Safety protocols have been extreme before the direct contact of doctor and patient in the clinic.
Recently some media like Canal Sur Radio O Almería newspaper, they collected the preventive measures against COVID-19 that we follow in clinical Microdental. We now share in the blog the content of those interviews.
Marathon days, extreme protection measures ranging from the rearrangement of spaces to the rigorous use of face masks, instrumental, safety distances and reserve use of the bathroom for cases of extreme need; make up the x-ray of the ‘new normal’ of some healthcare professionals who must juggle to complete oral interventions that can become very complex considering that they work at low 20 centimeters of the patient's face
"When the morning is over, we take off our uniform consisting of a second line of waterproof gown that goes over traditional clinical clothing, double gloves, double FFP2 and surgical masks, screen, hat and shoe covers, It is when we are aware of the enormous tension accumulated by the severe conditions in which we must carry out our work.. It reminds me more of a NASA scene than a clinic, but we are also health workers and we owe it to our patients ”, Alejandra Sánchez assures, Dentist and manager at the Huércal-Overa Microdental Clinic, one of the benchmarks in oral care in the east of Almería
Last 13 of March Alejandra Sanchez, like thousands of Odontologists of the Andalusian autonomous community, he turned down the switch in his clinic, one of the most emblematic specialized dental care points in the east of Almería, specifically in the municipality of Huércal-Overa. Didn't imagine that initial two-week preventative stop, imposed by the decree of the State of Alarm motivated by the pandemic of COVID19, was going to go on for almost 60 days and was going to dye red crosses each of the next two calendar months. But nevertheless, reality, once again and pulling topic, surpassed fiction. Appointment rescheduling, endless calendar calls and dozens of patients, some of them with pressing needs, waiting for that intervention that would not come until weeks later. Specific, eight. Uncertainty, concern and some discomfort for all those people who were waiting their turn in the office seat with some urgency and who are finally being able to be attended to now, in this advanced state of ‘new normality’.
With enormous security measures and all the precautions, the good course of de-escalation is allowing patients to return to the clinic and since last May, Sánchez, slowly, begins to pick up the pulse of his health activity. "We have had to adapt the working day. Now we work intensive hours to have to dress and undress only once. When we finish the day, we take off this uniform on a stage that looks like something out of a NASA scene and throw away everything disposable. We bought a washing machine so we don't have to take anything out of here. I put it on every day to avoid cross contamination. When we get home we take a shower and change our clothes, the shoes never enter the clinic to avoid stepping on the disinfected areas with footwear that comes from the street ”, explains the Dentist and Manager of the Microdental Clinic, who adds that satisfaction with the reunion with people who have waited so long to be cared for compensates the effort made to strictly follow the security protocol and what it entails: "It is so. We are health workers and we owe it to our patients ”.
Its not a made up sentence, if not a short story of reality. After almost 60 days of inactivity in which the only diagnoses they have been able to offer have been by telephone or virtual, always stuck to the phone, both she, like the rest of Andalusian dentists, have returned to normal pre-confinement.
The return, but nevertheless, it is riddled with nuances and, for the moment, It is hard to see the similarities regarding the situation in which the cabinets left the past 13 of March. "The reality of the clinic, from the day 1 of 'post-confinement' is another ”, Sanchez points, who points out that the new routine begins with a phone triage. "We interviewed all patients to find out possible symptoms or contacts with people suspected of COVID19. They must use shoe covers to ensure total insulation from the outside ”, explains the specialist, who adds that they have had to clear magazines, brochures, toys and all kinds of objects ‘accessories’ the common area to avoid cross infections.
They also had to say goodbye to the gallery of titles, diplomas and symposia that decorated the walls; a classic in the guild. And not only that: Sanitary screen to guarantee the safety distance, empty waiting rooms, appointments with a large time frame to avoid contacts, mask patients, use of the public bathroom only for cases of maximum need and extreme thoroughness in the disinfection of the chair, surfaces and instruments between each shift of attention.
At the entrance, patients are 'pointed' with a state-of-the-art digital thermometer. The assistants measure their temperature. It is the first step. The next; cover your shoes with bootees and put your belongings in plastic bags. "In telephone triage, they are asked not to wear jewelry or hats and to come alone if possible. And always with a mask ”, Sanchez points out.
The new protocol does not close there. At every visit, cabinets are fitted, everything necessary is prepared to avoid opening drawers during treatment, so that no drop of water can come into contact with the material that is sterilized and disinfected. When the patient leaves everything changes. The surfaces are again immaculate for the next visit. Windows open for ventilation for ten minutes. Floors are scrubbed. The process repeats over and over. This meticulous process has dramatically reduced the number of daily services.
"But we are talking about Public Health and obviously any precaution is little. We are facing a decisive moment in controlling the pandemic, and those of us on the front line must give everything. ”, concludes the specialist, who does not hide that it is necessary to be extremely methodical in following each step of the protocol: "Work is now a slower and less agile process. Our wardrobe, as i said, has also changed. We wear waterproof robes on top of our uniforms, double gloves, double FFP2 and surgical masks, screen, hat and shoe covers. This impairs mobility and vision, but you have to adapt to be able to develop the intervention with solvency and rigor, concluded the young Odontologist, who after explaining the enormous difficulties they have been having in receiving basic sanitary material - read masks, hydroalcoholic solutions and other essential consumables for the exercise of the activity- as well as the increase in the prices of said products, have been able to go ahead and guarantee this oral health care in conditions of safety and solvency.
A challenge, that takes on proportions of challenge when we talk about professionals who must work at low 20 centimeters from the true epicenter of the Pandemic, the place where the new virus ‘sleeps’ waiting to make the leap into the host.
