A Doctor Puts Telemedicine to the Test During COVID-19

It was the first day after the San Francisco Bay Area declared that residents shelter in place, and I was getting ready to see patients. I generally dress in a dry-cleaned shirt, slacks, and a tie. I’m a pediatrician and feel parents deserve to see a physician in professional attire for all the money they pay for healthcare. Shelter in place, however, meant dry cleaning services might be closed for a long while. So I opted instead for jeans and a sweater—easy to wash and dry at home. Inside my car, I felt uncertain. I was a team leader in my medical group’s response to the pandemic, but I wasn’t sure what awaited me.

I arrived at my medical center, a campus of buildings surrounded by wooded hills, in a suburb 45 minutes northeast of San Francisco. Normally the campus is bustling with patients and doctors. This morning only one building entryway was open. The others had been sealed off. A staff member wearing a surgeon’s mask stood outside