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June 2009 | dentalproductsreport.com When my practice caught on fire How Dr. Bradley Dykstra and his team recovered.  Photo: Kim Steele/Getty Images Dr. Bradley Dykstra could have lost everything. Every patient record. Appointment books. Billing information. All of it could have been destroyed in the fire that went through Hudsonville Dental in April 2008. Luckily, for his team and his patients, Dr. Dykstra switched from paper to digital records about six years before the fire, so he didn’t have to worry about all the problems that come with lost paper records. Instead, he and his team focused on getting a temporary space ready to see patients, something they were able to do about 10 days after the fire. “In a day and a half the front desk was business as usual,” Dr. Dykstra said. “We lost nothing in terms of records. That’s huge.” How it happened    Photos: Dr. Bradley Dykstra Dr. Dykstra’s Michigan practice caught on fire on a Friday afternoon. He was out of town participating on a lab advisory board in Phoenix, and his staff had already left for the day. An electrical malfunction in the sterilization room caused the fire that kept Dr. Dykstra and his team working in a temporary space for eight months. An open suite in their building became their new home. By that Tuesday, the front office was up and running, complete with a new network and new workstations. Dr. Dykstra worked with two suppliers, Benco Dental Co. and Henry Schein, and both companies loaned them dental chairs and units to help them get their new space where it needed to be. By the following Monday it was, and the team was ready to see patients again. So how did they get there so quickly? Dr. Dykstra and his team members met the Monday after the fire to formulate a plan. He asked all of them to make a list of everything they would need to see patients in a week. They thought he was crazy when he set that timetable, Dr. Dykstra said, but he knew they could make it happen if everyone worked together. They put their orders in that day and paid the electricians and plumbers over time to make sure the infrastructure was in place, and by Monday morning they were back to seeing patients. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
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