COVID-19 - Information for Patients
Your Health is our Top Priority!
Safety and health is still our top priority!
May 17, 2021
Dear Murray Orthodontic Parents and Patients,
We are moving toward normalcy and it’s exciting!
We are waiting for direction from our Alaska State Dental Board regarding COVID-19 health care protocols. As these directives are shared with us we will immediately share them with you. We believe these directives will change day by day and we will do our best to keep you updated.
Meanwhile, following protocols in our office have been relaxed or will remain in effect until further notice:
1) Taking temperatures will no longer be required.
2) The tooth brushing station will still be used to wash hands.
3) At present masks are still required of all our patients and their parents in our offices.
We currently would like you to continue to remain in your vehicle and send your child into the office for their appointment (see article below). An appointment will be made at the chair and the appointment slip will be brought out to your vehicle by your child. They may be accompanied by Dr. Murray, Dr. Libby or a staff member to update what took place at the appointment. We are also calling or Face Timing parents to update them on their child’s appointment. If the new appointment time and date does not work for you please call the front desk.
The CDC released updated guidance saying people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer need to wear a face mask or practice physical distancing outside and in most indoor areas, except in health care settings -- including dental offices -- when using public transportation and at businesses that require masks. Fully vaccinated Americans can also resume most travel and do not need to quarantine after international trips or test if exposed to asymptomatic individuals who have tested positive for the infection, the CDC said. It is important to note that the updated guidance indicated that masks are still to be worn where required by federal, state, local, tribal or territorial laws, rules and regulations.
Full Story: CNBC (5/14), Reuters (5/13)
4) Our waiting room will still be set up for social distancing until further notice from the CDC or the Alaska State Dental Board.
5) The “Coronavirus Questionnaire” is now simply one question. “Are you displaying any COVID symptoms?” If you are please quarantine for two weeks or get a COVID test with a negative result before rescheduling your appointment.
ALL MURRAY ORTHODONTIC EMPLOYEES WILL CONTINUE TO WEAR MASKS WHILE ON THE PREMISES UNTIL FURTHER DIRECTIVE FROM THE CDC AND THE STATE DENTAL BOARD.
Thank you for your continued understanding! We appreciate our patients.
Sincerely,
Murray Orthodontic Team
April 6, 2021
Dear Murray Orthodontic Parents and Patients,
Alaska is the number one state in the union with regard to vaccinating it’s populace. This is wonderful news and brings hope to slowly lifting Anchorage and surrounding communities out of a lockdown and onto a path of normalcy. However, we are a health care facility whose patients are a majority of children who have not been vaccinated. As a result of this fact, we will be altering some of the criteria to be seen in our offices while keeping many others still in place.
Changes in protocol since the Emergency Mandate’s expiration several weeks ago include:
1) Quarantining if you have traveled out of state before visiting our office, for yourself or your children, is no longer required, but recommended.
Numbered below is a truncated list of protocols for Murray Orthodontic office visits for patients and parents.
1) We require that all individuals coming into the office be masked. We ask that only masked patients come in for their appointment with all remaining family members remaining in their vehicle.
2) “Social Distancing” protocol is in place. Stickers have been placed strategically on the floor showing patients where to stand and arrows indicating traffic flow.
3) The “Coronavirus Questionnaire” is now simply one question. “Are you displaying any COVID symptoms?” If you are please quarantine for two weeks or get a COVID test with a negative result before rescheduling your appointment.
4) A temperature reading will be taken with a temporal thermometer at the front desk. A temperature over 99F will result in rescheduling the appointment out two weeks.
5) The patient will be asked to wash their hands immediately upon entering the office. Tooth brushing in the office has been eliminated for the time being. Please brush your teeth before coming to the office.
7) An appointment will be made at the chair and the appointment slip will be brought out to your vehicle by your child. They may be accompanied by Dr. Murray, Dr. Libby or a staff member to update what took place at the appointment. We are also calling or Face Timing parents to update them on their child’s appointment. If the new appointment time and date does not work for you please call the front desk.
