#111 OSAP 2023 Conference Recap

Staying current with new technology and products that enhance and/or improve infection control and patient safety is a must! In this episode, the Divas discuss the latest technology, research and products presented at the annual OSAP conference. This episode will have an immediate impact on infection control processes and safety in your office or organization.

• OSAP: https://www.osap.org/
• ArmiGard: https://armigardusa.com/
• NoPo Guard: https://nopoguard.com/
• CrystalGenics: https://crystalgenics.com

                                                 https://www.thecompliancedivas.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome. I'm Leslie Cannum. I'm Mary Gavoni.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Long, and together we are the Compliance Divas.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Welcome to the Compliance Divas Podcast. This is Linda Harvey, and I will be your moderator for this episode. I can promise you today that this episode will be very interesting. We have some latest updates on infection control. We have tips and ideas on new products, and we've got strategies and tips to share with you for infection control and your practice. We're very excited to present to you today a recap of the recent OSAP meeting. OSAP is the organization for safety, asepsis, and prevention. They were founded in 1984. So they've been around quite some time. And they are the only dental membership association for oral health care professionals. They focus on dental infection control as well as patient and provider safety. So let's lead off a cop topic today and talk about some tips and strategies that we learned. And as we do, we'd like to remind you that please subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecompliancedivas.com. Any resources we mentioned during our podcast can be found on our website, thecompliancedivas.com. And we always welcome your questions at support at the compliancedivas.com. And as the compliance divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating the regulatory compliance world to keep you on course. Leslie, I would love for you to kick off this episode and talk to us about some highlights of the pre-conference events that you attended.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Well, Linda, I'm so glad that I took the time to come to OSAP early for that pre-conference. They had six different sessions that were just phenomenal. Actually, there were speakers that have presented at OSAP in the past. And one of the speakers who did just a phenomenal job was Dr. Christine Lamar. And she did what was called an introduction to patient safety, which was a great way to kick off a OSAP conference. And one of the things that was outstanding for me was that sometimes errors do take place. And something simple, like maybe having two patients in the reception room with the same name. How do you verify? You know, do you ask the patient to verify their name? Do you ask them their date of birth? I know this happens uh when I go to get a prescription at the pharmacy, they verify my date of birth to make sure I'm the right person. And then also she mentioned speaking up if you noticed that perhaps the wrong procedure is about to be performed on a patient, sort of like a timeout that hospitals might have where they verify the patient, they verify the surgery, they verify uh, you know, is it the right knee or the left knee? And they actually mark on uh the knee if they're going to do a surgery. So the suggestion here was, for example, for a root canal to mark the tooth with a piece of articulating paper to make sure that they have the right tooth. So that was one that was uh very eye-opening to me about how accidents can happen and what kind of safety events do happen in uh dentistry. So there's death, wrong tooth, wrong sight, uh, wrong patient, aspiration of things like birds, crowns, or impression materials, burns, abrasions, there's the potential for eye injuries. And so that was a great session to refresh everyone on how to make sure that not only are we uh protecting our patients, but we're not feeling intimidated to speak up, that we should be empowered to speak up when we notice that something is wrong. Another one of my favorites was the good old if saliva were red video, which, as many of our listeners know, there was a redo in February of 2020. And we uh learned about how to accompany that video with some exercises. Karen Dawd did a great job of uh presenting the material and showing us in uh as presenters, as trainers, as infection control leaders, how to debrief your team after watching the video. And she reminded us something I didn't even think of in the past is not only as if saliva were red uh available in English, but it's also available in Spanish. And so here in California, we have uh a very large community of Spanish-speaking dental assistants. So this was good news. And then she uh reminded me of something else, which I knew, but it's good to bring it up, is that you can earn one hour of CE credit from OSAP by watching if saliva were red and taking the short assessment after watching the video. The video is very short, it's less than five minutes. That doesn't take very long, and that's a great way to get an additional CE credit. And I know many people are looking for that. There was also another program that I thought was very good, and that was about a program that is uh identifying what's wrong with this picture. And this was presented by Sylvia Garcia Hutchins. She showed various different bloopers in sterilization and disinfection. And I don't know about your audience, Linda, but my audience members love to see pictures of something that was done incorrectly, and they love to see you know pictures of how to do it the right way. So she had a whole hour of different pro uh pictures of different things that were wrong in dentistry. And so I enjoyed seeing that and refreshing my memory of things that we sometimes do wrong. Another thing that really stuck with me was about maybe um unwrapping burrs and storing them in those little cute little like uh fishing tackle boxes or those jewelry boxes. And um, something that was brought up during the pre-conference is that uh how do we know if those burrs are single use, if they're sterile burrs, or if they're birds that need to be sterilized? And once you take those out of the bubble wrap and put them into those very cool little containers and label what's in each drawer, you don't really know. So that's something I think that our listeners may want to be aware of as they go forward and uh in setting up their sterilization area and their supplies, and especially on birds.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Leslie, those are some great tips and information that you just shared. That pre-conference day certainly was very content-rich with six different sessions. And I wanted to share with you that program with Dr. Lamar really has my heart because as a risk manager, and I've been a risk manager for over 20 years, I remember full well in the early 2000s when the medical errors crisis hit and all that information came out about patient safety and marking surgical sites and so forth. So that really resonates with me. I love the saliva we're red video. Um we have put that in all of our training programs now. It's a must-see, and it's a great training tool for new team members, especially if they don't have any dental experience. And it's a good refresher for everyone else, especially when it you think about cross-contamination and a dental practice. And then um those blooper pictures, we love those too, Leslie, in our training programs. I think many offices think this will never happen to me, or this can never happen in my office, but it does happen. And you never know when something like that could happen in your practice. So those were all great. Thank you so much. Well, now I'd like to introduce a topic that we all thoroughly enjoyed as the entire conference attendees as well as the divas, because one of our divas, Olivia, participated in a mock trial that related to delegated waterline lawsuits. So, Olivia, what can you share with our audience, please?

