MFD’s New and Improved Infection Control Protocol

MFD’s New and Improved Infection Control Protocol

When it comes to treating patients in our office, there isn’t anything more critical than prioritizing your health and well-being. And that goes for overall health just the same as your oral health (which is our specialty). So, in light of all the recent news and information surrounding the outbreak of Coronavirus in our world, we’re proud to have acted early when it came to making changes. We’ll outline those infection control steps you may already know about below and then let you know what additional changes we’re making going forward in order to protect our most important assets – our patients and our Team! 

We also want to let you know that many of the changes and updates we discuss below will be adopted permanently at our office. However, while we are currently in the time of a worldwide pandemic, some of what’s below will only be temporary. Specifically, the new experience of a patient visit at our office during this pandemic will feel a bit colder than what we’re used to at MFD. Know that we can’t wait to return to high-fives, monthly contest games, and the normal interactions that make a visit to MFD unique from other offices. Once it’s safe to do so, we’ll be excited to return to normal with you on that front. But for now, we’re prioritizing health and safety in order to provide you with the best quality dental care possible. 

First, a rundown of what infection control measures we’ve already improved and written about:

• Our first blog post on March 3, 2020, outlined additional screening questions we began asking to make sure that patients of ours who were sick, were able to stay home and reschedule their appointments for a later date (Click here to read: MFD is Taking Precautions to Give you the Best Quality Care) 
• Then, on March 13, 2020, we asked for only the patients to visit our office for their appointments (and to not bring additional family members, if at all possible). We also suspended our cancellation policy to make sure that patients were not penalized in any way for canceling an appointment on short notice. And finally, we began taking forehead temperatures of all patients, visitors, and Team members who visited our office during the day (Click here to read: Updated Policies to Help Keep You Safe at MFD)
• Three short days later, on March 16, 2020, we wrote to let you know that we were making the difficult (but correct) decision to temporarily close our office to all non-emergency patients until we were able to gather more information and to best prepare to perform dentistry in our new, post-Coronavirus world (Click here to read: A Proactive Closure From MFD – And Why) 

Our time off has been productive and rejuvenating (most of the time)

During our downtime, and once we finally adjusted to our new normal of “Quarantimes”, we spent some amazing quality time with our families, put our bodies through more workouts than we were used to, stayed connected through Team meetings, workouts, and updates, and also took every opportunity to learn about updated techniques and technologies. 

We also had a little fun writing about relevant updates during the early days of Coronavirus in a series of blog posts we called, “MFD’s Quarantimes”. 

• Here’s our Quarantimes post from March 22

• • In our March 29 edition, Edith (one of our hygienists) and Mike (our office manager) filmed a video outlining some great oral health tips to practice during the quarantine (Here’s a link to the video)

• Here is our Quarantimes post from April 5

During our downtime, we made learning new infection control information, skills, and techniques a top priority 

And as a result of all the webinars and training events we’ve attended, we’ve made a few changes to our internal structure and practices. Here are a few:

• We appointed a new infection control coordinator of our office – Rachel, our EFDA (Expanded Function Dental Assistant). Rachel, working with Dr. Moinca and Mike, will ensure that all of our new protocols are well-researched, meticulously trained, carried out in day-to-day work, and properly documented afterward
• We have identified, purchased, and began using new disinfectant products that are proven to kill all of the bacteria and viruses of our old cleaners, as well as the new Coronavirus
• We have purchased and started using new N-95 respirators as well as face shields to help keep our providers protected, which ensures that you will be as safe as possible when you visit our office for your appointments

All of these new products and protocols will cost MFD more from a financial standpoint, but we are also happy to let you know that we have received Paycheck Protection Program funding from the SBA to ensure that we’ll be able to continue paying our entire Team their regular pay during this unprecedented time. This financial help will pay huge dividends in allowing us to invest our reserves into these new supplies, as well as allow us to take it slow when we do open our doors to more regular patient visits in the coming weeks. 

Speaking of resuming patient visits at MFD – here’s what we’re planning from a scheduling standpoint

(All of the information in this section is subject to additional orders or guidelines that would come from state government or industry’s boards and associations that could alter our plans in some way. If changes are advised or ordered, we will communicate those to you as soon as possible)

We’ve taken many phone calls during our office closure from patients with progressing dental concerns. Unfortunately, if dental problems go untreated, they tend to progress both in terms of scope as well as cost the longer we wait to address them. So, on Monday, May 4, we plan to open our office to urgent dental appointments on a more regular basis. We will resume our normal Monday through Thursday schedule from 8:00 am – 4:30 pm. We will also add Friday hours from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm as needed throughout the following months. Resuming these visits will allow us to treat our patients with the most pressing needs. We will also be able to answer many more phone calls (with our entire staff on hand) to help determine if your present conditions do warrant an urgent appointment. 

While we do intend to resume our regular cleaning and exam appointments as soon as possible, our state government, as well as our state’s dental board, have not yet given us clearance to do so. Once that clearance comes, we will be sure to communicate that to you so that we can begin scheduling the regular cleaning and checkups that are so vital to our community’s overall health.

We’ve also made some significant changes to our patient visits

Here is a rundown of what a patient visit will look like while we’re experiencing this world-wide pandemic. 

• During your confirmation call, we’ll ask you a few new questions and give you some info
  • Questions:
    • Have you or anyone in your house been sick in the last 2 weeks (fever, respiratory issues, chest pains, nausea, etc.)?
    • Have you come into contact with anyone who’s been sick in the last 2 weeks?
    • Have you traveled outside of Ohio during the last 2 weeks?
    • Do you have reason to believe you’ve been in contact with anyone who has/had Coronavirus?
  • Info:
    • When you arrive for your appointment, please stay in your car and give us a call. We’ll tell you either:
      • Come on in, or
      • We’ll call you right back when your room is ready
    • We ask that you please leave companions in your car. You are the only one able to come for your appointment unless there is a definite need for you to have someone accompany you to your visit
• Once you do come into the office for your appointment: 
  • We’ll immediately take your forehead temperature and record it in our notes
  • We’ll have our internal glass-tooth door propped open and after your temperature is taken, we’ll immediately escort you to your room 
  • Once you’re in your chair, your appointment will resume like it normally would
• When your appointment is complete, you’ll head back up toward the front desk to check out and schedule your next appointment
  • If you do not need to make a payment, this checkout will take place over the phone immediately after your appointment (we’ll call you as you’re leaving our office)
  • If you do need to make a payment, we’ll have you stop by the front desk and complete check-out there
• From there, we’ll schedule you back for your next visit, and thank you for giving us the opportunity to see actual people again (not just people on conference calls)!

We know that these are unprecedented times, and while we don’t expect to use these measures forever, we want to make sure that when you visit Monfredi Family Dental, we do our absolute best to care for your health – oral and otherwise

Thank you for trusting MFD and welcome back! As always, if you have any questions or if you would like to schedule an appointment, please give our office a call or send us an email by clicking here. 

614-878-3636