- How can you make infection control
sticky at the office level?
Welcome to the Becker's Dental and DSO podcast.
I'm your host, Andrew. No Bini from
Pro Edge Dental Water Labs.
And today I'm joined by the one and only Kelly. Tim.
Kelly is a world class consultant working alongside some
of the largest DSOs in the nation
and partnering with them in driving compliance forward.
Kelly, welcome to the podcast.
- Thanks, Andrew. I'm excited to be here
with you today. This is awesome.
- Yeah. Tell me a little bit about yourself, the work
that you do, the day to day, the week to week,
what are you involved with?
- So, yeah, so I am a compliance advisor,
was Safelink Consulting.
Um, and we partner with dental offices all over the nation
to help them, um, create safety policies
and procedures, whether that's a large DSO
or just a single private practice.
Um, we help from the top all the way to working
with the individual offices on, um, safety issues. Yeah,
- And I think you probably are incredibly close
to the pain point that we're gonna talk about, which is,
and the reason why we're talking about this idea
of making infection control sticky.
There's a reality just with growth of, of Right.
Hiring is a challenge for DSOs.
We know that, um, potentially retention
or even turnover, right?
Churn rate can be a challenge for growing DSOs.
We know that. And so it can be frustrating,
and I'm sure you've experienced, so feel free
to speak into this a little bit, where you go into an office
and train a team
or an individual on how to uphold the standard
that d the DSO has set.
And then you come back months later, a year later
and it's entire, it's like a whole new group of people
and it's like, okay, so now I'm having to retrain.
And I'm sure they experience that as well,
that cyclical nature of having
to constantly feel like they're retraining their team.
Is that something that is kind of close
to home there and you feel that?
- Yeah, absolutely.
I think and that, and that can be frustrating, right?
Because there's just a a lot of turnover.
Um, there's a staff shortage right now,
especially in the dental industry.
And so, um, yeah, that's definitely something that we see,
but we never want that to be an excuse for safety
to take a backseat.
'cause that's just not, it's just not okay.
They, we have to come up with, with ways to make sure
that everybody that comes into our practice to work,
whether they're a temp, whether they've been there a while,
they understand our policies, our procedures,
and that they're trained, they deserve that.
Um, and they need to know that.
And so by really, um,
investing in this infection control coordinator is going,
I think it's gonna make a huge difference across the board.
- Yeah. Yeah. I love it.
You gave just the sneak peek right here, , which is
that is that is it, that's the nugget.
What, Hey, how do, how can you make infect control
sticky at the office level?
We believe, um,
it is having someone called an
infection control coordinator.
This is not a new hire.
This is taking a team member that you already have
and giving them really pinpointed responsibilities
to elevate, um, their own worth and value to the company.
Right? I think they, we've seen people
who take on the responsibilities
as infection control coordinators.
They're more satisfied in their job.
They feel like they're contributing more to the team,
which we'll get to in a second.
But I wanna take just a quick step back and, and, and,
and Kelly, I want you to kind of bring us back here,
which is, what is an infection control coordinator?
If that's the thing, if that's really the thing
that's gonna make infection control
and prevention sticky at the office
level, I want to know about it.
Tell me, what is that?
Who is that person? What are they doing?
- Yeah, so an infection control coordinator
or infection infection prevention coordinator is
what the CDC calls 'em as.
That person is really gonna take this on as their baby.
They're gonna look at your overall, uh, procedures,
policies, and they're going to put into place
for their office by creating simple policies, procedures,
developing in them, and then training the team on not only
what to do, but why it's so important to follow these,
these policies and procedures that are in place.
Um, and, and it's not really just assigning someone to do it
because this is a huge role,
but it's really investing in that person.
Um, and, and just knowing, hey,
they're taking on an additional role in, on top of
what they're already doing, but we're gonna invest in them
because I think, I think you're gonna see a huge return on
investment by investing in that person
to, to better help the
- Team.
Yeah. Something that we've seen, right, is, is,
is when you don't have that individual, not always,
but you have this kind of bystander effect
where everyone's kind of pointing the finger
of who's doing safety, right?
Well, I think they're doing it, and
that person's like, well, I'm not really doing it.
I think this person's doing it.
And there's not that designated individual
that's saying, I'm doing it.
I'm gonna own it. And then to your point,
and something that we'll explore a little bit here is
that team bringing the team in
to understanding why this is important creates such a
meaningful culture shift.
Mm-Hmm. , right? Because I think one
of the things, gosh, there's so much we can talk about here.
I think one of the things that we've seen is usually not
always, usually the,
the infection control coordinator responsibilities goes
to a dental assistant, right?
Who is usually the one that's doing infection control
anyway at the office level.
And so they get that, that kind of new sense,
that newfound responsibility given to them by the dsso
and the compliance manager to really enact those things.
