Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

March 28-April 3, 2011United Kingdom Edition www.parsdental.com Call us today for more information and SPECIAL OFFERS 02088 542700 Fax: 02083 173355 Email: info@parsdental.com Unit 7, Gatway Business Centre, Tom Cribb Road, Initial consultation Design De-con cabinetry Washer disinfectors Autoclaves Magnifying lamps Full electrical and plumbing Polyfloor flooring Ventilation in & ventilation out Full installation Decontamination Health Technical Memorandum HTM 01-05 introduces numerous obligations that will require you to make small changes to your practicing methods and the way your surgery is designed. To help you work towards “Best Practice” we offer: HTM 01-05 Full Package S o, the practice is looking great, your team couldn’t be better and your pa- tients seem delighted with the services you’re provid- ing - during practice hours of course. But, what if one of your valued patients has an accident and needs urgent dental treat- ment? Can you ensure that they will be treated with the same care and attention when you’re off duty? What happens in the evening or on a Sunday while you’re enjoying some well- deserved down time? We all understand that patient’s dental emergencies don’t always occur during normal working hours. By en- suring that your out of hours services are both clinically ex- cellent and convenient you’re going to engender trust, loyalty and word of mouth recommen- dations from your patients. The tips below are designed to show that with a little planning and team spirit can ensure your patients enjoy top-quality care, whatever the time of day or night. Emergency services Patients don’t realistically ex- pect you to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But they also don’t want to have to battle over out-of-hours ap- pointments or deal with a com- plex dental emergency service when they are in pain– espe- cially if they have already paid for high-quality, private treat- ment. Most accident and emer- gency service staff are there to preserve life and cannot be expected to prioritise saving a tooth over an urgent medical condition. In the majority of cases, all that the A&E staff are able to do is patch a patient up, temporarily alleviate pain and refer them back to your prac- tice when it reopens. Their role, after all, is to preserve life where possible and diagnose any urgent medical conditions; they cannot be expected to pri- oritise saving a tooth or pre- venting future dental problems in the way a qualified dental practitioner would. Yet almost a third of private dental patients currently find themselves faced with this option in an emergency situation. In my experience, around a third of patients calling Denplan’s out-of-hours emer- gency helpline have been left stranded at home with no access to emergency care. This is either because their dental condition does not fit the emer- gency criteria of the local NHS service relied on by their dentist, or because the service is fully booked. We always try and offer a solution to a pa- tient who is in pain; whether this is contacting their dentist at home, refering them to an- other practice in the area or sourcing telephone ad- vice, but patients can of- ten feel disappointed that their own dentist could not provide them with direct access to suitable care in the first place. Other common out-of- hours cases include pain from possible abscesses, lost fillings, fractured cusps and dry sock- ets following a recent extrac- tion, as well as facial injuries. Since most emergencies occur while patients are at or near their home, it is a really good idea to make sound provision for local out-of-hours treat- ment, which is in keeping with the quality of care that your patients have come to expect from your practice. Join forces For most practices, the solution is to join forces and share the out-of-hours calls with fellow dentists. Practices with several practitioners can often manage this between themselves with a simple rota and a mobile phone number. By recording clear instructions on a voicemail message, asking patients to leave their name and con- tact number and advis- ing a specific timescale for when they can expect a call back, the on-call dentist only needs to check their mes- sages periodically. Smaller or single-handed practices can join an inter- practice rota, or indeed set one up where none already Out of hours…out of mind? Julia Dawson looks at top-quality care for patients, even when the practice is closed ‘Patients don’t realistically expect you to be available 24-hours a day, seven days a week’ What do your patients do when they need out of hours care?