During a July 15 webinar hosted by Becker’s Hospital Review and sponsored by oneSOURCE Document Management Service, a dental safety compliance expert shared strategies for maintaining safe and efficient operations.
The speaker was Mary Beth O’Brien, RDH, ICP, who is oneSOURCE’s document database dental consultant, an office-based surgery consultant and an OSHA outreach trainer.
During the pandemic, dentists should focus on five key strategies, according to Ms. O’Brien.
- Recognize the importance of oversight agencies in dentistry. Organizations like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the CDC and local public health departments provide dentists with safety guidelines meant to protect both dental staff and patients and ensure better quality of care. It is critical that dentists follow the guidelines to tailor a safety plan that is specific to their office. Important OSHA requirements for dentists include its general safety guidelines, its bloodborne pathogen standard and its hazard communication standard.
- Create new programs that are effective, efficient and measurable. During the pandemic, patients have become more knowledge about healthcare procedures and may experience more anxiety about their safety. Dentists need to have comprehensive safety plans in place that they can explain to their patients. Additionally, dentists need to evaluate these programs and measure their success. Dentists must adapt their practices as guidelines change and new strategies emerge.
- Establish standard operating procedures. New safety plans involve the entire office, so dentists need to establish step-by-step instructions to help staff follow processes that will keep operations safe and efficient. This ensures staff will always have a reference for the exact way procedures need to be carried out. “Having an OSHA book on a shelf in the corner or a checklist included with that book doesn’t prove or verify that you have an established, working, measurable process in your office,” Ms. O’Brien said.
- Maintain instruction for use and safety data sheets. IFUS and safety data sheets define the maintenance and care of dental equipment and validate the processes within the practice. Dentists should also use diagrams and mapping in these documents whenever possible.
- Ensure regular audits are performed. Dentists should perform audits of their standard operating procedures, keep records of those audits and have discussions regarding any changes. Audits ensure that all staff members are executing procedures correctly, and they can lead to vital conversations about daily processes. As Ms. O’Brien stated, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” It is also important for dentists to celebrate their successes once they discover their operations are running safely and efficiently.
To learn more about oneSOURCE, click here. To listen to the full webinar, click here.