That really cultivates a sense of like,
wow, I can, this is great.
I, this is my responsibility.
This is something that I can really contribute to the team.
And then that gives them a launching point for them to kind
of bring the team in
and make it more of a celebratory culture related thing,
where it's like, this isn't just so
and so's whoever's job, right?
Everyone points the finger. This is this person and they're,
and they're helping us be a better team.
They're helping us be a safer environment.
What are some of the things that you've seen when you've
stepped into offices
and there is an infection control coordinator?
What's the team dynamic like?
How, how do they feel about their job?
What, just like that at that office level?
What does that environment feel like?
- You, you said something that I wanted to kind
of touch on is that you wanna have an infection control
coordinator for sure, but it's never just their job.
It's their job to really teach the team on why.
But it's everyone's job to play a part when it comes
to safety, because there can be policies and procedures and,
and clear defined SOPs in place,
but without everybody participating
and everybody knowing those, then it's just,
it's gonna be really frustrating for
that infection control coordinator
because they can have the best policies.
They can really do all the best training,
but if everyone's not playing a part,
they're gonna get frustrated.
And that might be why they're leaving.
But if they're really investing
and everyone is seeing the, the, the goal
and the the reason behind everything,
it's gonna build that team.
It's gonna make such a strong team
because everyone is on the same page
and they don't have to worry about like, oh, well, so
and so does this, and so and so does that.
No, we all do this for a reason
because we care about each other.
We wanna lift each other up, we wanna protect each other.
We worked hard to get here and we wanna stay here.
- Mm. And it, it's amazing. There's so much data out there.
Um, listener, if you wanted to tap into this, uh, we've,
we've done our own even internal research with, with some
of our dental assistants,
where we ask them not about not just job satisfaction,
but they're, do they feel connected or do they feel lonely?
Do they feel like they're, they're out kind of on an island
doing their own thing
and the other team is kind of living in it?
And you'd be genuinely surprised how many people feel
dental assistants feel dissatisfied
or feel like they're not making an impact,
or they're, they're lonely in their own job.
And I think this particular responsibility really begins
to bridge the gap for that team, for them to,
to really feel like they're contributing in a bigger way.
And to your point, you're right, this is all of us.
We all need to play a part in making a safer patient
experience, making a safer office environment.
And I think that cultivates a really unique team dynamic,
um, which has so much profound
implications at the DSO level, right?
To your point, there's a way higher retention rate, right?
They're more satisfied, they're gonna
stay in their role longer.
You don't have to constantly rehire and retrain.
That's a cost savings. You begin
to establish a credibility organizational wide
where people start to show up at different offices
and have a, the exact same experience of like, wow,
they care about each other.
They're upholding a culture of safety.
That's more than I've ever experienced.
Patients walk in,
and you've seen both sides of this, no doubt, Kelly,
where you've walked in and you said,
I would never go to this office ever again.
And you've walked into and said they are
doing something right?
Mm-Hmm. and how powerful of an experience
that is when you have that like environment people walk into
and say, this is, I want to come back to this place.
So now you have higher patient retention,
and I don't wanna make, you know,
infection control coordinator feel like it's the missing
thing that'll solve every DSOs problems.
But I do think, and I think you've seen this, so feel free
to speak more to this, you have seen
an infection control coordinator contribute to all
of those things because of the
impact they have at the office level.
- A hundred percent. You know,
and you'll see a lot of times you'll maybe go back to
that office and the only person
that is their people got other jobs,
but that infection control coordinator is still there
and they still have so much passion about what they do.
Um, and patients feel it.
And you can look at their reviews on, on Google
or Facebook, whatever, and they
see patients are feeling safe.
They're coming in, even if there's a total different staff,
if they feel like, Hey, this is a clean
and safe environment.
I'm gonna tell my friends about this
and I feel okay with this.
'cause I, I feel like I'm taking care of
and that everybody cares.
Um, and that has a lot to do
with the infection control coordinator.
Just a lot. But really bringing that team together.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Um, I wanna really make it super practical
for those listening, um, that is kind
of in the compliance space, uh, will,
will be dealing with this, right?
And, and you're hearing about the infection control
coordinator and you think, okay, well how do I, how do I,
how do I realistically do that?
Does, is this actually scalable?
I know from Kelly's experience, it absolutely is. Right?
Kelly works with some of the largest DSOs in the nation,
and she also works with, uh, groups
of a couple dozen, right?
So she's seen the opportunity of this to be scalable.
So I want to kind of turn over to Kelly and,
and give you some, hopefully some helpful next steps
for you if you are interested in making
infection control sticky.
And, and this kind of piqued your interest in like,
what would an infection control coordinator look like for me
to begin building out in my organization?
Kelly, how can they do that really well?
