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Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

Jane Armitage discusses the BDA Good Practice Scheme and the CQC 17Practice ManagementUnited Kingdom Edition May 16-22, 2011United Kingdom Edition Have you ordered your free Patient Referral Lea ets? Call 0844 335 6354 or visit www.waterpik.co.uk B y now all practices should be compliant with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) require- ments. I am so thankful that we had been endorsed with the British Dental Association Good Practice Scheme as this made the signposting of all the required elements so much easier. I start every January by trawling through all manuals relevant to the running of the business ie: Clinical Govern- ance, Health & Safety, BDA Good Practice, and the Practice Policy Folder to name a few. As we are DF1 training Prac- tice I usually begin with the documented evidence the Re- gional Postgraduate Office re- quire. Even this has increased in volume. If you have an organised system already in place the requirements of the CQC are straightforward. I wouldn’t like to be in a position where I managed a practice without systems and procedures. It is of little use knowing you have evidence somewhere in the practice but not in any file or order; however you know you have it! Somehow I can’t see the Care Quality Commission buying that. So if you are reading this and this sounds like you maybe it’s time to implement systems. In the long run it makes life so much easier. The BDA Good Practice Scheme is based on qual- ity assurance. It is a practice recognition scheme for prac- tices committed to providing a standard of good practice to their patients. The scheme is based on legal and ethical re- quirements required for run- ning a dental practice. It is a quality system which encourages all members of the team to become involved. In my opinion if you are part of BDA Good Practice, the information you will have in your file represents a major- ity of the evidence you need for the CQC. It is most important that all practice documentation is re- viewed at regular intervals. It’s surprising what a review flags up, maybe a nurse who held extra responsibilities has left the practice ie a first aider, this could be something that had been overlooked so you need to place another employee on a first aid course to comply. Maybe a protocol has changed or new employment legislation has come into force, by reviewing and amend- ing you can ensure you are compliant. So taking one file after the other, I scrutinise, number, and identify each piece of docu- mentary evidence. I also created a separate employment file, where I maintain certificates for every staff member covering immu- nisation, GDC certificates, li- ability insurance, Irmer certifi- cates, proof of citizenship, CRB checks, etc. I then wrote the require- ments for each outcome as worded in the guide for provid- ers of primary dental care serv- ices. Ref: www.cqc.org.uk For example: CQC Outcome 1: Respecting and involving patients. Demonstrating Compliance: I noted the compliance evidence I had within the prac- tice and my cross references for where the evidence could be found: Complaints handling policy can be found in (GP9.2) (CG9.1) (KS5) (PP30) Good Practice 9.2, Clinical Governance 9.1, Key Skills 5 and Practice Policies 30. Interpreter Services (CG10.1) Clinical Governance 10.1 I continued this for all the relevant requirements. On the front cover I also designed an appendix showing all policies etc and which file they can be found in. This for me is a user friendly template; it will make it easier when the review date comes around without having to wade through the CQC manual. Did I find it easy? Yes I did, but only because I already had a Clinical Governance system in place and because we have BDA Good Practice, which were both current and in line with legislation. For further advice on meet- ing registration requirements for CQC please see www.cqc. org.uk I must admit, I was glad when I had finished, and I breathed a sigh of relief. How- ever this was short-lived as I opened my email only to find the Information Governance Toolkit sitting there. Will it ever end? DT My management journey All practice documentations should be reviewed at regular intervals ‘It is of little use knowing you have evidence somewhere in the practice but not in any file or order’ About the author Jane Armitage is an award-winning practice manager and has almost 40 years’ industry experience. She is cur- rently a practice manager for Thomp- son & Thomas, and holds a Vocational Assessors award. She is also a BDA Good Practice Assessor, BDA Good Practice Regional Consultant, and has a BDA Certificate of Merit for services to the profession. She has her own company, JA Team Training, offering a practice management consultancy service, which includes on-site assist- ance covering all aspects of practice management with a pathway if re- quired for managers to take their qual- ification in dental practice manage- ment. If you have any specific choices of topics you’d like addressed, call Jane on 01142 343346 or email janearm@ tiscali.co.uk.