Always There Dental Care
Dr. Jeff Wojno
BACKGROUND
Chicago’s Always There Dental Care has been seeing patients for over 30 years. Located in the Lakeview neighborhood, Dr. Jeff Wojno and Dr. Scott Stiffle lead a team of dental professionals that help their patients show off that everyday celebrity smile. Whether it is preventative maintenance or a complete dental makeover, the team at Always There Dental Care is there to help you achieve excellent health and the confidence of a beautiful smile.
IMPLEMENTATION
Several hygienists at Always There Dental Care approached Dr. Jeff with various concerns related to their instruments. The hygienists were spending a significant amount of time scrubbing and sterilizing the instruments. The instruments were never organized properly, and hygienists would fumble through several before finding the correct one. Efficiency was not optimal for the Always There Dental Care staff.
Based on the concerns of the staff, Dr. Jeff decided to implement Hu-Friedy’s Instrument Management System (IMS) as it was the perfect solution to all of Dr. Jeff’s hygienists’ concerns.
“The thing that I've noticed right away is that the staff spends less time cleaning instruments, repackaging them, organizing them into the bundles that they would typically use on a daily basis for the patients,” said Dr. Jeff.
Safety was also a concern. Prior to using cassettes, the hygienists were reaching into unorganized containers or bags, which put them at risk of getting poked and stabbed by sharp instruments. The same result would happen during the cleaning process.
“I think it's safer for the staff as they're handling the instruments,” said Dr. Jeff. “Now if somebody is in a hurry, which I think happens a little bit every day, they're simply grabbing a cassette. The instruments are not just in a paper and plastic bag where they might get poked. Now they're in a hardened metal case, which protects them as they're reaching around. There's definitely a benefit to the staff, and safety in that sense.”
CONCLUSION
Hu-Friedy’s IMS solved several concerns at Always There Dental Care. The cassettes keep all the instruments organized, optimizing efficiency. They additionally also make it much easier for the staff to reprocess instruments while also reducing the risk of a sharps injury. For Dr. Jeff, the decision to switch to cassettes was the only solution that made sense for the business.
“From a business perspective, clearly being more efficient, getting the instruments turned around quicker is beneficial in the long run, and saves the practice money,” said Dr. Jeff. “I think that the true benefit goes above and beyond the cost savings, but clearly that's something that you can easily look at and realize right away.”
