Current Fellows
patients have a seat in the waiting room instead of lining up at the counter. And if the chairs in the waiting room are occupied, we have set up chairs in the hallway to ensure safe and comfortable physical distancing. How has the response been from your patients? Fantastic! There was a huge amount of pent-up dental demand after being closed for two months! Patients have been happy to get in and have their dental work completed, and have felt very comfortable and confident with the precautions we have taken to keep them safe. How has the pandemic impacted your team? We were able to keep all our staff on the payroll while we were closed, and were happy to have them all back fulltime once we re-opened in May. COVID has impacted our receptionists in how they screen patients; they are our first line of defence and are diligent in asking screening questions for every patient when they book an appointment and later when they confirm the upcoming appointment. For our clinical staff, the wearing of respirators and shields has been a change. Also, we are minimizing aerosol-generating procedures, which has changed the way we do a few things. In your professional opinion, how long will it take the dental industry to fully recover? Dental demand is back to pre-COVID levels, as the need for dental care doesn't subside just because a pandemic hits. However, the way we book patients has changed in order to ensure physical distancing. There is also an ongoing issue of sourcing different items, as the entire world is clamouring for the same items. This has had a negative impact on our overhead but is definitely worth the cost to keep staff and patients feeling safe. Once the Health Orders are lifted, are there practices you will adopt on a regular basis? For example, people have started to take handwashing very seriously and it's likely they will continue after the pandemic has subsided. It's hard to say, this could be our new normal. Similar to how adaptations for treating patients with communicable diseases such as hepatitis and HIV became part of our “universal precautions” that we use with every patient, these new precautions might become part of our everyday routine practice. I think we will continue to screen patients more thoroughly to ensure only completely healthy people attend their appointments as a means of decreasing the spread of communicable diseases.
"Patients have felt very comfortable and confident with the precautions we have taken to keep them safe."
Back/Neck
We Are Proven to Get You Better Faster!
international rank in improvement per visit 12 months ending March 2016
www.saanichphysio.com Taking New Patients Call or Book Online
Sophie Cutt
Masters in Physiotherapy, U of Alberta Top of her class, Island grown
PENINSULA PHYSIOTHERAPY & MASSAGE PENINSULAPHYSIO.CA 9733 4TH ST, SIDNEY 250.656.4717 CALL OR BOOK ONLINE, WE DIRECT BILL
OCTOBER 2020 | SEASIDEMAGAZINE.CA 51