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Well, for one, Linda, I think everyone enjoyed having a different learning method. So rather than just listening to a standard lecture, we simulated facts from actual lawsuits in the mock trial. And so myself and attorney Ed Zinnman uh tried to provide the audience a view of what would happen. And what was so interesting about the mock trial is that the audience attendees were the jury. So they were able to uh make up their mind based on what they saw to allocate the percentage of fault. So in the mock trial, I represented the dentist who had been sued uh for malpractice due to causing injury to a pediatric patient. Sound familiar? And then she cross-sued the dental unit manufacturer, which in this scenario we called acme. Uh, and in this fact pattern, acme, the dental unit, did not have very clear instructions on water disinfecting and monitoring. So, with vague instructions that left itself wide open for error. And in the mock trial, the Doug Risk, who played the part, uh, did not have a lot of knowledge. And he was playing the part of a mechanical engineer and was very defensive, but didn't follow all of CDC, FDA, and OSAP guidelines. And what I thought was interesting in dealing with the plaintiff is that there were no exact instructions or checklists from the state she practiced in. And these are once again based on true facts that the state's dental board did not have specific instructions about uh waterline quality or frequency, frequency of monitoring. And then the dental unit waterline disinfectant company, which was Bugs Begun, was brought in. And the the dentist said that you know, this is what she had purchased and what she had been using, and that was kind of like the surprise in the mock trial, is because she selected the product, they were using it, and we bring in there's a surprise witness brought in, which I tried to object to, and that was Eve Cuny, and she pointed out that when we when she looked at the invoices, they were not ordering an adequate supply of waterline disinfectant that would correspond with their instructions for use, which by the way had been changed, and so they had updated their IFUs, and so I tried to object saying that you know it wasn't uh it wasn't pointed, it wasn't the directions, you know, fell into junk email, but their IFUs had changed, and according to the invoice, they were not ordering an adequate supply. And so obviously, uh attorney Ed Zinnman ran with this, which was very incriminating to my client. And uh so it ends up that they allocated most of the fault to the dentist. But I think a good takeaway for our listeners is that when someone is injured, whether that's malpractice or any lawsuit, the plaintiff is going to sue whoever they can. They will name as many parties to the lawsuit as there are deep pockets to get to. And in some of these cases, it's bifurcated, like what we saw in the mock trial, or it is um separately sued or cross-sued, like we saw in the mock trial. But this is a really serious topic. And as trainers and consultants and clinicians and those that work in practices, that was our point to show how serious this is. We cannot be vague in our instructions, we cannot say, well, I didn't know. We have to be educated, we have to provide clear instructions and protocols to avoid injuring someone, heaven forbid, such as a child in these scenarios, and to be in compliance. And I think the mock trial did what we intended it to do. And it was really funny, Linda, because even after the mock trial was over, people were coming up to me and talking about the characters as if they were real, because they resonated, the characters resonated with the audience, and they were asking me questions well, what if the dentist had done this or what if acme had done that? So I think that the audience related really well to the story and how the story unfolded and how the jury came up with a verdict.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Olivia, as a member of the audience, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was doing the same thing. And as a risk manager, I'm sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, I need to tell offices to document this. Oh my gosh, I need to tell offices to document that. And we always think we're thorough enough because when is enough enough? Right? Because enough is not enough when you end up in a lawsuit. You always wish you had more documentation. But the learning format was fun. I think it was different, engaging, very much so, especially with the twists and turns that were written into the program. And it just created an awareness, I think, in all of us that attended about details that we can't take for granted and we cannot assume something is being done. So we trust our teams, but we cannot assume things are being done. So wonderful recap. Thank you so much. Mary, one thing I haven't mentioned yet is the fact that the divas all had the honor of co-presenting a program at OSAP. And it was our first program that we've presented together. So I'd like you to share with our listeners what that was all about, please.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Thanks, Linda. And may I just say, Olivia, you and your um co-presenters in that mock trial just did a phenomenal job. And I know at the end the doctor um shared that she's going to appeal. I lobbied everyone at the meeting to make the appeal um presentation next year because I think that will be fascinating. So the Divas, as Linda said, had the honor of presenting a workshop at the OSAP meeting. And our workshop was on N95, a respirator fit testing. And even though the pandemic is over and many people have gone back to wearing their level three masks instead of N95 respirators, we still believe that N95 is the best protection that we can have for air cell generating procedures. And COVID has not gone away. It's still there, it's still mutating. And in light of that, we believed that there was a need for helping people to better understand the fit testing process. So we had uh kind of a varied audience. About half the people who came were already performing fit tests, but they wanted to sort of up their game. And in fact, one of the participants shared with me that at the facility that they worked at, they were using a smoke test for an N95 fit test, which is not an appropriate one to be used in a healthcare setting. And we explained during the program um that the best solution to use or best mechanism to use for fit testing is actually the Bittrex or Bitter solution that you can purchase with a fit test kit. So we explained what the fit test kit components are and actually did some hands-on um fit testing with um our audience members, and we also learned some tips from our audience members as well, such as um when you um use your nebulizer to insert the solution into the fit testing hood, that you sort of push the nebulizer nozzle to the side rather than um injecting it or or inserting it directly at the test person's face, um, and that you um put the solution in on both sides of the face so that you get a better distribution of the solution and get a better result. So it was a really interesting um exercise, I think, that that we were able to go through and hopefully help some of the participants to be better at or at least understand what a fit test is about. Because remember, during the pandemic, there was so much misunderstanding about fit testing that you that OSHA, it was said that OSHA said you didn't have to do it, but you do, um, especially initially, and you have to have a medical evaluation, and again, that documentation um that somebody actually can wear an uh respirator N95 or higher respirator, and how we track that, and that OSHA still requires or requires again annual um fit testing because things can change. Um people gain and lose weight, they may um have now some facial hair, or um, there's other um things. Maybe they had some dentistry done that changes the contour of their face, those types of things. So, all in all, I think it was very, very well received and it was a fun exercise for us to do um to be able to show how to best um prepare people for wearing N95 respirators.

