Screening Questions

Please ask all patients the following questions when they arrive at the practice and as part of appointment confirmation calls. This should follow your warm welcome/greeting. 

1. Are you experiencing or have you recently experienced flu-like symptoms or a respiratory infection?
2. Have you been in contact with anyone diagnosed with coronavirus? 

If a patient answers “yes” to either question, please reschedule the appointment at least eight (8) weeks out. 

As we treat patients, emergency or otherwise, consider the following:

• Have patients wait in their cars instead of waiting room until ops are ready. Use text to notify.
• Take temperatures for every patient and team member daily. If temp is above 100.4° F [37.8° C], reschedule the appointment for the patient and send the team member home. Honor patient and team member confidentiality.
• Carefully evaluate the need for treatment for high-risk (over 65 or medically compromised) patients.
• Discontinue practice-to-practice visitation or guest visits to limit the possible spread of virus.
• Be sure to wash lab coats daily in hot water.
• Use hand scaling in place of cavitron if possible. If you must use cavitron, use high speed suction as well.
• Please use a 1-1.5% pretreatment rinse of hydrogen peroxide. Pre-bottled hydrogen peroxide is 3%, so pre-rinse with a 2:1 water-to-hydrogen peroxide mixture for 30 seconds before any high speed handpiece or cavitron usage.
• Continue to refer to the internal website for the most current information. Practice resources such as Patient Scheduling Suggestions and Task Prioritization are also available. 

Patient Self-Reports 

If a patient is present in your practice and self-reports symptoms or a positive diagnosis of COVID-19, please complete the Incident Reporting System found in the right sidebar on our internal coronavirus webpage. All reported information will be kept strictly confidential and only available to select leaders who have a need to know.