4 steps to prepare your team for emergency scenarios [VIDEO]
As part of our Morning Huddle e-newsletter, DPR partnered with notable practice management consultants to provide quick video tips to get your team talking.
As part of our Morning Huddle e-newsletter, DPR partnered with notable practice management consultants to provide quick video tips to get your team talking.
Here, Brad Guyton of Jameson Consulting offers 4 sound pieces of advice on how every practice can adequately prepare for an emergency scenario.
You are in your office entering some chart notes in your office when your assistant yells for help. YOUR patient is unresponsive in YOUR dental chair. You have a team member call 911 and position the patient to start CPR while asking the assistant, “What happened?” You suddenly realize that you haven’t taken BLS for years, your medical kit is out of date, and you are not sure what to do. You ask a team member for oxygen. You try to remember where to do chest compressions, and the ratios, but it is not coming back to you!
Your mind is racing with thoughts like:
- What can I do?
- What medicine helps and what makes it worse?
- What is my responsibility?
- What happened?
- Where is on earth is EMS?”
Then…”Why me?”
Has this situation ever crossed your mind? Are you prepared?
Visit the Jameson Community for an exclusive article from Cathy Jameson on 8 Ways to Control Emergencies.
We all know that news media would be more than happy to spin a story about anything that happens in the dental chair and there are lawyers out there ready to pounce. It is our obligation to our patients to make sure we and our teams are up-to-date when it comes to dental office emergencies. If we are not prepared, it takes just one patient on one day of our entire career to destroy our career, our investments, our psyche, and our team. Don’t let this happen to you. Here are four preventive steps to implement this week:
ONE
Avoid the panic and get up-to-date with emergency protocol by taking your required CPR course updates.
TWO
Assign someone in your office to keep your emergency kit up to date with medications you know how to use. Understand and document potential drug interactions.
THREE
Invest in an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). They are now the standard of care in most medical and dental settings.
FOUR
Rehearse your responses at least every 6 months with your team.
Treating an emergency cannot be learned during the event, so be ready and have the confidence and protocols in place to make life-saving decisions. Don’t put your practice or your patients at risk. Be prepared and make it a great week!
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