Governor allows all heath care services to reopen, under new health and safety requirements

Many providers are announcing their reopenings

On Monday, May 18, 2020 Governor Jay Inslee issued a proclamation that allows for the reopening of all health care services, including dental procedures, as long as they are able to comply with health and safety requirements. 

The reopening for providers who are able to meet the protocols was in effect at 12:00 midnight on Monday, May 18.

Each medical or dental practice will assess their own readiness and their communities’ COVID-19 activity to determine whether, and to what degree, they will reopen.

“Our health care system was one of the first in the nation to be hit with COVID-19 cases when there was much we were still learning about the novel virus. 

"Because of the great work of our health care system and communities, we managed the peak of COVID-19 activity in April without having a crisis in our hospitals,” Inslee said. 

“This plan was developed with many partners in our health care delivery system — including nurses, surgeons, pediatricians, dentists, community health clinics and hospitals.”

Aside from being determined by the COVID-19 activity in different regions of the state, the reopening of health care services are based on three standards of care. Readiness will be determined by the availability of PPE, hospital capacity and more.

Under this plan, each health care or dental provider must meet certain criteria to be able to begin performing elective procedures. Each provider evaluates their readiness to begin and must maintain standards to continue to see patients.

Local providers, including Highland Vision Clinic and Eric Yao, DDS have already sent out notifications of their reopening and what their new procedures will be under the new criteria. 

If you need to schedule care, contact your provider's office to see when they plan to reopen. Not all offices have social media presences or email contacts for their patients.