Having worked with Vinai Patel and Amar Flora, from CQC Support, and as we are currently supporting a number of dental practices, we understand how frustrating it can become when trying to implement the new CQC regulations.
As you may be aware the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will be regulating all dental practices and it is vital that you met the registration requirements before 1 April 2011.
We have compiled a checklist of a number of IT procedures that you can implement in order to make you compliant with the CQC requirements.
Outcomes 1, 2, 7, 17 and 21 for the CQC guidance can be easily complied with by taking a few simple steps in your IT policy and website.
Outcome 1 – Respecting and involving people who use services and
Outcome 2 – Consent to care and treatment
In order to comply with Outcome 1, it is advisable that:
1. Your practices website clearly provides the choice of treatments available. Such functionality will enable your patients to make an informed decision.
2. The website should outline:
a) the risks and benefits of all available treatments for your patients; and
b) the cost of the various treatments.
3. The treatments the practice offers should cater for all types of ages, sex, religious persuasion, sexual orientation, racial origin, cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Outcome 17 – Complaints
It is advisable to clearly state on your dental practice’s website:
1) The complaints procedure.
2) Provide a comments section or an email address for where your patients can express their views, with full knowledge that their opinions will be taken into account by your practice.
Outcome 7 – Safeguarding people who use services from abuse
Outcome 21 – Records
It is standard practice to keep your patients information confidential in order to comply with data protection legislation and to respect the dignity of your patients. Ultimately, it is the dental practice’s responsibility to ensure correct measures are in place to reinforce this.
It is also advisable that:
1. Good industry standard firewalls are implemented in order to prevent breach of data protection and external unauthorised access.
2. Confidential electronic data is securely stored and suitable user permissions are applied to files and folders.
3. Online back-ups transfer important company data. Please note, if this data is intercepted it would be very damaging to your practice. Therefore, it is very important to ensure your online backup solution encrypts all data being transferred over the internet.
4. Strict password policies are adopted to your domain/ network and for all passwords to be changed periodically.
Increasingly, the IT software market is becoming saturated with various off-the-shelf software packages (some of which are free to download from the public domain), in order to allow their employees gain access to their files from a remote location.
However, when such packages are used, it is vital that all measures are taken to ensure they utilise high levels of encryption and password complexities as this will act as a gateway into the companies network and files.
Wireless technologies
Wireless technology can improve business productivity by enabling employees to work from remote locations around the building.
However, wireless technology has its drawbacks since it:
1. Increases the business’s vulnerability to the computer networks, as it is viewable by anyone with wireless capabilities.
2. The technology can also lead to cyber warfare, which is a serious threat to many businesses as hackers can gain access to sensitive company information via their wireless networks.
For more information, visit or contact www.pioneer-solutions.co.uk or call Zamir Rhemtulla on 020 7182 7270 or 07949 008 974.
