Affordable. Natural. Wellness.
Community Acupuncture
WE ARE OPEN
Please continue to book using Schedulicity (link above)
Appointments are Required No walk ins at this time
The Zen Den Acupuncture Clinic Re-opening Updates
We hope this message finds you well, rested and safe. The Zen Den initially closed its doors on March 16th, as we felt a deep obligation as health care providers to limit the spread of the virus and keep everyone safe. So many of you helped support us with donations, pre-paying for treatments, buying gift cards and ordering ear seeds and essential oils from our site. For this, we are eternally grateful.
We are happy to say that within the state of New Jersey acupuncture is considered an “essential service”. We all know how true this is!
For the last few weeks Melissa has been at the clinic a few hours, treating emergency cases, and implementing safety protocols for the future. It’s been so nice to offer comfort and care in a time of uncertainty and fear! More recently, we have received an increasing number of inquiries in regards to when The Zen Den will reopen.. as we know how much you really need our medicine right now!
The short answer is, very soon!
What follows is the longer answer.
(There is a lot of information here so please save this information to read again and refer back to)
As a healthcare facility, The Zen Den is subject to state and national guidelines in our profession that have instructed both our initial closure, as well as how and when we could reopen and what standards and practices need to be in place in order for that to happen. These guidelines are in accordance with the best practices set forth by the Monmouth County Health Department, the State of New Jersey Acupuncture Board of Medical Examiners, the National Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and the American Society of Acupuncturists.
There are many aspects of clinical operations related to our setting that need to be updated to conform to the guidelines set by these regulatory agencies for the foreseeable future. They include: a reworking of the physical setup in our entire facility in order to maintain social/physical distancing guidelines; the use of personal protective equipment for both staff and patients; hygiene protocols for both staff and patients; implementation of illness screening for both staff and patients; implementing and maintaining infection controls, reworking the way we schedule appointments and establishing how many people we can have in the community clinic at any given time to maintain appropriate standards.
It’s a lot for us. There are a lot of details, and it’s kind of like starting an entirely new business. We have always been a small operation, working on a tight budget and are now challenged with putting into place multiple new systems in order to best protect the health of our clinic community as well as our staff members and their families.
With that being said, we are eager and almost ready to resume operations to reconnect with you all. We are anticipating a reopening date of Saturday June 6th. Within the next few days, we will let you know that scheduling can resume. We anticipate using a brand new scheduling system and will update you about setting up a new account so you can begin making your appointments. (If you already have an appointment scheduled with Melissa this week/next week with Schedulicity we have your appointment on the books and will see you then. )
What to expect when we reopen
We’ve spent these last few weeks figuring out the best process for cleaning, sanitizing, and booking. Clients like you helped us build this business, so we want to make sure you feel safe and comfortable at all times!
Booking An Appointment:
In a few days we will be launching our new scheduling program. It’s a very simple platform that you can access with your phone number, email or even Facebook page. It will just take a few minutes to set up and you can update your health history forms here or any personal information like home address, phone number or email to keep our system up to date. You can opt in for text message appointment reminders and have access to our online supplement ordering platform.
If you have any future appointments already booked on Schedulicity, we will transfer them over to the new system on our end, so you will likely receive confirmations from both programs until we phase out Schedulicity.
When booking your appointment you will be prompted to take a COVID-19 Pre-Screening survey
When booking your appointment you will be prompted to enter a credit card to secure your booking. We will process the card when you arrive for your appointment. This will allow us to provide a no-touch payment system. (No cash or checks for now) If you have a HSA/FSA debit card you can also use this to pay for your session.
Our no-show and cancellation policies/fees still apply. To cancel or reschedule, please give us 6 hours notice, you can rebook online or call us. Of course, if you wake up feeling unwell, or have an increased temperature on the day of your appointment, these policies don’t apply! Let us know and please stay home and take care of yourself!
When to arrive:
Because social distancing still applies we will be carefully scheduling days to space out patients and make time for thorough cleaning and sanitizing between sessions. Please plan on arriving no more than 5 minutes early and no more than 5 minutes late to your appointment. This ensures that we don’t fall behind and that we maintain that six feet of space between patients.
