As allergy practices throughout the U.S. are starting to see more and more patients come back to their offices, there have been questions on the use of regular procedures such as spirometry, allergy testing, and many others, commonly performed during allergy office visits.
The ACAAI believes that decisions on which office procedures to perform should be decided by the individual allergist. At this time, the College does not believe that there should be one national policy on performing or not performing different office procedures.
Just as some communities have lower incidence and have opened up earlier than others during this pandemic, allowing certain activities before others, each allergist needs to evaluate what is happening in their area and decide what procedures they are comfortable offering to their patients. Allergists should continue to practice the social distancing recommended by their local leaders. They should determine their ability and capacity to provide services based on the individual office arrangements they can make to ensure the safety of their patients and staff. We believe that allergists will always do what is best for their patients and letting allergists decide when to start offering different procedures in their practice, is the correct approach at this time.
