Compliance matters
Sharon McMillian
ADAVB Practice Plus Consultant Sharon McMillan will outline some of your basic compliance obligations within the dental practice and provide you with practical ways to meet these obligations. You will come away with checklists, protocols and audit tools to assist you to identify areas of risk to improve patient safety and quality.
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• • Identify areas of compliance within the dental practice, including key legislation and policy documents
  • Apply checklists, protocols and audit tools to identify and reduce risk
  • Implement strategies for monitoring incidents and risk.

Dental records
Dr Ann Monteith
Dental records are not only a requirement by law [state and federal] but also assumed under Professional Standards. They are like house insurance – you really need them when there is a fire or flood [in dental cases when you have a claim or complaint] and they are what let dentists down when defending a claim or complaint.
There is an old legal saying:
‘Good records = good defence;
Poor records = no defence’.

• • At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
  • Review the expected minimum standards the DBA has set and what may facilitate you meeting these standards
  • Identify common errors and omissions in record keeping
  • Understand how good clinical care can go bad when records let you down.

Ethics in dentistry: Just because I think I can, should I?
Dr Loula Konidaris
While dentists face technical and scientific questions each day, it is important to recognise how ethical questions play an integral part in providing quality treatment for patients in their care. These questions relate to the dentists’ values, rights and responsibilities, which affect their behaviour and decision-making process.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• • Understand the four principles of medical ethics

• • Recognise and deal with issues arising in the practise of dentistry in a rational and principled manner, whether dealing with patients, colleagues or society in general
  • Appreciate how the law relates to dental ethics
  • Refer to the professional code of ethics.