When people say “risk management,” most everyone thinks of HIPAA. While HIPAA compliance is important, there is so much more to risk management than that!
In today’s world of dentistry, we are regulated more and more all the time. New technology and ever-changing compliance requirements can make it difficult to stay current on everything that needs to be done. Many practices I see just do what they know how to do and bury their heads in the sand on everything else. That works until it doesn’t!
Tija Hunter, CDA, EFDA.
So, what comprises risk management, and what do we need to pay attention to? Risk in our practices falls into many categories:
- Emergency planning
- HIPAA
- Ransomware
- Hacking
- Privacy and security
- Informed consent
- Documentation
- Maintenance
- Health histories
- Business operations
- Fraud, waste, and abuse
- U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations
- Ergonomics
Some, like HIPAA, come to mind, but others, like documentation, take on an entirely different meaning. When we talk about documentation, it’s not just our chart notes. Chart notes by themselves are important, as they are considered evidence in a court of law. However, there is so much more to documentation than chart notes. Both OSHA and HIPAA require a lot of documentation in addition to informed consent, health histories, and maintenance.
Emergency planning is something that gets overlooked. I hope I never have to use my CPR training, however, I’m glad I have it. Planning for emergencies is something every office needs to do to be prepared in case something happens.
It’s important to have discussions about medical emergencies, fires, gas leaks, and even more traumatic situations like an active shooter. Like it or not, talking about these events before they happen can help your team cope and manage the situation if something does arise.
Waste, fraud, and abuse in both the clinical area and the front office is a huge concern. With the ever-rising cost of materials, low insurance reimbursements, a lack of training on proper product use and a growing number of fraud cases, keeping an eye on this alone will keep you busy. Be sure your team is trained in product use and care along with equipment to ensure nothing is going to waste.
So, what do you do?
Involve the team!
Realize you can’t do it all -- that’s why you have a team! Every practice should have an OSHA compliance officer, a HIPAA compliance officer, and an infection control coordinator. And they should never be the same person!
Smaller practices can double up on the OSHA and infection control officer, but only in small practices of fewer than four team members. There is so much to do as a compliance officer that having one person do it all will be setting them up for failure.
Have regular meetings.
Do you have a morning huddle? It’s one of the best ways to get your entire team on the same page. Things like medical histories, informed consent, and finances can be reviewed, and team members can be assigned tasks to ensure everything is covered.
Monthly meetings are a great time to discuss the success of your policies to make sure they are flowing smoothly or if they need to be tweaked to flow better. When your team is involved in the outcome, your success rate grows!
The process for identifying problems and how to solve them involves these steps:
- Identify. Recognize potential hazards (e.g., a communication breakdown, treatment errors, data security).
- Assess. Evaluate the likelihood and potential severity (impact) of each risk.
- Mitigate/control. Implement strategies to reduce or eliminate risks, like better training or stricter policies.
- Monitor and review. Continuously review processes and outcomes to adapt to new risks.
This process applies no matter what area of your practice you're trying to mitigate risk in. Don’t feel like you must tackle them all at once; just get started on one or two. Taking too much on at one time will alienate your team members and send them running. That’s not the way to succeed.
Handbooks and manuals
Don’t roll your eyes at me; the truth is we need them! A practice handbook sets the tone for what you expect of your team, and they need to know that. How do they understand your vision if you don’t lay it out for them?
Handbooks serve as an educational tool and should never be dismissed. The manuals create the protocols that explain what we need to do and when we need to do it. And there are so many of them we need to follow.
How do you know you have everything you need?
Misinformation is huge
Watching social media forums can be head-spinning. The lack of knowledge and the amount of misinformation out there are unreal. It is up to you, the practice owner or practice administrator, to understand all you need to be compliant in all these areas. There are some great resources out there to help you sift through it all.
Notice we barely touched OSHA or HIPAA? That’s an article all by itself!
The point is, get started! There is no time like now to get a head start on the new year and create a risk management protocol that sets your entire practice up for success!
Tija Hunter, CDA, has been named one of the Top 25 Women in Dentistry by Dental Products Report. Hunter served as vice president of the American Dental Assistants Association and two terms as president of the Illinois Dental Assistants Association. She is the author of more than 10 continuing education courses, has written numerous articles for dental publications, created a compliance and maintenance calendar for dentistry, and authored RockStar Dental Assistant.
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
