With all the extra time I have had on my hands lately, I have been thinking, “how we are going to restart the Dental Industry and more precisely our practices in a way that will be two steps forward instead of many steps backward” once the COVID crisis is over.
At the same time, I worry about my clients and other dental practices so, I have made the decision that my services will be complimentary for all of my clients during this time as well as any dentists that may contact me with questions.
In saying that, I’d like to challenge you to take action everyday and focus on what you can control. After all, taking action and controlling what you can is the best way to decrease your worry and stress in these times.
What can you do?
- Have you connected your home computer to your office computer yet? Anydesk is a free service that works quite well. This is a great time for you to learn some of the reports and workings of your software. This may be a daunting task but learning your software reports will be very helpful in tracking your return.
- When we return to work it will be on a fresh slate, perhaps think now of all the things you would like to change in the office, any bad habits or systems? This can be presented to team in a positive manner in a team meeting before the start of seeing patients when you return.
- RCDSO or ODA will likely provide you with a letter for patients stating that dental offices have always been safer than a physicians office, but I suggest you start preparing a letter your practice to add to the “official” message for your patients welcoming them back into your safe space.
- Some of the patients who we have worked so hard to accept perio intervals will now be behind in their schedule. When rescheduling these patients we should be letting them know that they will be in the office for an extra ten minutes so that we are able to ensure that their bacteria load is being maintained. (Your hygienists will need this time and will be able to bill for it).
- Ensure that all appointments that were scheduled for patients have been cancelled and not deleted so that they end up on the proper list. If you delete them you will lose all of those patients from your lists.
- Connect with you team! You can set up zoom meeting with your team for everyone to check in socially and remain connected.
At this time we are all facing new challenges but also seeing hope and kindness in places we haven’t noticed before. We are also chuckling at too many memes on Facebook and Instagram.
Instead of thinking negatively about how this is affecting your livelihood, let’s try to think about this equation, E+R= O and switch to positivity. The E is the event, the R is your response and the O is the outcome. The + is the story you make up in your head. If we take this shutdown as the Event, your Response is tempered by the opportunities you imagine and your Outcome will be tempered by how you handle your thoughts. Let’s take this time to make our Outcomes positive.
Have a great day!
Need some help getting on track and implementing daily routines to make sure you are taking action? Please contact me and let’s take action together.