Like practically, what's their next step?
- Yeah. So I think from, from kind
of looking at the top down,
I think consistency is gonna be key.
And so having that, that broad, um, safety manual, that,
that broad, broad policies, procedures across the board, um,
but then you're going to kind of pass those down,
whether it's the regionals
and then the, um, even further down into the,
just the office manager, whatever that's gonna be.
And then you're gonna really invest in those infection
control coordinators, because a lot
of people won't even take on that job
because they know it's a harder role
and they're not feeling maybe empowered.
So really investing in them, empowering them.
I would even have like a network where they can talk
to other infection control coordinators throughout your
organization to where they can feel like, Hey, I,
I'm important, or I'm gonna roll some
ideas off of this person.
They seem like they've got it down in this area.
I don't really, I feel like I'm lacking. What can I do?
And so they have that support network
and they just feel supported on every level.
Um, and that they're making difference because they are.
But it really starts with having
that consistent policy across the board, passing it down,
and just so then the,
the infection control coordinator at the office doesn't have
to come up with a whole policy for your organization.
That's, that's at the top. That's your job.
But it's their job to really fine tune it to the,
the policies and procedures, the equipment,
the products, whatever they're doing at the office.
- And one of the thing I think the side benefits of that,
which we, we alluded to, right, is if they,
if they ever did move out or move up or, or right.
Move around, they, they've, because of their focus,
because of their intentionality,
they've built those things in place at the office level so
that the new person coming in isn't having to start
straight from ground zero, right?
They have all of these things at their disposal
to really dive into and learn, which I think really helps
with just onboarding somebody effectively
and mitigating that, that season of risk
where they're like trying to figure out safety once again.
Right? It's already there. And to your point that I see
that infection control coordinator
making a team effort Mm-Hmm.
, now the team can step up, right? Absolutely.
If they ever move out or they move around,
it's like the team can step up while this person is
onboarding, which I think has huge impact. It's huge.
- Yeah. And just having those simple pol, simple one page,
Hey, this is how we do things.
Yeah. If they move on, or if someone, they can grab
that one pager and they know how to do that procedure.
Maybe they don't do it all the time, but they know how
'cause they've been trained and they have those, those notes
that steps there to help 'em.
And even just onboarding new people, maybe it's a hygienist
or a licensed assistant, even though they're licensed,
doesn't mean they know the processes at your office.
And it's not fair to not train them.
They deserve to be trained, um,
because we want to make sure everything
is done the correct way
- And listener, uh, you have awesome resources.
You aren't alone, right? You are not alone in this.
You have people who this is their job, right?
It's Kelly's job to make sure that these things are scalable
and effective and repeatable at your organization's level,
all the way down to the office level.
And so Kelly is an incredible resource for you, if
that is also something you're interested in.
Kelly, tell us a little bit about Safelink.
I know we alluded to at the beginning of the intro,
but how can we get, how can the
listeners get in touch with you?
- Yeah, so, um, you can reach out to us anytime.
Um, what I really think, uh,
sets Safelink apart from other consulting agencies is we
work in all 50 states.
So we're nationwide. We know the intricacies of
state OSHA plans versus federal versus each state dental
practice act, what public health wants to know.
Um, and so we can be that third party to really help you
with that overall plan.
Um, and we can also work with you at the office level
to make sure that those one page policies are,
are procedures, are being,
are being written, are being helped.
We can be that, that partner to really walk alongside, um,
your whole compliance team or at the office level.
Um, but yeah, you can reach out to, uh,
safelink consulting.com
or, um, my email's justKelly@safelinkconsulting.com.
- Awesome. Kelly, thank you so much.
Thank you for joining me on the podcast today. All right.
Our hope is that you were able to take away one
or two nuggets of information
that you can use in your organization
to really elevate not just
that team dynamic at the office level,
but really cement, infection, control,
and safety all across your organization
because you have that individual advocating
for it at that office level.
Uh, again, you have incredible resources like Kelly.
Uh, you have incredible resources like Pro Edge.
We deal specifically with Waterlines, waterline compliance,
waterline Safety, and Waterline Solutions.
If that's an area that you are struggling with
or your organization is really struggling to do well,
please reach out to us.
We have unbelievable staff ready to partner
with you in making that simple, making that repeatable,
making that scalable for you.
And we partner with you every step of the way,
just like Safelink does,
to make sure your team feels equipped and resourced.
To do that well, you can reach us@prodental.com.
You can also call 8 8 8 8 4 3 3 3 4 3.
Again, thank you so much for taking the time to listen.
We hope this was valuable to you.
We hope you walked away understanding maybe something you
can do to elevate your organization even more
and create a safer environment for both your team
and your patients.
Thank you for all that you do to help keep patients safe.
Take care, everyone.