All dental professionals are required to report suspected signs of abuse and neglect in patients, which is often referred to as “mandatory reporting”, and to be trained on the reporting requirements. To help ensure that dental professionals are properly trained, the American…
Proper hand hygiene is considered to be the single most important measure for preventing pathogen transmission in healthcare settings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year nearly 2 million patients in the US acquire an infection…
In July 2017, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) new ruletook effect which requires dental offices to reduce the discharge of mercury and other metals from dental offices down the sewer drain to publically owned treatment works (POTWs). One of the…
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) exempts dentistry, as a low-risk industry (NAICS Code – 6212), from maintaining the OSHA Form 300 Log and posting the OSHA Form 300A Summary. Businesses with more than 10 employees in a…
Under Senate Bill 1109 which takes effect January 2019, with a few exceptions, a healthcare provider is now required to discuss the following information with the minor, the minor’s parent or guardian, or other adult authorized to consent to the…
On September 30, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill (SB) 1343 into law, which expands the requirement to provide mandatory sexual harassment prevention training from California businesses with 50 or more employees to those with five or more employees.…
Cotton “4x4” gauze in containers should never be saturated with disinfectant and left to soak in the disinfectant. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cotton gauze materials that have been saturated with disinfectant solution for an…
On August 9th, the American Dental Association (ADA) will hold a free webinar “HIPAA Security Risk Analysis” for dental practices from 2:00-3:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time. Specifically, the webinar will review compliance with the requirement to conduct a security risk…
The new Proposition 65 requirements take effect on August 30, 2018, which will require California dental offices with ten or more employees to modify their Proposition 65 warning(s) to patients. Currently under Proposition 65, California dentists with ten or more…
According to U.S. News and World Report, in April 2018, a dental receptionist was sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison for stealing over 600 patients’ protected health information (PHI). The woman stole patients’ names, addresses, dates of birth,…
