East Granby Family Practice, in conjunction with SOHO Health, is working closely with World Health Organization (WHO) the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) to stay current on COVID-19 and its impacts. 

In an effort to help you stay safe and current with the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, SOHO Health has created a web page for information and resources. The page is a repository for information and resources including patient materials available for download and printing, practice resources and helpful links. We encourage you to visit the page often as information will be regularly updated. 

To easily visit the COVID-19 Patient Resources page click here.

It is our utmost concern at East Granby Family Practice to put the safety of our staff and patients first while continuing to offer medical care to our patients. We have developed procedures and protocols to separate our contagious patients from those who are not.

When calling for an appointment, patients will be screened for risk of coronavirus exposure or infection. Recent onset of fever, cough, respiratory distress, sore throat and recent travel history or exposure to crowds are concerning for the COVID-19 illness and our trained triage nurses will determine the next course of action in conjunction with the DPH. If testing is appropriate and available, patients will be directed to the nearest facility with an order from your EGFP provider.

If, when calling for an appointment, a patient is determined to be at low risk for coronavirus, an appointment will be given. We have asked all patients, once they have arrived at the parking lot, to call the office stating they are there. Our nurses will then meet the patient at the car and do limited vital signs and test, if needed for strep throat and/or flu. If, the patient needs further assessment, the patient would be brought to our special containment room for further evaluation. This is a room that we have set up that does not communicate with the rest of the office. In this manner, no contagious patient is entering the main office building minimizing risk to other patients and our staff.

We are continuing to see our healthy patients for their medical needs. This includes patients who need their visits for chronic medical problems, injuries, orthopedic problems, well-child visits, and preoperative evaluations. We  are not using our waiting room as we are bringing patients directly from the parking lot to the exam room, rather than waiting in the waiting room.

We feel that it is important for our pediatric patients to keep their well-child visits, as it is important to monitor growth and development and to be sure that all immunizations are given to protect the children from other potentially devastating diseases. In that light, we ask the parents to call us when they arrive in the parking lot. We have designated one room for well-child visits (newborn to age 5) where the height and weight will be recorded and immunizations given. Once the nurses are informed of the child's arrival, they will prepare the immunizations, prepare the room, and when all is ready ask the parents to bring the child directly to the designated well-child care room. This will minimize contact with any other patients. Parents are asked not to bring other siblings at this visit and if they themselves are ill, to reschedule the visit.

Some patients may still feel uneasy about coming to the office during this coronavirus pandemic. They may reschedule the appointment if the needs are not urgent. However, they may also opt for a telemedicine or virtual office visit. This means, they would keep the appointment time and their provider would call them then to update and adjust medications, refill prescriptions, evaluate and recommend treatment for problems, order blood work or other screening tests that are due such as mammograms or colonoscopies and make referrals if needed.. A record of this visit will be maintained in the chart and appropriate virtual office visit billing submitted to insurance.

Please be assured that all of our staff is following the cleanliness protocols from the Center for Disease Control and the Department of Public Health to prevent transmission of all infections including the coronavirus. This includes frequent handwashing, cleaning all surfaces between patients, wearing protective mask and gloves when needed and minimizing sharing of inanimate objects such as pens and papers. Even though we are only allowing non-contagious patients in our waiting room, we have set it up so that there is large distances between the chairs.

The following is the EGFP information sheet developed to give guidelines on how to treat the symptoms of this virus. This is supportive care and similar to that recommended to treat most viral infections. .

 The Coronavirus, or COVID-19, is a respiratory virus that gives symptoms similar to that of the flu or, even, the common cold. Common symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Muscle pain, sputum induction & sore throat are less common symptoms. Although majority of cases result in mild symptoms, some progress to pneumonia and even death, especially in older adults who have multiple medical problems. This is a viral illness and antibiotics will not help. Antiviral medications like Tamiflu, will not help either. Treatment goals are to reduce the symptoms and to prevent spread among family members and the community.

The virus is thought to be transmitted from person to person, either by direct contact, by contact with the virus through sneezing and coughing and by contact with the virus on surfaces that were contaminated by infected persons. To prevent contracting the disease, practice social distancing. This means stay home whenever you can, only leaving home to perform essential tasks, especially if you are over 65 and/or have multiple medical problems. Testing for the COVID-19 virus has been challenging but there are now centers that are testing if you fit the criteria.  A new Rapid COVID-19 test will be available in a few weeks to test in the office. 

In most cases, COVID-19 does not cause serious illness. It typically lasts for 7 to 14 days; once diagnosed with COVID-19, or if in intimate contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, it is advised that patients self-isolate for 2 weeks. Like any illness, the virus can make you more susceptible to other infections, such as another viral infection or a bacterial infection. Generally a physician can distinguish a bacterial infection such as sinusitis, pneumonia, otitis media and strep throat from a virus infection through a patient's history, examination and testing.

The following are general measures to make you feel better:

1. Get more rest, do not go to work or school if you have a fever. Rest at home and go to bed early.

2. Drink more fluids. Chicken soup is a good example and it has anti-inflammatory properties. Also use water, juices, teas and other clear nutritious fluids to try to flush the virus out of your system. Also, good hydration helps the body fight the infection and thin the mucus secretions, so the body can get rid of them.

3. Flush out the virus or bacteria by using saline nose spray - 2 sprays each nostril frequently initially until feeling better,, then 2- 3 times per day thereafter. Take steamy showers to break up mucus. Use a humidifier in the bedroom at night or in the room where you spend most of the day. Consider Vicks vapor rub, either the plug-in type or the type that can be rubbed on the chest.

4. A runny nose and congestion may improve with the use of decongestants, such as Sudafed (pseudoephedrine), as long as you do not have a history of hypertension or have side effects such as palpitations due to decongestants. Antihistamines such as Claritin, Zyrtec, or Benadryl may also help but have side effects such as drowsiness and drying of the eyes nose and mouth. Antihistamines may be helpful if the underlying problem is allergy.

5. A steroid nasal inhaler (some are over the counter such as Rhinocort and Flonase) may be helpful to reduce the inflammation in the nose and the congestion, especially if allergies are the main problem

6. A medication to break up mucus is important at times. Such medications gently have guaifenesin as the active ingredient. Mucinex is a well known example. Mucinex D has a long acting decongestant combined with it. Often take the 12 hr Mucinex D during the day and plain Mucinex at night to prevent the insomnia that the "D" or decongestant can cause. (Ask the pharmacist for the Mucinex D "behind the counter" as it has the better active ingredient.) 

7. For muscle aches and pains, sore throat, and for fever, recent information shows that it is better to use acetaminophen (Tylenol) rather than ibuprofen (Advil) or naproxen (Aleve). Ibuprofen and naproxen could help the fever and aches, but may be associated with prolonging the course of the Coronavirus illness.

8. For cough, usually humidified air, steamy showers, teas, tea with honey, cough drops, or products such as Vicks VapoRub work well. Other over-the-counter cough medications that could be used usually have a combination of guaifenesin and dextromethorphan such as Mucinex DM, Delsym, or Robitussin-DM.

9. All over-the-counter medications should be taking as indicated on their label.

10. To prevent spread of the infection, it is important to have good hand washing with soap and water. Hands should be washed often, and it is important not to touch your eyes nose or mouth when in contact with others who are ill. Also, it is important to self-isolate. This means to stay at home. Do not work, go to grocery stores, restaurants, bars or other places of social gatherings.

11. Antibiotics are used only if there seems to be a bacterial complication.

12. If sudden worsening of symptoms, such as unremitting high fever along with a bad cough and shortness of breath, seek health care immediately. Go directly to an emergency room, or call 911.