The Kugler Vision refractive surgery center in Omaha, Neb., is postponing elective procedures and using telehealth for the next six weeks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision comes per the recommendations of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the U.S. surgeon general and others. The ASC has been screening patients before entering the facility for the disease, and has only been seeing one patient in the office at a time. The surgery center said it's willing to share surgical supplies with hospitals that need them and is sharing its safety protocols with other facilities.
"I want to be clear, we’re not epidemiologists here — we’re specialists in restoring vision. That said, for the past several weeks, we worked very hard to implement safety protocols to protect patients that needed our services,” said Lance Kugler, MD, founder and head surgeon at Kugler Vision. “We have surgeon colleagues in China, South Korea, Italy and other areas that have been affected over the past several months, and we have tried to stay ahead of the curve and learn from the policies and processes they have implemented.”