Updated May 15, 2020
Dear Orthodontics Exclusively Family,
We have been working to get the office up to speed and prioritizing our patients who needed to be seen first. Thank you for your understanding and we realize that everyone wants to be seen immediately!
This has been a stressful and fun week, seeing emergency patients under new parameters and realizing how I am so lucky to have such a butt-kicking team. The ladies I work with are amazing (an understatement) and go above and beyond what is asked of them daily!
As this is the third re-write of this email, we will list some of the changes that will be implemented:
- Masks will be required for entry into the office. This is for the safety of our patients and for our team. Your understanding is appreciated.
- Anybody entering the office will have their temperature taken. We would prefer that family members wait outside.
- After your temperature is taken, we will have patients go to the right side. Parents/guardians will go to the left side. This allows us to maximize social distancing in the office by having one-way patient flow. If parents want to accompany their child to the back, they are allowed.
- Our patients will leave with a slip of paper with instructions, what was performed at the appointment, and what will occur at the next appointment.
- We will not be scheduling the next appointment as normal, as we do not know what the future portends 5-6 weeks out. As we gain clarity for that time, we will schedule patients’ next appointments immediately.
One of our biggest concerns is ensuring open communication with the parents/guardians of our patients. We pride ourselves in making sure everyone is aware of what was done and what is coming up next. These changes make it more difficult to have frictionless communication. If any parent/guardian would like to discuss their treatment with Dr. Jue, we have a teledentistry option available now. If you would like to learn more about it, please let us know and we can have a staff member explain it to you over the phone.
Our front desk team is working hard to schedule out in two-week blocks and will continue to do so. Some of you may have heard from us, while some of you have not. If you have not heard from us, your last appointment was not as early as the other patients. Please understand we are contacting patients based on the chronological order and all of you are important to us! If you want to know when you can expect to be seen, please contact our office and we can tell you.
We will be open on Fridays to our elderly patients, our patients with underlying co-morbidities, our patients who live with elderly relatives, or our patients who want to be more cautious. There will be a skeleton staff on Fridays to limit the number of people in the office with the focus on minimizing the number of interpersonal interactions required.
There are quite a bit more changes upcoming, but I will wait to notify you of those changes when they are ready. As things change, so will our processes, but understand that our priorities are always your health, your safety, and your optimal orthodontic outcomes.
We will be seeing new patients starting in June, when Governer Inslee will hopefully roll out Phase II fully. If you are interested or know of someone who is interested in being a new patient in our office, please contact us and we will put the names on a list of patients to contact in June.
I apologize for the length of this email and hope it all seems reasonable. If you have any questions, please let us know. We will be in the office on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8AM – 2PM in the foreseeable future and can answer any questions you may have.
We miss you all and look forward to seeing everyone in the immediate future! Thank you for your time and we appreciate your patience and understanding!
– Dr. Jue & Team