Treatment, team communication, adverse events, complaints

In detail

Criteria 3 to 6 of process quality § 6 QSV.

3. Dental treatment

Current scientific knowledge from training and further training feeds into daily practice. Working with dentists of other specialities, other health professions and dental technicians is part of patient care § 6 no. 3 QSV.

4. Internal communication

Staff meetings make sure everyone knows the practice's aims. Feedback to the dentist is possible and encouraged. Staff are instructed continuously or at regular intervals § 6 no. 4 QSV. A short note of each meeting is the simplest proof.

5. Adverse events and patient safety

An adverse event is an unintended harmful occurrence in connection with treatment, avoidable or not § 3 no. 14 QSV. For these § 6 no. 5 QSV:

• discuss them with everyone involved and document them, look for the cause, and where possible take measures to prevent a repeat;
• report side effects of medicines to the Federal Office for Safety in Health Care;
• if a medical device was the cause, meet the reporting duties of the Medical Devices Act 2021;
• inform the harmed patient of what happened, with proof, after checking with the liability insurer, in the sense of § 41(4) ZÄG.

6. Complaint management

A procedure for complaints is in place. For a patient complaint it includes telling the patient about the regional dental chamber's patient arbitration body and the patient advocate § 6 no. 6 QSV.

This means complaints about the practice, not dental complaints. In the last cycle this was the question with the most misunderstandings: a rule like "complaints always go straight to the practice management" was often not recognised as a set procedure, and "Beschwerden" was often read as dental complaints (quality report 2017–2021). More than three arbitration cases a year are, by the way, cause for a practice visit § 9(2) QSV.