8) Many New patient exams and observation visits have been scheduled as virtual appointments. However, those exams/visits that have been scheduled to be seen in the office will require a parent present. The Coronavirus questionnaire, temperature reading and hand washing will all be necessary for parents too before starting exams. Please wear a mask during these visits.
Thank you for your continued understanding! We appreciate our patients.
Sincerely,
Murray Orthodontic Team
December 9, 2020
Dear Murray Orthodontic Patients and Families,
Out of an abundance of caution we will be closing down the East side office permanently. These are trying times and the increase in COVID infections combined with the East’s office small waiting room, a floor plan that does not lend itself to a circular patient flow pattern to maximize social distancing, and a parking area that is not patient convenient to have us visit you at your vehicle made closing this office simply the right thing to do.
In addition, the huge daily spike in COVID infections and a medical facility below us in the same building rapidly increasing the number of COVID tests, made us realize it was too big a risk to patients and staff to be working out of that facility. We will be serving our patients from our spacious O’Malley location and our Eagle River location. We apologize for the inconvenience, but felt this was the safest decision for all of us. I am sad about it as this was my original office and I like the efficiency of the space, but it simply is no longer laid out properly for the “new normal” of long term social distancing.
Thank you for your continued flexibility and understanding.
Dr. Murray, Dr. Libby and Team
OCTOBER, 2020
Murray Orthodontics Patients & Families:
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our practice on almost every level. We have made and are in the process of making many changes relative to the virus. Our changes are driven by SAFETY and balanced with practicality; the changes will not always be popular, but they are indeed necessary. Please read this entire message; it is a little long but important.
Our doctors have spent many hours researching the best way of handling the pandemic in our office.
SUMMARY OF CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS MADE:
Temporary closure of the East side practice due to a physical inability to manage the patient flow.
Increased spacing between clinical chairs in the main operatories.
Transition of in-office brushing station to hand washing station. Brushing at home prior to the appointment remains important.
Investment in isolation, sterilization and other office upgrades. The air filtration system in the office has been upgraded and newly installed as of April, 2020, using the latest technology to disinfect the air.
Complete change of patient flow and proximity dynamics (multiple times).
Changing several clinical techniques to minimize aerosol exposure.
Improvements in PPE for staff, required masks for patients, enhanced patient intake procedures.
Frequent disinfection of non-clinical surfaces.
Scheduling appointments primarily over the phone.
Frequently walking your child to your car to review the day’s appointment, status of treatment and their next appointment for you.
As the weather gets colder we will start to communicate with you from the dental chair, with your child, via FaceTime (preferably your child’s phone) about their appointment. If you are receiving a call from an unfamiliar number while your child is in our office please pick up. It’s us!
Continuing to sterilize using the latest techniques and have on hand more instrument sterilizing machines “just in case.”
POLICY CHANGES--IMPORTANT
If you are visiting Murray Orthodontics for a new patient exam or Kids Club/Observation appointment, please ignore the section below about parents not accompanying the child. We DO want parents to come into the office for new patient and Kids Club appointments.
NUMBER OF PATIENTS IN THE OFFICE
Limiting the number of non-patient individuals in the office is critical to the health of our employees and our patient families.
As with all previous correspondence, we continue to request that parents please wait in the car. Siblings without an appointment are not allowed to be in our office at any time. You may accompany your child to the front door of our office suite, of course. Initially, most parents followed our request, but now we have too many people in the lobby at times. Interestingly, managing the lobby is our biggest struggle of all with COVID 19. We would love more than anything to chat with parents and siblings, catch up, laugh and enjoy seeing one another, but that is not fully possible right now.
We have 7 physically distanced seats in each office lobby. That is all we can have. If you decide to come into the office instead of waiting in the car and you find our lobby full, please send your child in to check in and we will find a distanced place for your child. In this case, parents are asked to either return to their car or wait in the hallway until a lobby chair becomes available. You may not simply stand in the lobby if the chairs are full.
