The purpose of the SGVDS Mutual Office Coverage  (MOC) Program is to organize a short-term pro bono dental care program by MOC Member dentists to the practice and patients of MOC Member dentists who are unable to physically offer this care themselves.

“It is never too early to plan for an emergency.”  Anonymous

QUESTION:  What would you do if you hurt yourself and could not treat your patients for four months?

ANSWER:  Call the SGVDS office and activate the Mutual Office Coverage (MOC) Protocol.

The MOC is a SGVDS Program, which is made up of dentists, for dentists.  It is designed to help its Member dentists prepare for a potential crisis in their professional lives. And in a time of need, it is designed to give a dentist who is a MOC Panel Member (Panelist) four months of professional support from fellow MOC Panelists. 

Here is how it works. 

MOC PANEL MEMBER POOL            

• Register to be a MOC Panel Member, in order to create the MOC Panel Member Pool.  If a person becomes a Panelist, then this person automatically becomes eligible to be a Beneficiary of the MOC Program.

YOUR MOC TEAM

• Once the MOC Panelist Pool has been created, it will be distributed to all Pool Members.  It is then the responsibility of each Pool member to ask three to six MOC Panelists to be on your MOC Team.  (It may be possible to have non MOC Panelists as part of your support team; however, these individuals may NOT have all the benefits of MOC for themselves.)  A copy of this information should be retained at your office and at the SGVDS office. Sensitivity to specialty, practice philosophy, travel time, etc., is appropriate.

ACTIVATION

• In your time of need activate the Mutual Office Coverage (MOC) Protocol by calling the SGVDS office and/or your Zone Director and/or mutual Office Coverage Chairperson.

Once activated here is what will happen.
1.      Your Zone Leader, the MOC chairperson, and the SGVDS Executive Director will sit  down  with you and/or your spouse/manager of your affairs to organize your MOC Team to start coverage within one week’s time.

2.    As a MOC Beneficiary, your practice and patients will receive dental care from your MOC Team Members for a period not to exceed four months.  So if the Beneficiary Member had five team members, then theoretically each Team Member could work once a week (for a half-day or full-day) to keep their friend’s practice intact.  These Members will not receive any compensation for their services.

How can you learn more about the SGVDS MOC Program and become a MOC Panel Member?

Obtain MOC Registration Forms via the SGVDS office at 626/285-1174.  The staff will be happy to mail them to you.   (It will also be available on the SGVDS website, currently under construction.)  If you are an “old” MOC participant, please update your information.  Also ask Shirley at the Society office for a coy of the Dental Town, Oct. 2004 Guest Editorial, “What Happens if You’re Not There?” by Fred Heppner. 

The SGVDS MOC Program has been in existence since the 1980’s.  Fortunately, it has been activated only a handful of times in the past 25 years.  Our effort today is to RENEW the awareness level of our MOC Program, to UPDATE the purpose and the protocol involved, and to INSPIRE our membership to be involved in a tremendous “insurance” program which has no out-of-pocket expense.

If you have any questions please call me at 626-331-3354
Michael K. Tanaka DDS
Chairman, Mutual Office Coverage