What’s Going On Around Kansas?
The KDA has been talking to members around the state, and offer these dental practice “updates” as information, and perhaps strategies and guidance, for your own dental practice.
Dentist A:
We started with training last week in two groups due to size of team. Prior to that, the three doctors and the office manager met via conference call to review all new protocols and be unified in our approach.
Our staff is amazing, everyone is on board and glad to be back to work!
There are about 950 patient appointments that have to be rescheduled between operative, surgery, and hygiene. The appointment times are being extended by 10-15 minutes and we are putting a 10-minute gap between all of them on the schedule. After one month, we will keep the extension and lose the gap. I have cancelled a vacation and several of our team have also reduced or rescheduled days off to help the office get caught up.
We are well stocked on most PPE. We already used Dry Shield (similar to Isolyte, but a lot less expensive) so that made everything easier.
We started at about 50-60% and use a gatekeeper to do all the monitoring as patients come in. We can't afford a concierge, so we went more with the Walmart greeter approach. Works really well.
We have had a lot of patients that want to delay coming in for a while, but a far greater number wanting to get in. We will ramp up slowly after one month, and over the next three months.
Dentist B:
We have lengthened appointment times across the board, reduced columns, and instead of two dentists working at the same time from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM in an office, we now have two shifts: 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM, to minimize patient and staff numbers.
We created a concierge position to screen, take temps, etc. at front door. We retrained every employee with a half day infection control/COVID program last week (in small groups) before we started seeing patients on Monday.
Overall, employees are very receptive and pleased with the new protocols. Parents are reacting the same way... Very aware and appreciative of our efforts. Some parents are still pushing appointments out to June, but haven’t had a very hard time filling schedules.
Dentist C:
We had staff meetings last Thursday. We’ve divided the staff (half in the morning and half in the afternoon), because we have 17 staff members. We went over, in detail, our COVID protocol manual, PPE, etc. We let them ask questions and voice concerns. All of our staff came back and, as this week has gone on, the anxiety has lowered a ton.
We started out on Monday with about 60% hygiene and 60% doctor schedule, and it seems to build slightly every day. I like all the additions we have made: face shields, surgical gowns, and caps; and the staff so far hasn't minded it. The more PPE we have available, the calmer everyone got.
I think my cooling bill will be at least double this month though!!
Most patients have voiced they are happy we are back. I think the biggest thing we could let our colleagues know, is that you need to do whatever is necessary for your staff to make them feel safe, educate them on PPE, the virus, and have a clear, well thought out plan for them to follow. Staff needs calming, knowledgeable, confident leadership right now.
Dentist D:
My county has an extended stay at home order. We are doing emergency only at this time with limited staff.
Dentist E:
Our staff and patients are adapting very well. We pre-screen patients over the phone when they make an appointment, and so far, everyone has been extremely compatible. We go over the same questions when they arrive in our office. We gave a letter explaining our COVID-19 protocols, which we have updated on our website.
Our staff is stellar and very appreciative of the extra PPE (head covers, face shield, etc) we are using. I made a plexiglass cage for our front desk and they love it, feeling very safe. Everyone is wearing street clothes to the office and changing into scrubs, and then back again when they leave; but they were all doing that pretty much anyway.
Most patients are keeping their appointments. They have, on multiple occasions, thanked us for being so deliberate in showing and explaining to them some of our new protocols. A hand full have called in advance, said they didn’t feel comfortable leaving their homes, and thanked us for our understanding. We have had no “no shows." I think our patients feel lucky to get an appointment, which some have actually expressed.
I think the ADA Toolkit has made my staff feel they can deal with our patients with confidence. If we have colleagues who are still struggling, I would recommend we keep pointing them to the toolkit.
Dentist F:
We have some learnings from the past few days. We opened with just doctor-only patients, no hygiene. Less use of PPE and gives the staff a chance to transition into the new environment. We have the hygienists calling next week’s patients and confirming, as well as the 400 we missed over the past seven weeks!
We are extending all of our treatment times by 10 minutes, including hygiene. They are now on a 70 minute schedule. To make up, we raised our fees by 3%. We are, however, non-par and can get away with that.
Scheduling high-production appointments for doctors this week. Having a long morning meeting, going over new protocols. So far, the staff is very accepting and killing it. Great teamwork, and glad to be back.
We moved everyone to one department, meaning a level office, including doctors. No front or back anymore. Cross training everyone in the office to do all things as much as possible. All staff is now in scrubs and change here in the office. No going home in contaminated scrubs. Even at the business desk. Checking in staff every morning with questions and temp, then issuing today's PPE. All PPE stays locked up and staff needs to ask for them.
Checking in patients takes about five minutes. Ask questions, take temp, rinse with peroxide, and wash hands; then directly back to treatment room with a mask.
No cleaning services. We are doing it all now as a team. Don't really want outsiders in the office (other than patients), where we don't know where they have been.
Some patients are reluctant to come in. That's OK. We are doing a soft opening and not worrying about the schedule. Most are just fine. All patients come in with a mask or we give them one.
Dentist G:
We had our all-staff meeting today, and it went well. Laid out our plan and trained on the new PPE.
We had had two staff members choose not to return for now, due to health concerns. I respect their decisions.
We are having no questions, as people who don't want to come in are just not calling us back. It makes it easy.
We start next week at 50% and hope to be at 80% by June 1.
Dentist H:
We started with a 50% patient load today. Overall, things are going very well!
My team is adapting/has adapted very well. We took a team approach to implementing different systems. I developed most of the framework with my Practice Administrator and Clinical Coordinator, and then sought contributions from other key team members to round out the system. As it has been put into play, we have been making adjustments where needed.
My team is completely onboard with what we are doing and very enthusiastic. They have a "can do, let’s get this done" mentality.
Questions from parents about how we are managing social distancing mostly. Very receptive to being able to bring their kids for visits.
