Monday, March 16, 2020

A Note From Dr. Yellin to Our Patients And Their Families



In response to questions from our patients, I want to let you know that The Yellin Center is open and operating during this difficult and complicated time. As a physician, parent, and grandparent, I have no greater concern than the health and safety of our patients, their families, and our staff.

Our assessment model has always been a one-student-at-a time process, which enables us to work with individual students in our offices and still practice the “social distancing” which is so important to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

We have taken steps to make sure that our premises are safe for all visitors. We have removed everything – baskets of snacks, books, magazines, toys, literature – from our waiting and family areas and our entire office is disinfected regularly in accordance with current CDC guidelines. We are limiting contact with assessment materials and disinfecting any materials handled by students. We are using new pencils for each student and discarding them after each use. We require all visitors and staff to use Purell or to wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately upon entering our offices.

Our staff has been instructed in ways to monitor their own health and to remain home if they show any signs of illness or have been exposed to coronavirus through family or friends, and we ask that students and parents who have scheduled appointments do the same. We will, of course, continue to pay our staff whether they are able to come to the office or not.

With schools closed and remote learning and homeschooling being arranged for many students, we know that students may face additional challenges, including how to use their learning strategies outside the classroom, how to use their strengths to best access academic material, and how to deal with anxiety and emotional issues in this unsettled time. We would be pleased to offer support to parents and students to deal with the unique issues they are facing. Just contact our office to set up a call.

We are aware that some of the families who have consultations and follow-up appointments scheduled would prefer to do these remotely. We have always offered remote consultations and follow-up and hope that even more families will want to take advantage of this technology. Please contact our office (and leave a message if we can’t pick up your call immediately) to arrange for your meeting or consultation to be held remotely.

For those of you who will be visiting our offices but have concerns about travel, we do want to remind you that there is an Icon parking garage directly across from our offices at 839 6th Avenue, with an entrance on 29th Street, just west of Sixth Avenue.  

We will, of course, continue to monitor this situation as well as the latest guidance from the CDC and others, and share any changes to our operations. In the meantime, you may want to review guidance from our colleagues at the American Academy of Pediatrics, including ways to talk to your children about the coronavirus and the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


My best regards to you and your family.
Take good care,


Paul (signature)


Paul B. Yellin, MD, FAAP

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