STANDARD 5: Patient Safety System

5.1 General

1.The dental organization shall promote and ensure an environment and culture of patient and staff safety. It shall have a specific risk-based process for identifying and detecting the prevalence and severity of incidents that impact safety, including: 

a) defined processes to reduce risk; 

b) dental management review and response to patient adverse events, or "near misses"; 

c) implementation of action plans including corrections and corrective actions based on b) above; 

d) a procedure to inform patients and/or their families of adverse events in keeping with standard b) above, and the ethical principles described in standard0.

NOTE 1 AACI has established a universal patient safety program pertinent to dental facilities. Key indicators for monitoring and measuring will be established by AACI on an annual basis. Please see the link https:// aacihealthcare.com/patient-safety-goals-2020-2022/

2. The dental organization shall set priorities and review them for performance improvement in selected areas of patient safety referred but not limited to the requirement of section.

3. Resulting output from the above review shall be monitored and measured to ensure its intended purpose.

5.2 Performance Improvement.

1. The dental organization shall set priorities for performance improvement in selected areas of patient safety (see section 4.1.2.).

2. Output from the above review shall be monitored and measured to ensure attainment of its intended goal.

5.3 Opioid Oversight.

The dental organization shall establish guidelines to facilitate safe care of patients receiving opioid treatment. These shall include prescribing practices for pain control to maximize patient safety and satisfaction.

NOTE 1 If oral surgery with sedation or anesthesia is contemplated, please see the foreword to this standard.