As mentioned above, as it gets colder we will call you at the end of the appointment on your child’s cell phone (on speaker phone) or on one of our phones and update you on treatment. We will then send your child to the car. This protocol of calling the parents at the end of the appointment will be new, but it has been implemented well in other health fields and we feel this will be the most effective and safe method of communication. Yes, we dislike the “new normal” as well!
Please understand that we treat patients as young as 6 years of age and parents of the youngest children generally have the greatest need to be in the lobby.
Parents will only be allowed to enter our clinic areas if requested to do so by a staff member. Patients cannot wear their masks while they have an adjustment done, so we cannot have additional people in the clinic. If you feel you must be with your child at the chair, let our front desk know upon checking in and we will make an accommodation.
CHECK-IN PROCEDURES--EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
You will be asked the following COVID 19 questions:
1) Have you traveled outside the state of Alaska in the past 14 days? If yes have you taken the molecular COVID test (3+ day turn-around) or quarantined for 5 days.
2) Have you had a fever, sore throat, dry cough or trouble breathing in the past 14 days?
3) Have you knowingly been exposed to anyone with the COVID virus?
4) Have you had close contact with anyone exhibiting symptoms of a fever, cough, trouble breathing, loss of sense of smell or taste?
Answering “Yes” to any of these questions will result in the need to reschedule you or your child’s appointment out two weeks from the current appointment scheduled.
Temperatures will continue to be taken at both offices on all patients upon checking in.
Finally, please remember that most of our team members have children of school age. They are also subject to the outside COVID-related pressures and inconveniences that our patient families face with at-home learning, and they are trying to work full time at a job which has inflexible hours. If we have a staff member unable to work due to a COVID-related event, it could result in the need to reschedule patients with little notice. We will do our best to balance safety and convenience and minimize reschedules (we have not had to reschedule due to this yet) but we want you to know ahead of time that this could happen.
Questions and concerns may be directed to our Office Coordinator, Erin at erin@murrayorthodotnics.com. Thank you for your understanding during these difficult times!
Dr. Murray, Dr. Libby, and the Murray Orthodontics Team
June 9, 2020
Dear Murray Orthodontic Parents and Patients,
Re: COVID 19 Mandate Update
As Alaska’s “shelter-in-place” mandates are slowly relaxed we feel it is time to update you on the Governor’s and Dr. Zink’s health care mandates as they apply to the dental field and more specifically orthodontics.
We are grateful for all your support, patience and understanding during these unprecedented times. It has been great to see so many of you again. We are finding great comfort in the routine of treating all of you. The sense of community is very reassuring.
All the mandates that have been enacted since their publication on April 27th are still in place. As a result, “social distancing,” added protocols needed to process patients at the front desk, increased appointment times to communicate and disinfect, added changing of certain PPE, so that we will not be able to treat as many patients in a day as usual. The office can only accommodate a certain number of people at a time. We plan on being open more days during each month to address these issues.
We wish to quickly walk through the “new updated normal” Murray Orthodontic office visit for patients and parents. Some steps may be a repeat of our last letter.
1) We ask that only masked patients come into the office for their appointment and all remaining family members remain in their vehicle. If you need to come in with your child please wear a mask.
2) “Social Distancing” protocol is in place. Stickers have been placed strategically on the floor showing patients where to stand and arrows indicating traffic flow. This will be a circular pattern at our O’Malley office to minimize patients bunching up or passing too close to one another.
3) The “Coronavirus Questionnaire” is a series of four questions we have asked at the confirmation call. These questions will now be asked on the text/email confirmation message. Should you answer “yes” to any of the questions please call our office to reschedule you or your child’s appointment. We will ask those same questions to the patient when they arrive. Answering “yes” to any of them will result in rescheduling the appointment out two weeks or the request for a COVID 19 test with a negative outcome received within 72 hours of a procedure for the safety of patients and staff.
4) A temperature reading will be taken with a temporal thermometer right at the front desk while the “Coronavirus Questionnaire” is being answered and recorded. A temperature over 99F will result in rescheduling the appointment out two weeks or the request for a COVID 19 test with a negative outcome received within 72 hours for the safety of patients and staff.
