AMA Launches Physician Guide for Reopening Medical Practices

May 4, 2020—The American Medical Association (AMA) announced a new resource, COVID-19: A physician practice guide to reopening, that provides a step-by-step guide for physicians planning to reopen medical practices.

The AMA stated that this new guide was created in response to states across the nation revising COVID-19 executive orders to allow elective or nonurgent medical procedures. It builds on the AMA’s ongoing efforts to ensure physicians and health care professionals have the most up-to-date information and resources necessary to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new physician practice reopening guide and other important tools and resources can be found on the AMA’s COVID-19 Resource Center.

According to the AMA, the resource offers support and guidance for managing the safe reopening of a medical practice as more routine in-person care resumes, protecting the health of patients, clinicians, staff, and the public. It outlines how best to approach the unique challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic brings to the practice reopening process, providing physicians with checklists, supplemental information, and helpful links to COVID-19 resources from the AMA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies.

The announcement provides a summary of the practice reopening tools available to physicians, including:

• Ensuring state and federal government compliance
• Creating a plan for opening medical practices
• Instituting new safety measures for patients, clinicians, and staff
• Reviewing medical liability, privacy, and confidentiality policies related to COVID-19

The AMA has been tracking states’ plans for relaxing COVID-19 restrictions on nonurgent or elective medical procedures. In an April 16 announcement, the AMA urged states to continue to use science data as they reopen their economies, including meeting meet four criteria before loosening mandates to minimize the risk of another surge in COVID-19 infections and ensure that health care systems have the capacity to care for newly infected patients. Those criteria include (1) minimal risk of community transmission based on sustained evidence of a downward trend in new cases and fatalities; (2) a robust, coordinated and well-supplied testing network; (3) a well-resourced public health system for surveillance and contact tracing; and (4) fully resourced hospitals and health care workforce.

“The AMA believes decisions about public health and the provision of health care—including decisions to allow nonurgent or elective medical procedures amid the COVID-19 pandemic—should be made based on science, evidence, and data,” stated AMA President Patrice A. Harris, MD, in the announcement. “With some physicians beginning the process of reopening their practices, this essential resource supplies them with guidance to do so while keeping patients, staff, and the general public as safe as possible from a COVID-19 resurgence. The AMA remains focused on ensuring the viability of physicians’ practices that have been seriously impacted by this public health crisis and will continue providing support while aggressively advocating on physicians’ and patients’ behalf.”