Emergency Calls
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The most important part of the call is to understand what is happening with the patient. You will need to gather information for two different locations: the patient and the patient’s chart. Many times when a patient is calling about pain, they were just seen in the office. We need to have a coordinated effort around the patient’s experience and their care.
Here are some basic questions to ask and put in the appointment note:
1. Where in the mouth do you have pain?
2. Is the pain in your gum or tooth?
3. Is it sensitive to hot or cold?
4. Does the pain linger once you remove hot/cold or does pain continue?
Remember we cannot commit to completely fixing the problem the day of the emergency appointment. We can commit though to making the patient as comfortable as possible (aka getting them out of pain).
When are emergency blocks open to schedule?
We want to try and schedule the patient in an emergency block. If none are available, see the Clinical Manager to figure out the best place to put them.
If a patient was just seen we want to schedule them back with the provider they saw!
The expectation is that if a patient calls before lunch we will see them that day. If after lunch we will either see them that day or in the morning the next day. If their provider isn’t available then see Clinical Manager for what to do.