Dental surgery Essays

Dental surgery Essays Dental surgery Essay Dental surgery Essay Unit 304 Participating through team leading Wealth the dental practice I am going to change the current external referral process for patients. The patient referral process Is for the necessary referring of patients to the local PACT for dental work that may be too complex for the GAP or for patients that are too afraid to accept dental treatment within the general dental surgery and require a form of sedation. Currently the referral process requires that the GAP writes all the necessary details, Including patients personal details and the treatment they require on the relevant form provided by the PACT and any relevant radiography re included. Once the form is fully completed it is then posted to the local PACT who will triage the referral to the appropriate department. I feel this process is currently very time consuming, costly to the practice with postage charges, referrals run the risk of getting lost In the post and once any radiography are sent with a referral the dental practice no longer has a copy. I am going to change the referral process so that all referrals will be sent online Vela a secure software program provided by the PACT. His will also allow all radiography to be scanned onto the computer and sent with the online referral ensuring that the Dental practice always retains the original radiography. I feel that this will be beneficial to the dental practice as it will be less time consuming the GAP, will ensure that no referrals are lost in the post and ensures a copy of any radiography are retained in practice. It will also be more efficient for the patient as once a referral is sent online it is received Immediately by the triage centre and patients will receive an appointment In a matter of weeks rather than months. I will trial this new referral system for one month, after which I will gather feedback from colleagues regarding their experience with the system and find out their pinion. I will also look at how the system could be further amended and whether it is more efficient than the original process and with the help of my colleagues will make a decision on whether we keep the new system or revert back to the old system. To begin implementing the new referral system I will follow these steps: 1 . Priorities any necessary changes in order of relation to each other to ensure a seamless change over to the new system 2. Apply to the local PACT for a radiography scanner 3. Set up the secure software program to send referrals Vela 4. Learn how to use the new software 5. Plan a meeting (minutes of which to be recorded) with team members to explain ensure each surgery does their own referrals. Once the new system is up and running, my role will be to communicate any changes to the system to my colleagues and encourage them all to send referrals via this new system. I will continue to monitor the referral system and ensure referrals are being triage and accepted correctly and that any rejected referrals are followed up by the relevant dentist. For any external support that I require with the system I will contact the Dental Referral Centre and ensure any support and advice is communicated with y colleagues when necessary. Minutes of Meeting Tradeoff Dental Centre Staff Meeting 08 May 2014 Meeting called to order at 1. 15 pm by meeting chair Lauren Newton. Staff present: Chair Lauren Newton Practice Manager Donna James Head Nurse Charlotte Moss Nurse Charlotte Carter GAP loan Mariners GAP Monika Millionaire GAP Sanitations Lentos Receptionist Sara Abbott Staff not present: GAP Georgia Slovakia (pre-arranged) Reason for Meeting To Introduce the new external referral system Items to be discussed How system will work and how it can be accessed Demonstration of how to log onto the system and how to complete a test form All Taft phone numbers to be collected for access to new system Staff agree to trial new referral system for one month Action Required All staff to start using the new referral system immediately Completion Date 08 June 2014 After the one month trial of the new referral system, I handed out questionnaires and held a feedback session with my colleagues to gather feedback and hear their opinions. Items discussed were the effectiveness of the new system compared to the old system and the financial savings to the practice. Staff felt that the new system provided a more efficient process as it was quicker and patients had a faster espouse compared to the previous system. Dentists were also happier with the fact they retained the original radiography. It was noted however that only one person could log in to the system at any one time and this meant having to wait for that person to log of before being able to send and check referrals. Identifying this issue meant we could provide feedback to the dental referral centre and since this an amendment has been made. As a practice we have chosen to keep the new referral system as we feel it offers more benefits to the practice and patients than the previous system and it has rover to be more efficient and cost effective to the practice. I believe this task was run successfully and has greatly improved teamwork within the practice. Feedback Questionnaire 1 . Do you feel the new referral system was implemented well? Yes Comments No 2. Were you satisfied with the training received to use the new system? 3. Do you feel the new system is more efficient and less time consuming? 4. Are your patients experiencing a faster response from their referral? 5. After the initial one month trial period, did you feel it was better to keep the new system rather than reverting back to the previous? Other comments