Headlines 4-18-2022
- Rachael
- Apr 17, 2022
- 5 min read
Hello, HCD & EVG!
It's been a great few weeks with a whirlwind of activity at HCD. We're grateful for all the hard work everyone has put forward and continues to put forward in regards to treatment acceptance, building strong relationships amongst our team, and becoming the best we can be for our patients, our team, and ourselves.
As we continue to move forward as one, we must also take time to remember the basics. Just as we discussed in our team training, remember to treatment plan hygiene and exams before you present the treatment plan to your patient. Remember to close out an appointment and submit to insurance, refresh your Patient Chart, and then show the patient their estimates for their next visit. Include the cost of limited exams and PAs when presenting a treatment plan for same-day treatment to the patient. All of these skills will help you build trust and confidence from your patients and your team.
Please let me know if you'd like further one-on-one training regarding the skills above. We have lots of strong leaders on our team that can help you strengthen your skills to become the best.
PPE in the Sterilization Center
We MUST make sure we have the proper protection while we work in the sterilization center. Proper PPE includes everything you see in the picture to the left. If you're not wearing these PPE while doing sterilization, please stop, remember we love you and want you around F-O-R-E-V-E-R, and place the necessary PPE on.
The necessary PPE includes:
Safety glasses
Surgical Mask
Utility gloves with nitrile gloves beneath
Lab jacket/smock
I just read this from Dental IQ and love how they put it:
About those gloves—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says, “The person handling the instruments through removal, cleaning, packaging, and sterilization needs to use heavy-duty gloves to help prevent injury with sharp contaminated instruments.”
Is it hard? Yes! Will you get used to them? Yes! Do they really help prevent needle sticks? Yes, because they must be puncture resistant.
This is also a great article on the importance of utility gloves in dentistry and how to get more comfortable wearing them: RDH Magazine.
Moving forward, this is our standard in the sterilization center. If you do not have these items on, please be aware a team member may approach you regarding your PPE. At these times, please remember our agreement to "Coach and Be Coached" as we all work together to create and maintain a safe environment.
Team Updates
We have a great group of people on our team and we are adding a few more here very soon. As a reminder, Choua will start on 4/26/2022 as a Hygiene Coordinator. We have more people coming in to shadow/interview with us throughout the rest of the month as we continue to look for another front desk person.
During this time of multiple assistants, we are going to focus on cross-training for basic admin tasks and strengthening our clinical knowledge and skills. Leah, Te, and myself will work with you one on one to let you know where you will be training throughout April and the month of May. This is a very unique opportunity for us to focus on the individual and make sure your needs are met instead of just the team meetings. Please take advantage of these training times to their fullest. If you have any questions or would like to train on one point in particular, please let one of the three of us know.
Annual OSHA Trainings
You may have received a notice in your email regarding an upcoming OSHA course. Following up with the conversations we've had as a team, we've decided to schedule both national OSHA training and local OSHA training for everyone. What this means is we all train with a current OSHA company that informs us of the OSHA regulations pertinent to dentistry throughout the US. Our local OSHA will come in and discuss some of the same things, and include more details regarding the State of Alaska's regulations. For those that require the CE hours, it will be 3 CE credits for you.
You can participate at home, on the phone, on a plane, on a train, or in the office. You will be paid for this time so please make sure to indicate that on your timesheet if participate in a location away from the office.
5/20/2022: 7AM-10AM webinar
Chelsea
Deborah
Edmel
Kaitlyn
Kristen
Mikhayla
Rachael
Te
10/7/2022: 7AM-10AM webinar
Diane
Jillian
Heidi
Kathleen
Lori
Injuries and Needle Sticks
Reminder for anytime you injure yourself at the office... Whether you've stuck yourself with a sharp instrument or syringe or if you're injured your knee racing down the hallway to get your patient, I need to know about it. For every injury that happens at the office, we must record said injuries on our OSHA 300 log. For issues such as needle/instrument sticks, we need to send you for blood tests ASAP - no excuses.
Best practice is for us to cap our needles and dispose of them properly. Best practice is to close our cassettes with the instruments tucked in properly. Sometimes... things happen. Please let me know whenever it does so we can make sure the injury doesn't affect you long term.
Upcoming CE on 4/30/2022
This was sent to us from Trent Walker with SprintRay, Inc. Feel free to sign up if you're interested by using the link at the bottom of the section.
On Behalf of Nobel Biocare and SprintRay, I would like to invite you to attend this FREE Event on Saturday, April 30th in Anchorage at 49th State Brewing. Dr. Bobby Birdi & Dr. Allen Chen will be offering a double header lecture for you to learn from the best and apply the lessons in your office tomorrow. Dr. Birdi will be discussing digital dentistry advancements and Dr. Chen will be discussing soft tissue management for esthetic cases.
This presentation will be covering:
Advancements in Digital Dentistry
How to incorporate Digital Dentistry into your practice
Ways that Digital Dentistry increases profitability
Soft tissue considerations before surgery
How to do basic procedures with tissue esthetics in mind
What is possible from a soft tissue management perspective
Come and spend some time with these experts to learn new skills and earn 5 CE Credits!
Spaces are limited - Please register today using the link below!
We've had a lot of up's and down's for the past few months... a lot of personal struggles and life changing events - both positive and challenging. Come what may, I hope that you continue to find fulfillment and purpose here at HCD as a member of our team and our family. We support you in your efforts to enhance your education. We rejoice with you as your family grows. We mourn with you and your losses. We reach out to lift you up when you have trouble standing.
I hope this is how you feel as your reflect on your role at HCD. If you ever feel like you're not heard or need a hand to hold, reach out to myself or any of your trusted team members, and let us know how we can help.
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