patient.

This situation is rapidly changing and we are closely following the developments. If the government orders all non-essential services to close, we will close. Until then, we are taking it day-by-day. Should closing the clinic become necessary, we will still be able to provide you with your current herbal prescriptions. If you have a respiratory issue, we can arrange a no-contact pick-up of herbal formulas. We also have herbal formulas available to strengthen both respiratory and immune function.

If you have any questions, or to reschedule, please call 479-301-2307.