Welcome back!!
Keeping you safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us in ways we could never have imagined. Many things have changed. here is one thing that has remained constant in our office. It is our commitment to our patients’ safety and health.
Our office has long been recognized for our individual and personal attention to our patients. Infection control has also been a top priority. If you are an existing patient, you probably noticed this during your previous visits to our office. Since the Coronavirus COVID-19 is a novel (new) virus, additional infection control measures are now required. We want to tell you about these additional protocols that we have been implemented to keep patients and staff safe.
Our office is closely following all the recommendations made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the American Dental Association (ADA) and our local regulatory and health authorities concerning Coronavirus COVID-19. Every member of the staff has been completely vaccinated against COVID 19. Our office continues to closely monitor any changes in recommendations so that we are up-to-date on any new guidance that may be issued. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and that we adhere to each of these agencies recommendations.
To further reduce risk, the CDC and the ADA have recommended asking a number of questions to patients when scheduling and also when they arrive at the office. Based on the answers to those screening questions, we will determine how and when to best treat our patients for everyone’s health and safety. That being said, we are following the Universal Protection Guidelines to protect all patients.
This is what we are doing to keep you safe:
- Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That may mean you might be offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment. This is for your safety.
- Some portions of your appointment may be performed through the use of teledentisty and a virtual consultation. This is an attempt to minimize the time you spend in the office and away from work and other activities. Although an in office visit is necessary to complete the exam, some of it can be done this way. You can ask for a virtual consultation.
- In order to safely distance individuals, we are asking that patients come by themselves to their appointments or with just one parent or guardian if an escort is needed. Individuals who are elderly, and/or persons with medical problems or persons who are showing signs or symptoms of illness must not accompany patients to their appointments.
- Special appointment considerations will be made for patients who are elderly, and/or persons with medical concerns that put them at risk for infection. Please inform us if this is your situation.
- Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask you the COVID 19 screening questions. You will be asked those same questions again each time you arrive in the office.
- The office staff and patients will be asked to stay home if they are sick, have a fever or have symptoms that are characteristic of COVID 19 Coronavirus infection.
- For your appointment, we will ask that when you arrive 15 minutes before your appointment time, park on the street outside the building if you are dropping someone off or are very early or park inside the parking lot. We ask that you call the office prior to coming up to the suite. To keep you safe, the office staff will let you know when you can come up to the office. The office staff is doing their best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting time and other people interaction in our waiting room.
- Masks are required for all persons entering this office. If you don’t have a mask, one will be provided to you. All visitors to the office are asked to follow strict cough and sneeze protocols.
- Temperatures will be taken on everyone who comes into the office. Any patient with a temperature over 100.0 will be asked to reschedule their appointment. All office staff have their temperature taken and are asked the same screening questions every day when they arrive at the office. Staff members with an elevated temperature will be asked to go home.
- Non-invasive oxygen saturation determination will be taken when you arrive at the office.
- Hand hygiene is very important. Office staff is following strict hand hygiene protocols. We will ask you to use hand sanitizer when you arrive at the office. You will also find hand sanitizer throughout in the office for you to use as needed.
- You may notice that our reception room no longer offers newspapers or magazines since they are difficult to clean and disinfect.
- We have all the Personal Protective Equipment needed to keep our staff and patients safe. You may not recognize us but we are smiling under all the gear.
- Our disinfection and sterilization procedures meet or exceed the standard of care and CDC guidelines.
- We have initiated stricter air purification protocols. The surgical suites have been designed after hospital operating room models. These rooms are negative pressure rooms. Both the office design and the air purification protocols follow or exceed CDC guidelines.
- In addition, we utilize a “fogger” and a UV light in our surgical suites to disinfect the air and all surfaces after each aerosol producing procedure.
- We are following the CDC recommended disinfection protocols for all surfaces and frequently used items (desk tops, chairs, doorknobs etc.) with hospital grade disinfectants in between patients.
We are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we have taken to keep you and every patient safe in our practice. Dr. Maranon and the office staff want to welcome our previous patients back to the office and look forward to introducing ourselves to those that are new. We look forward to providing you the quality care we are known for in an even safer manner. Our staff is working diligently to schedule patients. As you can imagine these changes along with a significant backlog of patients that had to be rescheduled due to the restriction on elective surgical procedures, will take some time to normalize. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Thank you,
Dr. George Maranon and staff