A Letter to Our Patients
Dear Patients and Colleagues,
We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety. We want to assure you that you are welcome and safe in our office as we reopen our office on May 4, 2020.
Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our office. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it's both safe and comfortable. We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep patients and staff safe.
Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We follow the activities of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agencies' recommendations.
You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For your safety we will be doing the following :
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Checking our own temperature (doctor and all staff) before the workday.
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Wearing gloves, n95 surgical masks, face shields, surgical caps, and disposable gowns during procedures. All staff (doctor included) will wear masks to cover mouth and nose in the office at all times.
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Instrument sterilization in an autoclave which kills known viruses and bacteria. Routine checks of our sterilizer are performed.
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Our treatment rooms are wiped down with medical grade disinfectants between every patient.
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Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You'll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office.
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We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.
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You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, children's toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
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Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you're offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
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We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time. |
Since things have changed with COVID-19 for all of us, I ask you to work with my staff, especially prior to your appointment. We are protecting all patients and office team members with the following additional protocols: I need your help with these.
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Before your appointment, we will be emailing you patient information and health history forms. Please complete and submit these forms to our office online before your appointment. If someone does not have the ability to complete this paperwork online, we will mail you the paperwork to be completed at home.
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We will email you post-operative instructions and a video, please read and watch before your surgical appointment.
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We will be asking for your dental and medical insurance information prior to your appointment.
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Please do NOT bring additional, nonessential people with you to the appointment. We will ask any additional people you bring with you to the office to wait in the car during your appointment.
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Please wear a mask or mouth/nose cover to your appointment.
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Upon entering our office, you'll be asked to sanitize or wash your hands, and we will take your temperature with a touchless thermometer.
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At the beginning of every appointment, you'll be asked to rinse with a solution that has antibacterial and antiviral properties.
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We are not shaking hands, or hugging. We are still happy to see you in our practice. We are just doing our part, based on current recommendations.
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We are encouraging people not to use the restroom facilities. Please plan accordingly.
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Please be on time. We have specified time set aside at the end of each patient visit to clean and disinfect. |
We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we take to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice. To make an appointment, please call our office at office number or visit our website at web address.
Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.
Sincerely,
Shaun B. Rai DMD (and Team)
Diplomate, American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery |
