Dodgeville Dental Clinic Expansion

March 2022

Access’ Dodgeville Dental Clinic is currently undergoing an expansion project that which will allow us to serve more people who need high quality dental care.

Our Dodgeville Dental Clinic provides dental services to people throughout Iowa, Richland, Sauk, Grant and western Dane counties. The expansion will allow the clinic to take on an additional 1,500 to 2,000 patients annually. The project allows the clinic to move into the second floor, doubling its current 4,000 square feet and add four new dental operatories, bringing its total to 12 operatories. Additionally, the addition of an elevator will make the site more accessible and an upgrade to the HVAC system brings the air turnover rate at the clinic in line with other Access facilities.

“We have been honored to partner with individuals and organizations to bring quality, compassionate dental care to the people we serve,” Access CEO Ken Loving, MD, said. “This expansion is critical in our efforts to serve more people and improve the health and improve the lives of people throughout southwest Wisconsin.”

The expansion project was made possible through a $250,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to the City of Dodgeville.

In January, Access hosted Governor Tony Evers at the Dodgeville Dental Clinic. Governor Evers was on-site for a tour and conversation with our leadership, staff and providers at the clinic, and to recognize our organization for continuing to expand access to high quality dental services for a large geographic area, even in the midst of the pandemic.

Celebrate Smiles Back in Schools

March 2022

We are happy to have resumed our longstanding partnership with the Madison and Sun Prairie school districts and provide the Celebrate Smiles program in area schools this year.

Untreated dental decay is among the most preventable chronic disease for children. It causes kids pain, lost time in the classroom and diminishes performance in school. Our Celebrate Smiles program works to prevent tooth decay and educate children about good oral health. This program brings licensed dental staff to local schools, screening children in grades 4K-8. They provide dental sealants, fluoride varnish, as well as dental cleanings and restorative treatment as needed. Services are provided with portable dental equipment by dental staff led by a licensed dentist from Access Community Health Centers.

After an absence of more than a year, our presence once again provides dental services in the schools for children who would otherwise go without care.

For more information about our Celebrate Smiles program, please visit our Celebrate Smiles page.

Keeping Our Patients Safe

March 2022

Even though variants are increasing COVID cases throughout our community, we continue to work to ensure our patients are safe when they visit our clinics.

We’re proud to have provided the vaccine to over 7,500 individuals. We continue to provide COVID vaccines in clinic during the day, but also have held a number of evening and weekend clinics throughout the fall and winter and will do so into the spring. These clinics are open to all eligible patients and families. Please check our website for dates and times for future weekend and weeknight clinics.

Additionally, we have instituted the following COVID safety measures:

We have instituted the COVID vaccine requirement for staff.
We have implemented numerous safety and infection control practices which have been extremely effective at minimizing the spread of COVID within the clinics.
The call center and registration staff screen patients and encourage people with symptoms to schedule telemedicine appointments with their provider or to schedule an appointment for after their quarantine/isolation period ends.
We have a sustainable supply of PPE, including face shields and N95 masks and require all staff who have direct patient contact to wear them to minimize the risk of infection.

Keep Up the Good Work
It is a good time to continue with the other effective infection control practices we’ve put in place, including:

Practice good hand hygiene technique.
Social distancing when possible.
Self-symptom monitoring and staying home when sick.

Thank you for your support, patience and understanding as we navigate the pandemic. We will get through this together!

Message from Ken Loving, MD

July 2021

As we make our way through the pandemic, we continue to update our care to best meet the needs of our patients. In fact, the ability to do so throughout the pandemic has made us a stronger organization than we were one year ago. In the coming year, we will continue to evolve and improve our care in the following ways:

More vaccinations. We will continue to reach out to patients to schedule vaccinations through text messaging and/or calling, and now have the ability to vaccinate patients during their scheduled medical appointments. This is especially important now that we are receiving the Pfizer vaccine that offers us the ability to vaccinate our patients from the ages of 12-17. We are proud to have been able to vaccinate hundreds of people who are providing support to communities of color through local non-profits including The Hmong Institute, One City Schools and Centro Hispano. We will continue this work in the future.

Growing to serve more people. We want everyone in our community to have access to preventive care, COVID testing, vaccinations, and all that our unique health care home has to offer. We will grow to better meet the demand for our services from people without health insurance. We’re now using Epic Wisdom as our electronic dental record software which will help us expand our dental practice and better integrate our medical and dental services. Our strong and resourceful behavioral health team will use telehealth initiatives to improve and expand our substance use disorder treatment services. The opioid epidemic continues, and overdoses and deaths are climbing once again. We have the ability to provide medication assisted treatment to patients and will expand those services to help others in the community.

Vaccine Update

July 2021

At the start of summer, 66 percent of people in Dane County have received one dose of the COVID vaccine, and 57 percent have completed the vaccine series. We are proud of the significant role Access has played in this effort. We have vaccinated thousands of people, including patients, community members and staff, and our work continues.

Access continues to hold our daily vaccine clinics, offering the Moderna vaccine as well as the Pfizer vaccine to those who request it. We have also started offering the Pfizer vaccine to adolescent patients ages 12-17. Initially, we are focusing on providing the Pfi zer vaccine to adolescent patients who are already in the clinic for appointments, but will also be launching a broader outreach campaign in the coming weeks. We will continue to add options for our patients as they become available.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, we are committed to meeting the needs of our patients and our community.

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