You should have received an email on March 19 from
ckcarrico@vcu.edu with the display name “VCU Oral Health Services Research Core.” The Virginia Dental Association and VCU are partnering on a survey to provide important data around how dental offices in Virginia are returning to practice, what PPE is being used, and what measures are being taken to protect patients, staff and dentists.
Your responses are anonymous and completely confidential. The data gathered from this survey will be important in shedding light on how the dental profession is recovering in Virginia. It will also provide insight and transparency around the safety of dental offices and what procedures are being done.
We strongly encourage whoever in your practice is best able to access the information needed to fill it out accurately, to complete the survey on behalf of the entire practice location. In most cases that will be a practice administrator.
Thank you for taking the time to provide this information and document how the profession is returning to practice. If you don't receive the email today, please check your spam filters/junk folders and add
ckcarrio@vcu.edu to your approved sender list. If you have any questions, please see the Q&As below and if you don’t find the answer to your question there, please contact Dr. Tegwyn Brickhouse at
thbrickhouse@vcu.edu.
SURVEY Q&A
Q: Do I need to fill out this survey or can I share it with my practice administrator?
A: We encourage whoever in your practice is best able to access the information needed to fill it out accurately, to complete the survey on behalf of the entire practice location. In most cases that will be a practice administrator.
Q: Should I fill out and submit the survey for a week in which I’m not seeing patients in-person?
A: Yes, it will still provide important data around how much PPE Virginia dentists have in stock and how quickly dentists are returning to seeing patients.
Q: If I missed a week of data, is it ok for me to go back and submit it the following week?
A: Yes, but make sure you only submit one response per practice location per week. The survey link each week is unique. If you miss a week, go back to that week’s email link. If you need a new link please contact Dr. Brickhouse at
thbrickhouse@vcu.edu
Q: If I discover I made a mistake after submitting a survey response, can I go back and correct it?
Q: If I have incomplete information to provide around one of the questions, should I still submit my survey response?
A: If you’re expecting to have access to the full information at a later date, we encourage you to wait until you have that to submit it. If not, please go ahead and submit the information you do have.
Q: Under “Patients: Confirmed Cases,” should they be reported in the week in which they were seen or the week in which they were confirmed to the office, if those two are different?
A: Responses should be for the week in which they confirmed to your office.
Q: Do I have to be a member of the Virginia Dental Association to fill out this survey?
A: No, this survey is available to all practicing dentists in Virginia and all Virginia dental offices are encouraged to participate.