Thanks to COVID-19, one of the busiest health care providers in this area has had to make some major changes. Community Health Care no longer sees patients in-person, except for just a few cases.
CEO Tom Bowman says patients are now "treated" by phone as much as possible.
"The whole idea is to reduce the number of people that actually come in physical contact with patients at this point. That reduces exposure, but it also extends the life of the personal protective equipment that we we have so that we don't have to keep going through it at such a rapid pace by having all locations doing that service."
Community Health Care has ten locations in the Quad Cities, Muscatine, and Clinton, and has set up and outdoor tent at four of them for people who might need some sort of hands-on care.
Before COVID-19, the agency hosted more than 500 visits per day, or about 130,000 per year - for medical, dental, and behavioral health.
Bowman says his clinics have enough personal protective supplies for now, but they could always use more.
