Greetings!
I had the pleasure of working with many dedicated volunteers this last week including dentists, dental students, hygiene students, and many more. SFDS acquired PPE from the City and County of San Francisco, had it delivered to the Busvan for Bargains Warehouse, undid the pallets of PPE and, with the help of all of these volunteers, repackaged the PPE into kits for distribution to the dentists in San Francisco. We bundled 800 kits that contained 35 respirators, 35 gowns, and 7 shields for each dentist.
I want to thank all that participated in this massive effort because it would not have happened without your hard work. I want to thank: the City for the PPE, Dr. Natasha Lee for arranging the free delivery of PPE from the City to the warehouse, Sysco San Francisco (
one of
the largest food distributors in the market)
for dona
ting a truck and driver for delivery, Cynthia Huie for introducing us to the owners of the warehouse space, Patricia and Michael Busk for donating the use of their warehouse on 900 Battery St., and our executive director Deborah Elam and team Rachel – they spent countless hours and very long days to make this happen.
The following volunteers include dentists, UCSF and UOP dental students, UOP hygiene students, dental assistants, and sons and daughters of member dentists - all helping to kit and distribute PPE over the 6-day period:
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Fikrahy Alamari
Nelson Artiga
Shabnam Baigzad
Nayeli Beltran
Kenneth Bianchi
Earl Capuli
Derrick Chan
Michael Chan
Mary Chang
Harry Chin
Melissa Chin
Jessica Dang
Megan Dang
Gail Duffala
Stafford Duhn
Courtney Fitzpatrick
Emily Fung
Phillnmer Guarin
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James Hayashi
Lauren Hebel
Bergen James
Brent Jang
Jeff Jang
Mitchell Jang
Stephanie Jee
Kimberlee Kiep
Linda Kuo
Natasha Lee
William Lee
Richard Leeds
Erick Lukman
Kevin Magana
Craig McDow
Viviane Nguyen
Nolan Nomura
Kris Oka
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Rujuta Palsule
Gabriela Pina
David Rothman
Sima Salimi
Jacob Scheel
Cynthia Scipioni
Sandy Shih
Aria Sikaroudi
Cory Stacpoole
Philip Stahl
Aparna Subramanian
Darius Tenorio
Johnathan Torres-Espinoza
Lindsay Treppa
Shannon Walker
Josephine Weber
Jing Wen
Lydia Wong
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And to the many others who were willing to help, though were not needed, we want to thank you, too.
It took 2 months of negotiations with the city to finally make this happen, but we did it!
More PPE is becoming available and I encourage you to purchase the California kit available from TDSC for $40. It contains 140 N95 respirators and surgical masks.
There is still time to apply for a PPP loan because applications have been extended until August 8, 2020.
Practicing with the new protocols is becoming easier and turning into the new normal. We must all do our best to stop the spread of this pandemic. The rising number of cases is resulting in a step back for many businesses and we need to continue showing that our dental practices are safe places that do not contribute to the spread and they need to stay open!
Thank you for your support,
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Carlos Nogueiro, DDS
President
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PRACTICE QUESTION OF THE WEEK
A patient we treated last week just called to tell us that he tested positive for CV-19. What do I need to do?
- Ensure that your Health and Safety Plan contains a provision on how your practice will handle this situation if a patient, or a member of your dental team, tests positive for COVID-19
- You are required to report all positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 to SFDPH-CD Control (415) 554-2830
- Reporting must take place if:
- The patient becomes aware that they have tested positive
- Anyone on your staff becomes positive, and they interacted with a patient prior to knowing they were positive
- There was any likely transmission between patient and staff - you are to notify any patient that was in close contact with the infected staff person.
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SFDS PPE Pick Up
Were you unable to pick up your PPE at your scheduled time last week? Or did you not receive the emails about picking up PPE and you have a San Francisco practice address?
We are currently working to schedule every dentist who did not pick up PPE last week to come to the SFDS office in the coming weeks to pick up their allotment. Please watch for an email from the SFDS in the coming days with more information, the City-required paperwork, and scheduling options.
If you have not been receiving emails from the SFDS about PPE, it’s possible the SFDS does not have your practice address on file. Since only practicing dentists with an active San Francisco practice address were included in this distribution from the City, our emails were only sent to those for whom we have a practice address listed. Please email Rachel at
membership@sfds.org
or call 415-928-7337 to ensure you are on the list and to provide your practice address.
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GOVERNOR'S LATEST ORDER DOES NOT IMPACT DENTAL PRACTICES AT THIS TIME
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom took an additional step to slow the transmission of COVID-19 by closing indoor operations for many business sectors throughout much of the state.
At this time, this does not affect essential health care services, including dental care.
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PPE KIT FROM TDSC
A total of 15,000 kits are available with an estimated value of $741.93 per kit. Each kit contains:
- 140 BYD N95 respirator masks (7 boxes)
- 350 level-2 surgical masks (7 boxes)
There is a one-kit limit per licensed dentist in order to support as many dentists as possible.
To order a kit:
- Submit an electronic copy/image of dental license
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DENTAL BOARD OF CALIFORNIA LICENSE RENEWAL UPDATE
License Renewal Requirements Waiver Updates - The Dental Board of California (Board) has received correspondence from licensees regarding the impact of the Governor’s Executive Order N-39-20 and the current Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Waivers in place for the renewal requirements of licensees. As of July 3, 2020, the current waivers in place to renew are as follows:
- For individuals whose active licenses expire between March 31, 2020, and August 31, 2020, continuing education requirements are temporarily waived for the purpose of license renewal.
- This temporary waiver does not apply to any continuing education, training, or examination required pursuant to a disciplinary order against a license.
- Licensees must satisfy any waived renewal requirements within six months of the DCA Director’s order, unless further extended.
- These temporary waivers do not relieve such individuals from the timely compliance of any other renewal requirements, including completing and submitting the required renewal forms to the governing licensing agency.
A full list of DCA Waivers are available at
dca.ca.gov
as they are approved.
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DENTISTS CAN NOW APPLY FOR FUNDING FROM HHS PROVIDER RELIEF FUND
The
ADA News
(7/10, Versaci) reported, “Dentists who were previously ineligible for relief can now apply to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Provider Relief Fund.” The article reported that “the American Dental Association worked closely with HHS and the Health Resources and Services Administration, which administers the fund, to implement this for dentists,” and as a result, “eligible dentists will receive a reimbursement of 2% of their annual reported patient revenue.”
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CDA 2020 Legislative Advocacy
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CDA’s Major Issues and Priorities summary has been updated to reflect current activities related to legislative efforts, including dental plan provider network stabilization, COVID-19 testing, Proposition 56 and the Medi-Cal Dental Program, direct-to-consumer orthodontic protections, MICRA, improving access to care through telehealth, the flavored-vaping/flavored-tobacco ban and dental plan transparency. The summary can be found on
cda.org
.
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Quick-links from the SFDS COVID-19 News Page
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SFDS
CDA
ADA
San Francisco (City/County):
California:
National:
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