It Doesn't Have to End in Disaster: A Case for Employment Compliance

It only takes one unhappy or disgruntled person to create a legal nightmare for you. There's no need to take this gamble. All it takes is awareness, commitment and action on your part. Once you have your HR house in order and have implemented a sound HR program in your practice, you also can feel good about knowing you are giving your staff every protection due to them under the law and every opportunity to be happy and successful in your practice. For yourself, you will be minimizing your risks and protecting your most valuable asset--your practice. You also will have given yourself the gift of peace of mind.

Legal dimensions of power in the dental office

Hostile workplace environments and sexual harassment depend on unequal power. It is the legal responsibility of the employer (the dentist practice owner) to protect against, investigate, and take appropriate action to prevent the abuse of power in the office. This article discusses harassment by dentists, staff members, and patient, vendors, and other third parties. Six direct steps for managing this issue are presented.

Legal issues of perinatal oral health

Every dental health care provider will inevitably be faced with perinatal oral health issues involving patients or staff members. The legal issues involving perinatal dental care are reviewed including the laws of malpractice claims by patients, employment claims involving staff, and Dental Board of California investigations involving patient care, and the administration of the business of dentistry. Recommendations are made for record keeping.

Will your clinic be in compliance with the safe patient handling law by July 1, 2010?

Clinical settings have been added to the Minnesota Safe Patient Handling law. Even though previously dentists may not have considered manual assisting of patients to be a safety hazard, studies have clearly shown the risk for injury to staff and patients. By being the first state to address patient handling in clinics, Minnesota is acknowledging that patient movement can occur in all clinical settings and is demonstrating its desire to ensure staff safety at those previously overlooked facilities. SPH and the SPH law requirements may seem a bit foreign and confusing at first, but hopefully, by reading this article dentists and their staffs have gained the understanding and knowledge they will need to make sure each individual clinic meets the compliance deadline.

Employee relations

This review highlights some of the more important employee relation aspects involved in starting, establishing, or expanding an existing dental practice. Despite a competitive compensation package, staff-related conflicts can sometimes hamper the progress of a dental practice. Such conflicts can be reduced by having policies and procedures in place for each employee that set expectations concerning the hours of operation, professional manner, dress code, job tasks, performance evaluations, disciplinary actions, and termination if violations occur. Understanding the legal requirements set by various governmental agencies such as OSHA can help ensure that the rights and well-being of every employee are protected.

An analysis of complaints against Victorian dental care providers 2000–2004

BACKGROUND

There are little data available on the number and type of complaints made against dental care providers in Australia, despite anecdotal reports of an increasing trend in health-related complaints and litigation.

METHODS

Data were obtained from the Dental Practice Board of Victoria on complaints received between July 2000 and December 2004.

RESULTS

There were 651 complaints against all dental care providers in the study period, which equates to a rate of 4.1 complaints per 100 dental care providers per year. Dentists were responsible for 490 of the complaints, with 66 complaints against dental prosthetists and 43 complaints against dental specialists. There were very few complaints against dental therapists and students, and no complaints against dental hygienists, with 47 complaints against unregistered people or institutions.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that there was a relatively low rate of complaints made against dental care providers in Victoria, with most occurring against dentists in private practice in Melbourne. Less that 10 per cent of complaints resulted in an adverse finding against the dental care provider.