To All of Our Wonderful Patients:
Part of our philosophy is to be good stewards of our environment. For us, quality dentistry is essential, exceptional service to our patients is a given, respect and acknowledgement of our team is our standard, and care & fostering of our office and community environment is a requirement.
To meet our requirements for stewardship, we are very involved in our community (especially through our local Rotary Club of San Pablo), helping to raise money for needy populations and giving time to assist community projects. We are proud of what we've offered to San Pablo and Richmond over our 38 years here.
Today, however, we are especially proud to announce our singular achievement separating us from other dental practices and from many other businesses in our community. We've earned the designation of Green Business based on a set of standards developed by the county in collaboration with our state and national environmental standards.
It's not easy to earn this designation. It's especially hard for a healthcare facility. We have an overriding responsibility to the safety of our patients. In addition, we have a requirement (personal and professional) to exceed the standard of care. But keeping those standards as our base, we have been able to accomplish a tremendous amount to lower our footprint on the planet. With the help of PG&E, we have reworked our lighting system to give the most light with the least wattage and energy use.
What else we are doing:
- Paperless charting for all notes
- Greatly reduces the amount of paper waste generated by our office
- Improves communication between staff and allows us to track your treatment better, ensuring the quality of your care
- Metal material is filtered and collected before it enters our drain systems
- Keeps the mercury from old fillings from ending up in the fish we eat and water we drink
- Minimizing plastic usage by choosing the bio-degradable option wherever possible, such as in suction attachments & paper bags
- Digital x-rays which have 90% less radiation than already-safe traditional x-rays and don't require developing solutions
We also want to give you an update about the situation across the street with the hospital. There is a great need for a hospital in West County. And there is only one other hospital in the west county besides Doctors that has an Emergency Room--Kaiser. Kaiser is not big enough to address the needs of West County. The powers that decide stuff for you and I in West County are leaning toward shrinking the hospital into an emergency room. That means that patients in emergencies will be brought to DMC, stabilized, and then transferred to one of the other hospitals in the not too distant area. The problem is that no other hospital wants DMC's patients. It's why we need this whole hospital here. It provides service to a very important but unpopular group of people, those without the means to cover their healthcare. In addition, the hospital sits in a strategic location for the convenience of many patients in West County who can't conveniently travel to Berkeley, Oakland, Vallejo, Martinez, or Walnut Creek. The way our traffic is going, no one will find it convenient to travel to these distant locations for hospital care.
Hopefully they will come to their senses and float a bond to build a new smaller state-of-the-art hospital on the land saved for it behind our office and sell the existing land to the Casino. In the meantime, the potential closure of our hospital will have a negative effect on our patient population. We'd really appreciate it if you all would step forward with referrals of your family members and friends and co workers. We promise to give them excellent care. Thanks very much. Dr. van Dyk
Notes from the Team
Dr. van Dyk: In addition to continuing my education at dental meetings, I’ve also been lecturing around the country. St. Louis, San Luis Obispo, and Tampa, Florida recently. In Florida they recorded my lecture to offer it to members of the American Dental Association. And look for Dr. Castro for the last half of July while my wife and I join National Geographic to walk across England, Coast to Coast.
Dr. Castro: We have a new member in our family: Pepper! He’s a calm yet curious mini Poodle, recently adopted from my aunt. He joins our spunky Pomeranian, Pebble, on adventures in our backyard and on walks around Tara Hills.
Wendy: I’m back! I am enjoying being a new mom to a beautiful 5 month-old baby girl, Isabella Renee.
Gina: Getting ready for my wedding this August. Looking forward to a honeymoon taken at a later date!
Lily: I just took my kids to Disneyland for their first time and they loved it. Other than that, my husband and I are enjoying watching our boys play soccer on the weekends.
Luz: Excited about my oldest son starting high school this year and playing JV football. My 9 year-old will be entering 4th grade. So I will continue to be as busy as always.
Marlene: I’m getting ready for a vacation to New Orleans and then the Western Caribbean in October. I’m spending this summer camping and of course golfing.
Ayako: I’ll be traveling with Marlene, having fun in the sun and eating lots of good food!