Office Cleanliness

I bet as soon as you saw this title you said to yourself, “My office is clean, I don’t need to read this part.” Am I right? The question is not how clean your office is; the real question is, “How clean do your patients think your office is?” Think there is no difference? You are wrong!

Actually there is a huge difference. What patients think of your office is often far off from what the truth is. At the same time office cleanliness is among the top things patients look at when they are choosing a dental office. Therefore, patients' perception of it is one of the most important factors in the success of your practice.

Let me clarify this further by asking you a few questions:

• Do you wash your hands in the treatment room in front of your patients?

• Do your assistants also do this?

• Do you put your gloves on in front of your patients?

• How about your assistants?

• Do you ever walk into the treatment room with your gloves and/or mask on?

• Do you forget to cover any of the touching areas like the light, chair adjustment buttons or your dental units with barriers?

• Do you open the sterilized bags in another room and not in front of the patients?

• Do you touch your hair or face with your gloves on in the middle of treatments?

• How about your assistants?

• Do you or your assistants hold and touch the charts with your gloves on?

• Does your staff walk through your hallways with gloves on?

• Are there stains on your carpets, walls or chairs?

• In the treatment rooms, are a lot of things crammed everywhere in such a way that there is not much room to move around?

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, then what your patients think of your office cleanliness may be very different from what you think.

Let me explain why:

Patients don't always ask about things they are concerned about. When they walk into your office they want to know has everything been sterilized for them? Are there any chances of diseases being transferred to them? Is the water clean?

Of course most of your patients also assume that you do what you are supposed to as far as infection control is concerned, but remember the golden rule of marketing, "Anything positive that is done in your office has to be advertised."

This means you have to ensure your patients know that you are washing your hands in between patients. They have to see for themselves that the gloves you are wearing are brand new and you just put them on.

Follow these recommendations in advertising your infection control procedures. It gives another extra reason to your patients to be impressed by you and talk positively about you.

1. Always wash your hands in front of your patients or if you do it outside tell them something like, "I am going to wash my hands and come back to start." Or, walk into the room while you are drying your hands. (I can't tell you how many times patients have complained to me about their former dentists not washing their hands).
    
2. Have your assistants do the same.
    
3. Everything you touch must be covered with a barrier. Colored barriers are preferred. If you or your assistants get a chance, explain what they are (there are people who don't know).
    
4. When you have your gloves on, don't touch things you are not supposed to! (Your hair, the patient's chart, your face, your chair...) Try to hold your hands like surgeons do after scrubbing, so your patients see how clean you are.
    
5. Have your assistants do the exact same things.
    
6. You and your staff should use any chance you get to brag about any special infection control system you may use. For example, if you are using bottled water for your units, or if you are using double sterilization techniques let your patients know about it.
    
7. Always, and I mean always, open the setup kits and sterilization bags in front of patients. What we do in our office is set up the room with everything ready, bring the patients in, open the bags and packages and then the doctor is asked to come in.
    
8. If you or your assistant drop something in the middle of the procedure, do not pick it up. If you have to, stop your work and after picking it up, change your gloves and make sure your patient sees what happens with the dropped item (disposed or exchanged).
    
9. While you work on your patient, have your gloves and mask on at all times, even if you are doing something quick like checking the shade.
    
10. Keep the entire office organized. Neat and orderly places look cleaner.
     
11. Have different staff members responsible for cleaning different areas of the office (give each staff a room). You may have a cleaning service but someone has to check the cleanliness constantly and if there are things during the day that need to be taken care of, there has to be a specific person responsible for it.
     
12. And finally, make sure your staff is following a meticulous personal hygiene protocol.

It is true that you need to keep your office extremely clean anyways, but you also need to let your patients know about it.