5) The patient will be asked to wash their hands immediately upon entering the office. Tooth brushing in the office has been eliminated for the time being. Please brush your teeth before coming to the office.
6) The patient will be seated and seen by a familiar and experienced technician with Dr. Murray or Dr. Libby. Appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE) will be used. At this time the biggest difference your child will see is an N95 mask. Obviously, universal precautions will always be practiced.
7) An appointment will be made at the chair and the appointment slip will be brought out to your vehicle by your child. They may be accompanied by Dr. Murray, Dr. Libby or a staff member to update what took place at the appointment. We are starting to experiment with “facetiming” you via your child’s phone (if they have one) to give you an update. If the time and date of the appointment is not workable for your schedule please call the front desk to alter the time and/or date.
8) Many New Patient Exams and Observation Visits have been scheduled as Virtual Appointments. However, those exams/visits that have been scheduled to be seen in the office will require a parent present. The Coronavirus Questionnaire, temperature reading and handwashing will all be necessary before starting exams. Please wear a mask during these visits.
Please be aware of the following:
1) The Northern Lights office has been temporarily closed until further notice due to an abundance of caution. It is an excellent facility, but there is a very busy medical clinic downstairs and they are busy screening patients during this pandemic. The layout of the office makes it hard to practice social distancing and follow the mandate. We are working on solutions. It is in all our interests to minimize our exposure. The O’Malley facility will be more greatly utilized.
2) The Eagle River office will remain open with regular scheduled hours. We look forward to seeing you all. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
The Murray Orthodontic Team
April 26, 2020 - COVID-19 Update
Dear Murray Orthodontic Parents and Patients,
We are very excited to report the state mandate allowing elective dental procedures to move forward is being relaxed in phases, much like the opening of Alaska’s economy. There are still certain procedures producing aerosol that are still restricted from being performed. Fortunately, as orthodontists many of our procedures do not result in generating aerosol. Those are the procedures and patients we will start to see on Monday April 27th.
We wish to quickly walk through the “new normal” Murray Orthodontic office visit for patients and parents. Some steps may be a repeat of our last letter. However, rules to the mandate are altered daily and we want to be as thorough as possible. Also, as most of you will be asked to remain in your vehicles you should know what is happening with your child in the office.
1) “Social distancing” protocol is in place. Stickers have been placed strategically on the floor showing patients where to stand and arrows indicating traffic flow. This will be a circular pattern at our O’Malley office to minimize patients bunching up or passing too close to one another.
2) The “Coronavirus Questionnaire” is a series of five questions we have asked at the confirmation call. We will ask those same questions to the patient when they arrive. Answering “yes” to any of them will result in rescheduling the appointment out two weeks for the safety of patients and staff.
3) A temperature reading will be taken with a temporal thermometer right at the front desk while the “Coronavirus Questionnaire” is being answered and recorded. A temperature over 99F will result in rescheduling the appointment out two weeks for the safety of patients and staff.
4) The patient will be asked to wash their hands immediately and brush their teeth (with a disposable toothbrush without toothpaste).
5) The patient will be seated and seen by a familiar and experienced technician with Dr. Murray or Dr. Libby. Appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE) will be used. At this time the biggest difference your child will see is an N95 mask. Face shields may be used, but as aerosol procedures are not being performed at this time it is not required. Obviously, universal precautions will always be practiced.
6) An appointment will be made at the chair and the appointment slip will be brought out to your vehicle by the patient. If the time and date of the appointment is not workable for your schedule please call the front desk to alter the time and/or date.
7) We are still working on the best way to give you a “report” on your child’s progress. We are trying to avoid using pens, cell phones, opening and closing building doors coming out to see you, creating traffic, etc. At present we may simply put a note on the back of the appointment slip. This is fluid and subject to change as we move forward.
8) Many New Patient Exams and Observation Visits have been scheduled as Virtual Appointments. However, those exams/visits that have been schedule to be seen in the office will require a parent present. The Coronavirus Questionnaire, temperature reading and handwashing will all be necessary before starting exams.
