The Challenge? COVID-19 crisis. What’s the solution for your dental practice?
COVID-19 has disrupted the way that we live and work and left many of us feeling helpless, afraid, and confused. You can choose to let your practice go into survival mode... OR you can enter into a creative mindset of reinvention. It’s up to us to examine the facts together and decide how we can proactively reinvent the dental practice in this era of COVID-19.
It all starts with creating a positive culture in the practice, which will make it easier to execute the necessary biosafe protocols to create a safe haven for all.
Watch our complimentary webinar below to learn how you can make positive changes that will help protect your practice for the future. Dr. Jonathan B. Levine, founder of GLO Science, Inc., prosthodontist, NYU faculty, inventor, and social entrepreneur, shows a 7-step approach to strategically reopening dental practice doors with a focus on protecting our relationships and protecting our cash flow. These helpful ideas will help all of us come out of this crisis stronger by focusing on reinventing your company with a CREATIVE mindset. The result? Fears will be replaced with optimism and growth.
Reassure your team and patients and confidently prepare your practice for reopening.
Convey trust. There are obstacles, like fearful staff, unsure patients, misinformation, and additional unknown expenses. Patients want to know that your team is confident and knowledgeable. That’s where the 7-point action plan comes in.
- Over-Communicate Messaging to Patients: Email regular updates to keep them informed and connected. Use text to check-in or ask screening questions before a visit. Use a teledentistry platform for virtual face-to-face consults. Ensure that everyone in your practice is “talking the same talk” by creating a script for scheduling calls and with answers to commonly asked questions.
- Over-Communicate to Your Team: Hold regular team meetings to keep the dialogue open. Discuss hygiene over Zoom meetings at least once a week, especially since procedures are continually changing. Remember to identify goals, define obstacles, develop strategies, encourage dialogue, and invite input to make everyone confident in your action plan.
- Social Distancing Protocols: Follow guidelines that protect your team and your patients with proper barriers and control protocols. Keep strict procedures when it comes to people in the waiting room. Text patients and let them know when to come in from their car and have no more than two people in the waiting room. Enforce the “6-feet apart rule” by keeping waiting room chairs further apart, and make it mandatory that everyone wears masks.
- Social Distancing Scheduling: Back to back appointments all day long are a thing of the past. Be sure to extend office hours to decrease interaction, and have two shifts that allow you to have 50% less traffic throughout the office.
- New Safety Protocols for the Patient: Ask questions to determine a patient’s exposure and health before coming to the office. Take temperatures at the door. Follow the ADA’s recommendation to have patients use a hydrogen peroxide formulation immediately before treatment, which may help reduce microorganisms released in aerosols/splatter. Using ECO Balance with 1.4% Hydrogen Peroxide for this purpose will provide a significantly better patient experience than a standard Hydrogen Peroxide solution would.
- Infection Control Protocols for the Operatory: To make sure you’re taking the best precautions possible, assume every patient has COVID-19. Utilize strict PPE protocols, including gowns, N95 masks, booties, and goggles. Barrier control protocols like cavicide spray and wipes, air purification, including the new HVE equipment that removes 95% of aerosols, and ozone air purifiers using HEPA filters can significantly improve your sanitization.
- Barrier Protocols for the Sterilization Room and Team Member Testing: Follow ADA guidelines for any changes to usual sterilizing protocols or new technology that may be emerging.
These seven steps outlined by Dr. Levine are a great action plan to reinvent your practice, helping to create trust and transparency in your community. This is the new normal, not just for next week but for the foreseeable future. It’s up to you to move forward in an environment that makes your patients and staff feel safe.
You can watch the full webinar here:
Webinar: Survival or Reinvention - Your Choice! from GLO Science on Vimeo.
Click here to request more information about ECO Balance with Hydrogen Peroxide for your practice.