Hello Friends.Firstly, I cannot thank everyone in the community enough. From the over the top St. Charles staffing who took care of me for 5 days in the hospital, to the dental community that came out offering to help with my practice and all of you people we know who came out of the woodwork helping us get supplies when I was bed ridden as both my wife and I were quarantined.
I will keep this brief. My team and I worked extra hard not only incorporating the policies set by the CDC, the ADA and the state and county health departments but we tweaked small things you may not see on top of the required items in order to limit how people might pass each other in our building, changing gowns between patients, etc.
In any case, we just had to blindly trust those protocols. I have been in other offices that do a little here and there and some that aren’t doing much at all. I can confidently say our systems work! I re-entered my office on the 8-10th day of my infection when I was full blown infectious but not yet showing strong symptoms. Any patient I spent 15 minutes or more with during those 2 1/2 days I personally contacted to give them the news and how to appropriately get tested. We had everyone wait a minimum of a week and quarantine in order to be sure to get an accurate test from a lab rather than the rapid test. I saw over two dozen patients hovering over them from 20-150 minutes within 15 inches of their faces and was with my staff all those days and NOBODY got the virus under my care or on my team! That was a huge relief in many ways but definitely gave us a sense we are on the right track towards keeping you and each other safe in our office.
I’m sure everyone is nervous since the only thing on T.V. and other media sources is details about Covid. As long as we are able to continue to use our protocols that we have established, we will stay open and I’m confident you are the least likely to get this virus in our office. I have been in communication with the Deschutes County Health Department and dental offices in general are not contributing to any case outbreaks and I believe our office not only was ahead of others, but with this experience we are reinvigorated to make sure we stay above this problem.
Please view my story on Central Oregon Daily
Stay healthy!!! And find a reason to smile!
Sincerely,
Phillippe C. Freeman, D.M.D., M.A.G.D.
Freeman Smiles
