News

Clinical Audits: why they are important!

Every dental practice needs to continuously review its professional standards and performance in the light of the General Dental Council’s statement “Standards for the Dental Team”.
The only way to ensure that standards are maintained is to undertake regular clinical audits into each area of the practice. The starting point is to establish what “current best practice”
is in each area in which the practice operates. The next step is to design an audit programme to compare the practice’s performance against “current best practice”and to delegate this task
to a member of the dental team who has the necessary skills and experience to carry out the audit tests and to summarise the results. Management should then review the results and decide
on how best to implement the improvements required. Further clinical audits in this area of the practice should then be designed to assess whether the improvements have been successfully
implemented. The process should be ongoing and not a “one off”.