Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
COVID-19 Procedure Protocol in the Office
To ensure safety of our patients, Lubene is adheres to the following procedures during the office appointments:
1. All patients must fill out a COVID-19 Screening Survey with their request for an appointment and email it to lkajima@lubene.com one to two days prior to the appointment.
2. Upon arrival, patients are asked to come alone. There is always only one patient in the office at a time.
3. When entering the office, patients must sanitize their hands and put on a disposable mask unless they already wear one. They are also asked to leave their belongings in the waiting room and to put on disposable shoe covers before proceeding to a treatment room.
4. Once in the treatment room, patient sits or lies down on a treatment table. Treatment tables are covered by a disposable bed sheet and sanitized in between the patients. All pillow cases and blankets are single-use only. The rooms are equipped with medical disinfectant diffusers and windows to ensure safe and clean air circulation in the room.
5. Acupuncturist wears a protective coat, disposable gloves and an N95 facial mask. She continues to use a clean field and follows clean needle techniques for acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion and other techniques as described in the latest edition of the CNT manual. All equipment is properly sterilized, disinfected or disposed after use.
6. Prior to needling a patient, the area at acupuncture point site is swabbed by 70% isopropyl alcohol. For puncture needling, only single-use sterile needles are used. For contact needling according to Japanese acupuncture, UV-treated contact needles are used. At the end of the acupuncture, needles are removed and placed in a sharps container, and the needled sites are inspected for bleeding.
7. After the treatment, patients proceed to the waiting room to pick up their belongings. At this time they dispose of their shoe covers and are asked to sanitize their hands as they leave.
8. All door knobs and surface are disinfected after each patient and the air is being cleaned with an air purifier and a medical care disinfecting diffuser.
COVID-19 Procedure Protocol for Home Visits
Lubene is currently not providing any massage services or contact needling during home visits and follows the procedure below:
1. All patients must fill out a COVID-19 Screening Questionnaire with their request for an appointment and email it to lkajima@lubene.com
2. Acupuncturist arrives wearing an N95 mask.
3. Upon entering patient's home, acupuncturist puts on disposable shoe covers and sanitizes hands.
4. Once in the treatment room, acupuncturist puts on a protective coat, sanitizes hands, sets up a clean field and puts on disposable gloves.
5. Just like during the office visit, acupuncturist follows clean needle techniques for acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion and other techniques as described in the latest edition of the CNT manual. All equipment is properly sterilized, disinfected or disposed after use. For clean needling procedure, see point 6 in the office procedure protocol above. Contact needling during home visits is suspended due to the unavailability of the necessary UV-sterilizing equipment.
6. After the treatment, acupuncturist takes off the coat, places it in a laundry bag, wipes down the surfaces used, disposes of used gloves, sanitizes hands and leaves.