New treatment options/changes in appointment structuring/pricing:
when we reopen we will be offering more than just community acupuncture treatments!
These times have stretched us to move beyond what was in our comfort zone and have opened outlets of creative expansion, our continued passion for holistic/alternative medicine and wanting to incorporate additional healing modalities from experience and knowledge each practitioner holds.
We will have options ranging from simple ear acupuncture visits, community acupuncture sessions, localized/focused treatments, in- depth private one-on-one acupuncture and a multitude of ancillary modalities. Our new scheduling platform will explain these procedures and new pricing structure in more detail so you know what options are best for you. Stay tuned!
How to prepare for your appointment:
Once you’ve got your appointment scheduled, you’re likely wondering: What’s this going to look like?
We will not perform procedures on patients known or suspected to have COVID-19 Coronavirus.
All patients coming to our office should self-screen at home prior to arriving.
Any patient with the following symptoms will not be seen in our offices:
-
New cough
-
New shortness of breath
-
Fever/temperature over 100.4
-
Here’s what we are asking each client to do:
You should arrive alone to your appointment, we will not have anyone waiting in our waiting room
In accordance with CDC guidelines, all workers and patients must wear a face mask/covering upon entering the building
Upon arrival please wait at the front desk to be greeted by a staff member before entering.
We will have you fill out an informed consent and take your temperature with a touch-less thermometer.
Be aware that if you are exhibiting symptoms or have an elevated temperature reading, we will kindly ask to reschedule your treatment.
We are asking all patients to sanitize their hands/stop in the bathroom to wash hands before beginning your session
Your treatment chair/table will be covered entirely with a clean sheet and new pillowcase and will be sterilized between clients.
What have we done:
We have reduced the number of available appointments
We have reduced the number of chairs in our community treatment room to abide by 6ft of distancing, we’ve also added barriers between chairs
We have added in the option for scheduling private treatments
We have reduced staff on site to the minimal number necessary to ensure that essential operations can continue
We require workers to wear cloth face coverings and gloves while performing services.
We have arranged for contactless pay options
We require frequent sanitization of high-touch areas like credit card machines, keypads, door knobs, restroom facilities, and counters to which the public and workers have access
We require infection control practices, such as regular hand washing, coughing and sneezing etiquette, and proper tissue usage and disposal
We provide employees break time for repeated hand washing throughout the workday and provide sanitization materials, such as hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes to staff
We require six feet of distance between workers and patients, except at the moment of payment, scheduling and/or exchange of medical and therapeutic services. We shall maintain social distancing practices to the extent practicable while providing essential services, and maintain social distancing between clients.
Ok, did you make it this far? Thanks for your patience while we’ve explained as best we could....
Lastly, we wanted to let you know that we’ve expanded our space. Yes, you’ve heard us correctly. In anticipation for the need for our essential medical services, to move forward from here, and help ALL OF US heal from post traumatic stress, lack of in person medical attention for the last ten weeks, and patients seeking acupuncture and alternative medicine to build and support their immune systems, we’ve decided we NEED MORE SPACE.
We were faced with a big dilemma due to our group acupuncture model, with social distancing in place, our business was immediately cut by more than half for the unforeseeable future. With a reduction in the number of chairs we could have in our current set up, we weren’t sure how long our business would survive. We weren’t going to let that happen and thought it absolutely necessary to make the Zen Den larger and version 2.0 is just about ready to launch; with a second bathroom, larger reception area, a second community treatment room and two more private treatment rooms. Don’t worry we haven’t moved, we’ve just grown within the building to create even more access to our much needed medicine for our community!
When you book your future appointment, details regarding the new clinic flow will be explained.
Our new scheduling software will launch within the next few days and we will send another email to start booking appointments. (If you already have an appointment scheduled with Melissa this week/next week with Schedulicity we have your appointment on the books and will see you then. )
We are expecting that some of this process might change over the next few weeks and that we’ll likely have to adapt our policies and how we work more than once. We are going to do everything we can to make this as easy as possible for you while also prioritizing your health and safety.
Most importantly, we will continue to provide the same exceptional high quality care when you come in!...we look forward to seeing you again.
In good health,
The Zen Den
Melissa, Michelle G, Bill, Shay and Michelle L