New Year, New You!
We all want to start 2023 off right. New year’s resolutions are all about goal setting personally and professionally. One of the most challenging areas for a dental office is infection control. There are so many vague and unanswered questions. RCDSO vs CDHO, what about Public Health and the Ministry of Labour? Who trumps who and where do we start?!
As a dental professional I too have asked these questions. We all start with a google search, try calling and emailing our regulatory bodies or block our phone number as we call public health just in case, they see our number and come audit us! Why does it have to be so hard to do the right thing?!
The good news is it doesn’t have to be hard. Patient’s come to a dental office to seek our professional help for their oral health. So why wouldn’t a dental professional go to an Infection Control Consulting firm to seek the help we need? There are many IPAC Consulting firms that are here to help dental and medical professionals navigate through the challenges of infection control requirements. IPAC Consulting firms contain professionals who have dedicated their careers to infection control. They hold expertise in epidemiology, outbreak management, certifications in infection control and are just as passionate about helping your dental office become compliant and stay compliant as we are about helping our patients achieve a healthy mouth.
Here are just a few areas that IPAC Consulting can help improve your dental office or you as dental professional.
1. Continuing Education, including certificates and CE Credits.
These online learning modules written specifically for dentistry staff will satisfy infection control requirements and provide education especially for the dental environment and support for infection control workflows. The Ministry of Health requires annual, formalized infection prevention and control (IPAC) training for all clinical staff, with an evaluation component and documentation of training received.
2. IPAC Sterilization Centre Assessment, Design Review and Training
Cross contamination can pose significant infection risk to patients and is the central focus of Public Health inspections. An IPAC Consultant will identify changes to the physical layout of the sterilization centre in order to be compliant with Public Health requirements. Upon completion, you will understand any gaps through our advanced risk matrix and gap analysis, and be able to develop a plan to correct them with our action list. Our team walks you step by step through your reprocessing centre and provides you with feedback and guidance.
3. Customized IPAC and Health and Safety Policy Manuals
Our team creates office-specific policies and procedures help to keep everyone in your office on the same page with regards to expectations during the day-to-day work, as well as serving as a resource to guide staff in less common scenarios.
4. IPAC Assessments by and IPAC Professional
Our IPAC Consultants will apply the complex infection control standards to the operation of your dental clinic by auditing policies and procedures, education and training, record-keeping, and physical attributes of your dental clinic, including your sterilization centre. This assessment provides a verbal on-site confirmation and an in-depth written report of baseline administrative controls as they pertain to infection control requirements. After our visit, you will have a better understanding of any gaps in your practice through our in-depth gap analysis, and our customized action list will help you prioritize the recommendations. The Office Assessment mirrors the Public Health Inspection checklists.
5. IPAC and Health and Safety Programs that fit your offices needs
Our Infection Control and Health and Safety subscription programs will help you be compliant year-round. Our IPAC and Health and Safety team will work closely with your Dental office to understand barriers and gaps in your workplace health and safety program and your IPAC Program. We will provide solutions while applying Public Health and Ontario Health and Safety Standards and best practices. This program gives you unlimited access to our IPAC Consultants. We provide quarterly assessments and action plans to help you achieve IPAC Excellence. Our team provides you with a resource binder that includes all required logs, training, and guidance to allow your team to run a smooth inhouse IPAC and Health and Safety program.
