OFD currently participates in Aetna and enrolled in the Clear Pricing Project (CPP) for NC State Health Plan starting 2025
February 2024 – We are roughly half-way through cold and flu season. As expected, we’ve seen lots of flu, COVID, RSV, Strep and stomach bugs these last few months. The OFD doctors and staff are greatly appreciative of the cooperation that we’ve had from our sick patients in using the dedicated parking lot spots near the back shed to keep germs outside of the building. This policy has managed to keep the OFD team, and the healthy patients that we see inside the building, largely free from illness. We feel fortunate that our practice layout allows for this strategy. Our optional masking policy remains the same since we changed it last April (2023) and it seems to be working for most patients. We will continue to monitor the incidence of diseases in our community, and we continue to recommend routine vaccination for the vast majority of our patients.
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May 2023 – We welcome Dr. Kyle Knowlson to OFD. Kyle, who joined us in April 2023. He comes to us from MAHEC where he has practiced and taught for the past 8 years. His calm and compassionate demeanor blends very well with the OFD team. He will be seeing patients on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, though will also help with any OFD patient who needs a same day work-in on those days.
We are also happy to announce that Dr. Chris Irvine, who had been providing locums coverage for Dr. Vieages’s patients after she left OFD, has accepted a permanent spot at the practice. Chris embraces the OFD style of compassionate, evidence-based and individualized care and has been warmly welcomed by our patients and staff. We feel very fortunate to now have two Dr. Irvine’s providing care at the practice.
In the interest of improved air quality in the building, we have purchased individual commercial grade Medify Air purifiers for each exam room and throughout the building. These past 3 years have taught us all how easily viruses can be spread through the air, and adding these purifiers to the building was the right thing to do for OFD.
Finally, for those of you who like to bike to your appointments rather than drive, we have installed a bike rack outside the front of the building to make it easier to lock up your bikes. Many thanks to a long-time patient/cycling enthusiast who made the suggestion, and kindly installed the rack for us.
That’s it for now. Wishing you all a healthy Spring.
MW