SPEAKER_03 18:21

Olivia, you have something you'd like to add to this?

SPEAKER_02 18:24

I just wanted to mention that it was such an honor to have people from Brazil in our program. Uh, so it was really a neat experience. And even though there was a language barrier with one of the attendees, it was so fun to see the smiles on their faces and how much they enjoyed it. And uh what a great experience to be with you all.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

And it was, we can all echo that. And I think one thing I forgot to mention in the very beginning when I was just discussing who OSAP is this is an international conference. There were folks and vendors from Ireland, and I know that uh Canada and then Brazil, at least the three countries that I was aware of. So it's it's just very multicultural, very international, and it's a great, great organization to be part of. So we recommend membership if your office is not already a member of OSAP. I'd like to share a couple of highlights from David Resnick's uh program that he did on emerging um diseases. And I think it's important to stay kind of just abreast of these trends in our practices, not to be alarmist, but just to keep an idea what's going on in our community just really helps us to stay current with things that are happening. Because I was one of those people, and I will admit this now, that I never thought COVID was going to be this global pandemic that we saw and that we would live under an emergency health, um, public health emergency for three years. So that being said, I'm not anticipating that and I'm not predicting another one, but I want to share a couple of um uh tips for our listeners. So Dr. Resnick, two things that he presented that really resonated with me were emerging fungal infections. Currently, the CDC is concerned about Candida Ouris for a couple of reasons. One, it is often a multidrug resistant um bug, and it is sometimes resistant to all three of the antifungal treatments. So that's pretty concerning anytime we learn about any kind of uh bacteria, fungus, anything that's um multidrug resistant. That's always very concerning. And it's also concerning because uh this bug, this fungus, can persist on healthcare environment surfaces and it can persist on equipment such as blood pressure cuffs. So it brings to mind the importance of uh cleaning and disinfecting our operatories properly and being sure we follow the proper infection control or pardon me, the instructions for use by the manufacturers, because all of us, divas, every time we go into an office, we see many times the staff are all doing uh this differently. They're all cleaning and wiping and spraying differently, and they're not following the proper protocols. And second, Dr. Resnick talked about the uh current uh COVID Omicron sub-variant, XBB 0.1.16 because the there's an increase in transmissibility with this variant, uh, but it's not more dangerous, so that's the good news. But it does cause conjunctivitis. So just keeping aware of just some of the subtle things that are changing because we know now with the end of the public health emergency, as we uh talked about in one of just our recent podcasts that divas talked about the fact that the COVID data tracker is no longer available. So as a result of that, you have to go to your state health department and your county health department websites to just keep track of what's happening in your community. So that being said, I would love for us, divas, to just do a round robin and talk about what what new product or technology really, you know, hit your hotspot while we were while we were there. Um and so, Olivia, let's start with you. What what did you see that you really liked?

