Dr. Sheilia Dunn
President & CEO of Quality America Inc.
www.quality-america.com
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Ask the expert
In our Ask the Expert column, Dr. Sheila Dunn dishes out clear, concise and, sometimes, hilarious answers to those pesky customer questions that keep sales reps awake at night. Just think: The next time a customer asks you something like, "Who says we have to fix that gaping hole in our patient chair?" or "How come we have to use safety sharps?" You can come back with a witty repartee to put the lid on those concerns. So, come on ... Ask the Expert. E-mail your questions to AskTheExpert@MDSI.org.
Ditching trade-outs
Q. One of our manufacturers offered a trade-out program where customers turned in old equipment for a discount on a new piece of equipment. I’ve got products galore in my car and garage and my wife is threatening to leave me if she trips over them one more time. The manufacturer’s rep said just to throw them away. Since I’m a tree-hugger and some of them are in good shape, what do you think about selling them on eBay?
A. What am I, a marriage counselor? Since you didn’t mention what type of instruments you’re stuck with, I’m left to assume that your communication skills are poor at home too. This is really why your wife is leaving you.
It has nothing to do with the autoclaves/electronic anoscopes/other miscellaneous instruments that tumble out onto the driveway every time you open the garage door.
I really need to know what kind of instruments
these are before answering your question. I’d hock
a bunch of task lights online in a New York minute, but I’d think twice if old defibrillators filled my trunk.
Another potential problem, in addition to killing heart attack patients and losing your wife, is that your boss might fire you if he found you selling dental equipment on eBay. That happened last year to an enterprising hospital employee (now former hospital employee) in Evansville, Ind., who lifted several hundred thousand dollars worth of medical equipment from a locked surgical distribution center in the hospital’s basement and sold it on eBay. He was busted when a vendor saw a spine set that he had left at the hospital the year before for a surgeon to evaluate, which was selling on eBay for $116,000!
Locating sharps containers
Q. A customer asked me to mount the sharps container I sold them behind the cabinet door under the sink. When I mentioned this to another customer, she said that it was an OSHA violation. Is it?
A. Most dental offices like to keep sharps containers hidden from drug addicts who steal from them and kids who climb the walls and stick their little fingers in them while mom is whistling Dixie. To me, this is a perfectly acceptable way to add some chlorine to our proverbial gene pool, but alas, OSHA begs to differ. I hate to sound like the OSHA drill sergeant, but OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standard [1910.1030(d)(4)(iii)(A)(2)] says that sharps containers must be:
- Easily accessible to personnel (i.e., within arm’s reach of the procedure), and
- Maintained upright through use (i.e., not placed where they could be knocked over).
Wait, there’s more! Picture a hygienist trying to open a cabinet while holding a sharp object dripping with blood to get to the sharps container. Other distasteful areas to place sharps containers include:
- On the backs of room doors
- Near light switches or thermostats
- Any other area where the sharps container could be accidentally hit or dislodged by a person, moving equipment or swinging doors.
Where to find MSDS
Q. Is there some place on the Internet where I can
get material safety data sheets (MSDS) for my customers? Our customer service reps keep them, but they look like copies of faxes and are often illegible. It’s too time consuming to call every manufacturer and ask them to mail one. Last week, a good customer gave me a list of 10 chemicals and asked me to give her MSDS.
A. What to do with customers like these? Soylent green, I say. Oops, forgot about that "value added" stuff! Check out www.msdsxchange.com and www.msds.com. Both sites require registration, and the second begins charging after accessing five MSDS (so use your name for the first five MSDS and the customer’s name for the second five). In the future, when this customer tries to get you to reduce your price on ABC item, remind her of your generosity.
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