The US healthcare delivery system has received never seen before shocks over the past four months. Including, COVID-19 symptom screening, social distancing, and adjustments to scheduling and waiting room customs. Boston based Raxia surveyed 3300 medical professionals nationwide to investigate how their practices interacted with their patients at intake, how they conducted their COVID-19 screening, and the effects on both patients and providers of rushing new check-in and office policies into place.

Findings showed 92 per cent of surveyed participants have added COVID-19 symptom screening and temperature checks to their intake process. The remaining 8 per cent of respondents delivered care only via telehealth. 74 per cent of respondents reported that they conduct intake and COVID-19 screening in a face-to-face interview with patients.

91 per cent of respondents reported that additional staff members and staff time were required to adhere to social distancing norms and to complete their modified intake process, including symptom screening. As a result, 75 per cent of surveyed healthcare professionals reported that the changes made to their intake process — including the way COVID-19 symptom screening was conducted — hindered their ability to see more patients.

The survey also uncovered the control of patient flow as a new challenge arising from how and where intake and screening were conducted. 26 per cent of the practices surveyed conducted their COVID-19 screening and intake at their reception desk. The remaining 74 per cent of surveyed practices screened their patients outside their facility or just inside their entrance requiring their patients to line up outside the facility.