SPEAKER_02 21:48

There were so many of them, but for the sake of time, I'll just pick a few. But absolutely love the NOPO guard and learning about it and how we can incorporate it into safety device events. Evaluations and include in our programs. Also, love the air water syringe with Crystal Genics. I think that's probably something that needs to be the standard. And also meeting the friends from Ireland with Steriloo, I think that's how you pronounce it. And with the different products that they offer to hold the burrs was really neat. And also the lip and cheek retractors, how they're designed to be more comfortable in the mouth. So, you know, it's really an opportunity to learn from these vendors and pick up on what's new and what we can recommend for our clients as they look to us on guidance to make things more safe and more efficient.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Thank you, Olivia. And we'll be having links to those different products in our show notes. So if you're wondering what Nopo Guard is, it's the I was I don't want to call it the latest greatest, but it certainly is a practical, it's the latest, greatest practical safe needle device that's on the market. And I think you'll enjoy trying that for our listeners. Leslie, what hits your hot button?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

You know, one of the speakers really compelled me on the last day, MJ, on June 3rd, Saturday, there was a program on implementing antibiotic stewardship in dentistry. And since I am not currently working in a dental office, I'm not uh involved in prescribing or in part of the process of screening patients, I really wasn't actually tuned in, but the speaker was so compelling. Within five minutes, she drew me in. And I got such a sense of how over-prescribing antibiotics is taking place and how in dentistry the contributing to that uh maybe that antibiotic resistance that we may be developing by over-prescribing for uh maybe unnecessary, unnecessarily prescribing or prescribing for too long a period of time. So I just have to say that Erin Kennedy did such a phenomenal ball out of the park type of job with this lecture to make something that I wasn't really particularly interested in for myself, for my own edification, that she drew me in and made the topic extremely interesting.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

No, we always love to hear that a speaker is able to do that because just it just enhances the learning. So thank you for sharing. Mary, what was your topic uh or technology or that you came away with from this or new product that you came away with?

SPEAKER_01 24:39

The one new product that I'm really excited about is a new 24-hour waterline test from the Hugh Freedie group. And it is a pass fail. So it's again, you get results in 24 hours, and you know whether you passed or you failed, and then you know what you need to do to follow up on that. But I also was very excited um also in David Resnick's presentation, um, the announcement of not one but two FDA approvals of vaccines for RSV or respiratory sensitial virus, um, because we've seen a huge number of cases this past winter where normally the RSV virus is is simply in, or not simply, but uh occurs most commonly among children. Um and there were a number of hospitalizations and even some deaths in children this year from RSV, but anyone can get RSV, and older adults are susceptible as well. So the FTA approvals, if I understood this correctly, are now for um administration to older adults. So we'll no doubt see down the road the approval in um of the vaccines for children, but that's exciting news because um that's a very serious um respiratory virus.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

Great points, Mary. I agree with both of those. And that so as you can see, and speaking to our listeners and just having you all think about what we were able to take away from OSAP, I hope that you all will consider joining this organization if you're not and putting next year's uh biannual conference on your radar. Go to osap.org for more information on those. Before we close out, I'd like to mention a product that really hit me and that I've been using since I came home, and it's the ArmorGuard, A-R-M-I-G-A-R-D ArmorGuard by Armist. And this is a it's a quick, it says disinfectant cleaner, uh, disinfectant and cleaner for all of our dental appliances. So if you wear a Snorguard, you have aligners, mouth guards, uh, TMJ devices, anything, you're able to use this product and it's safe and effective, and it kills a lot more organisms than anything else. And we're always worried about that in the dental practice because how are we cleaning and disinfecting patient appliances, dentures, and partials when they come in? And this is a great option. And then I'd also like to mention that we have our own fit test video that's available on our website. So if you go to the compliancedevas.com and go to the shop page, you'll be able to find our program there. And we look if you're doing fit testing, whether it's voluntary or mandatory in your office, this is a great tool that you'll have. And we will put a discount code into the show notes for you for this session. And that wraps up this episode of the Compliance Divas podcast. We bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating the regulatory world to keep you on course. We invite you to subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecompliancedevas.com. All the resources that we've mentioned during this podcast can be found on our website, thecompliancedevas.com, as well as in the show notes. And as always, please feel free to submit your questions to the compliant to support at thecompliancedevas.com. And we look forward to seeing you next time.