The past several months have offered the most trying times for our city, our state, our country, and our world. Numerous lives were affected both physically and emotionally, and no doubt the scars are still here. The good news is, however, that we’re finding our way out of this terrible time! Leland Orthodontics re-opened its doors on May 5th, and we’ve been seeing patients, albeit with additional precautions, since that day.
We’re fortunate to say that our re-opening has by and large gone smoothly. In the past three weeks, we’ve added patient days to accommodate the patients who had missed their regularly scheduled appointments due to the shutdown, we got new patients started who were scheduled to start during the shutdown, and we’ve started new patients who we hadn’t met until recently! We’re so grateful for everyone who is a part of our practice and has been patient and understanding with us during these times…WE’RE BACK!!!
The health and safety of our team and our patients is our first priority. I’d like to highlight the additional safety precautions we’ve taken since re-opening. First, our new check-in procedure: when you pull into our parking lot, you’ll be instructed to use your phone to fill out a digital questionnaire to ensure that you’ve had minimal potential exposure to COVID-19. Once you’re cleared, we ask you to enter alone (with the exception of young children or anyone who needs assistance) and we’ll take your temperature immediately upon entry.
Whenever you’re here at LO and not actively undergoing treatment, we ask that you wear a mask. Also, we’ve utilized the circular flow of our office to have one-way-in and one-way-out to prevent people from crossing paths. We practice social distancing among team members and patients at all times, as much as possible. In addition, we’ve installed dividers between our clinic chairs to limit potential cross-contamination. We talked at length, we racked our brains, and we role-played our new procedures to make the re-opening transition as smooth as possible. So far, with the help of our amazing patients, we feel like we have succeeded.
Although we’re on the “downhill slope” of this crisis, I know we’re all at different points emotionally. Here in the office, I promise we’ll be sensitive and meet everyone wherever they currently are. No hassle, no judgement. We’ve gotten through the crisis by banding together up until this point, and we won’t stop now. We’re ecstatic to be seeing both current and new patients again and can’t wait to see you soon!
