Important: Vaccine Alert! and more...

BRIDGING THE GAP

January 18, 2021

VACCINE UPDATE AND MORE

If you (or members of your team) have not already made an appointment to get the COVID vaccine, we encourage you to do so now. After tomorrow, vaccine reservations will be open to other groups and you may find it more difficult to get an appointment. As of Saturday, appointments are still available for January 27th, 28th and 29th. Use the link below to make your appointment now.

Please remember:

There are a limited number of vaccine appointments available. DPH capacity is limited by the amount of vaccine available and the DPH is only able to vaccinate up to 400 people a day- including dentists, their teams and others within the healthcare tier. The appointment system is further limited to 2 weeks of appointments and when all appointments are filled, it will temporarily close. Please do not call or email DPH leadership if this occurs. We expect this may happen with the high demand.
We are working together with the DPH and others in the dental community to identify additional options that we hope will be up and running for vaccine administration in the next two-three weeks.
You and your team members will need to provide proof of employment – a recent paystub with your practice information should suffice for your staff. Additionally, you may be asked for a copy of your dental license and business card to ensure your practice is in San Francisco.
If you are retired, you are ineligible to get vaccinated using this link. You must have a dental practice in the City/County of San Francisco. We recommend you contact your primary care provider to see if vaccines are available to you.

We want to thank our SFDPH partners for working with us to get vaccines into your arms and into the arms of your dental team members. And we thank all of you who have taken the CDC vaccine modules and are ready to volunteer to administer vaccines when called upon to help. “As we unite to serve one another, we accomplish much more together than we could on our own.” – Carl B. Cook

VACCINE REGISTRATION LINK FOR DENTISTS

You are eligible to get you and your staff vaccinated as soon as possible at the San Francisco Department of Public Health COVID-19 vaccination site. If you are self-employed, when you are registering and you are asked if you received the link from your employer, indicate “Yes.”

In order to get your staff vaccinated we ask you to do the following please:

Send the templated email below to each of your staff members: 

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Subject: COVID-19 Vaccination Appointment Instructions

This email is to invite you to receive the COVID-19 vaccination at SFDPH's vaccination site.

Please sign up using this weblink within the next 96 hours.

Registering with the link will provide information on the address, vaccine information, and how to schedule your second dose appointment using MyChart.

*Please do not forward this link to anyone else, if this link is forwarded to ineligible people we will have to cancel and reschedule everyone's appointment.

It is important that all PII (personally identifiable information, e.g., birth dates, SSNs, &c.) is accurate and complete when registering. Please double check and confirm all such entries.

SFDS Annual Meeting

Join us to celebrate! Help us thank our outgoing officers and committee chairs. Welcome our incoming officers and board of directors.

You will have an opportunity to help us determine which student posters/presenters will win first, second, and third place prizes.

Interested in sponsoring this event? Give us a call.

We Want Your 2020 Dental-Related Photos

Do you want to be included in our year-in-review video for the Annual Meeting on January 27? Then send us your 2020 dental-related photos. What has 2020 been like in your office? We'd love to see pictures. Please make sure each photo is related to dentistry and that you have permission to share it with us.

Send pictures to Rachel at membership@sfds.org with the subject line "Pictures for Year-in-Review". Then register above for the virtual Annual Meeting to see the finished video.

NEED A Dental Assistant?

Is your office in need of dental assistants or registered dental assistants? Partner with JVS to invest in your future workforce and find the talent you need!

See the following attached documents:

- DA (DARHP) Program Summary

- RDA Program Summary

- Role of the Employer Partner in the program DARHP

DA Program things to note:

Students will be available for externship on March 15th
160 hours over the course of 5 weeks (students generally work 4x/week at offices and spend 1 day with JVS continuing their professional development)
Students will be onboarded to a third party payroll that will cover liability insurance, workers comp, and payroll processing
Offices will be expected to contribute towards student wages (a max of $2k for 160 hours of work which is ~12.50/hr for the office)
Students will participate in in-person classes and are learning and practicing safe COVID protocol
Students will have Radiation Safety, Infection Control and BLS certificates
In order to complete the RS certificate, students will need to be supervised in externship taking 3 additional FMX

RDA Program things to note:

If you nominate your DA, JVS will work closely with you to help them get their RDA licensure
In order to be eligible, you have to be willing to give your assistant a title change and wage bump once they’ve received their license

If you’re interested in either of these programs, please reach out to Kelcie Wong, Director of Healthcare Programs at JVS at kwong@jvs.org or (415) 624-5383. Offices will need to undergo a selection process and will be matched according to best fit as determined by JVS.

JVS is a nonprofit workforce development agency serving the Bay Area whose mission is to break the cycle of poverty and change lives by giving folks access to training that will prepare them for allied health roles. They’ve been partnering with dental societies throughout the Bay Area to design and deliver an efficient pipeline that trains Dental Assistants for hire, and helps incumbent DA’s obtain their RDA licenses. JVS believes their programs are mutually beneficial for dental offices and for students and seeking employer partners to host student externs and hire trainees.

FRANZ WALL - GO FUND ME

UOP Dugoni Student and CDA Representative Franz Wall was critically injured and paralyzed in a skiing accident over the Thanksgiving Holiday. SFDS Leadership, in our show of support, is promoting the Go-Fund-Me page that was set up to help Franz and the family defray the growing medical and rehabilitation expenses.

https://ie.gofundme.com/f/franz-wall

RESOURCES

PPP Loans Open

Online-only license renewal begins in July 2021 for California dental team members

Routine dental care may protect against severe COVID-19-related complications

Loan repayment program, supported by Prop 56, for dentists that serve Medi-Cal patients (at least 30% case load) for 5 years to receive $300K. There’s more detail here: https://www.phcdocs.org/Programs/CalHealthCares. The application cycle opens up Jan 18 with a deadline of Feb 12, 2021.