Please be aware of the following:
1) The Northern Lights office has been temporarily closed until further notice due to an abundance of caution. It is an excellent facility, but there is a very busy medical clinic downstairs and they are busy screening patients during this pandemic. It is in all our interests to minimize our exposure. The O’Malley facility will be more greatly utilized.
2) The Eagle River office will remain open with regular scheduled hours.
3) Please be aware with “social distancing”, adding protocol needed to process patients at the front desk, increased appointment times needed to communicate and disinfect, changing of certain PPE, that we will not be able to treat as many patients in a day as usual. The office simply cannot get too crowded. We plan on being open more days during the month to address these issues. Thank you for your continued patience as we navigate our way to the ‘new normal’
4) Our Administrative Staff is calling every patient in the schedule reaching back to March 20, 2020, the start of the “shut down”, to make sure you or your child has an upcoming appointment. We appreciate your patience as we work through this task.
We look forward to seeing you all. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
The Murray Orthodontic Team
April 17, 2020 - Update
Dear Murray Orthodontic Parents and Patients,
The mandate from the Governor and the Medical and Dental Boards regarding “elective” procedures has been somewhat relaxed.
The details are still being written up by those bodies and we are waiting for those details. This bodes well for some, but not all, orthodontic procedures. As the details from the dental board are published we will then be able to start scheduling many of our patients for procedures which do not involve generating aerosol (using a hand-piece/polishing instrument), which can be a mode of transmission for the COVID-19 virus.
“Social distancing” protocols will still be in place. This means we will do our best to keep ourselves and our patients six feet from one another (except during procedures). We will be removing some chairs from the waiting room, marking floors, greeting you with masks, etc., and asking families to stay in their vehicles sending their child in for their appointment (unless you are an adult patient, obviously). Future appointments will be made following the visit via text, cell phone call, etc. Depending on the weather we may even come chat with you at your vehicle!
If you are coming in for an appointment please be aware we are going to ask you three questions:
1) Do you have a fever? Cough? Are you feeling poorly? Run down?
2) Have you been knowingly exposed to anyone with COVID 19 or anyone who has recovered from COVID 19?
3) Have you traveled outside the state in the past 2 weeks and especially overseas?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes” we are going to ask respectfully that you do not come in or bring your child in for an appointment for several weeks for everyone’s safety and well-being. It is frustrating and slows down treatment, but we want to adhere to the city and state mandates and keep everyone healthy.
We are excited to be gradually opening as the state allows. We will be practicing our universal precautions and adding safeguards as we work our way through this trying time. Please bear with us. We all want to do our best, deliver a quality service, and keep you and your family, as well as ourselves and our staff’s families safe.
Thank you for your understanding. It is these times that define us all. We need to be here for one another. We look forward to eventually seeing everyone.
Dr. John Murray
April 6, 2020 - Message to Patients
Dear Murray Orthodontic Patients and Families,
The entire Alaska community is navigating the changing health landscape and the subsequent economic upheaval. These are trying times. We wish to update you regarding our orthodontic services and you or your child’s treatment.
New information is coming out daily and even hourly through the White House, CDC, American Dental Association, American Association of Orthodontists, Alaska Dental Association, study clubs, etc. We are doing our best to stay updated.
On March 19, 2020, Governor Dunleavy mandated that all dental offices shut down for four weeks starting March 20, 2020. All practices are limited to seeing patients on an emergency basis only. This severely limits the scope of work that can be done in our orthodontic offices.
As a result of the mandated shut-down we have a very limited staff rescheduling all our patients with the intention of being open in late April, 2020. Obviously, that may change with the course of the COVID19 pandemic. Right now we are making decisions with the most current information given to us by the state dental board and the Governor’s office.
We will keep you all as up to date as we can. The Murray Orthodontics Team appreciates your patience and understanding. Please stay safe. Wash your hands. We’ll get through this together.
The Murray Orthodontic Team