The Compliance Divas Podcast
Our podcast covers current topics such as infection prevention and control, OSHA and HIPAA compliance for dentistry. We discuss the latest regulatory information, answer frequently asked questions and give suggestions for dental practices to make compliance easy and sustainable. The Compliance Divas are a trusted source for consistent, accurate information based upon current guidelines, standards, science, and recommendations.
The Compliance Divas Podcast
#164 OSAP/ADS 2024 Annual Conference Review
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For 40 years the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP) has been the global leader for the Safest Dental Visit. In this episode, the Divas share updates from the recent conference. And be sure to listen in for OSAP's big rebranding announcement!
Association for Dental Safety: https://www.osap.org/
Rebranding video: https://bit.ly/3yTYPfx
Welcome.
SPEAKER_02I'm Leslie Cannon. I'm Mary Gavoni.
SPEAKER_01I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Long, and together we are the Compliance Divas.
SPEAKER_03Welcome to the Compliance Divas podcast. This is Linda Harvey. I'll be serving as your moderator today. I'm very excited about this episode because three of our divas just returned from the annual OSAP conference. So hold on to that thought. As the Compliance Divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating the regulatory world to keep you on course. We invite you to subscribe to our podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecompliancedivas.com. Any resources that we mentioned today can be found in the show notes. And we invite you to submit your questions to support at thecompliancedivas.com. And don't forget to scroll down at the end of the podcast and leave us a review. Well, for 40 years now, the organization for safety, asepsis and prevention, fondly known as OSAP over the years, has been the global leader for the safest dental visits. They are the only dental membership association for oral health care professionals that focuses exclusively on dental infection prevention and patient and provider safety. Now OSAP has rebranded with a new name, a new look, and new logo. It is now the Association for Dental Safety. Quite a fitting update for this outstanding organization. In this episode, the Divas are going to share updates and key takeaways from the recent conference and discuss the rebranding. Leslie, I'd love to hear your thoughts and what courses of sessions you attended and what takeaways did you bring back?
SPEAKER_02Linda, I always come back with a brain that's full of information and full of uh great ways to understand infection control safety and regulatory compliance. I attended the pre-conference and the lecture focused on policies and procedures as building blocks, and it helped us understand what's a state or federal regulation, what's federal advisory, what is an accrediting body, what's an ANSI standard, what are best practices, and then where we go with manufacturers' instructions for use, as well as maybe a corporate or institutional policy or a facility policy. And many times I get asked the question, you know, well, why do we have to do that? Or where does it say that this is the law? And so now I have better clarity on how to explain that to people. And I would hopefully people would be able to understand the difference between uh what the various agencies are and whether they're regulations or whether they are recommendations. And it's very easy to find that information if you just simply go to the agency website. Now, I found out also that there's a difference between policies and procedures. And to sum it all up and tie a nice bow around it, policies are why you do something, and a procedure is how you do it. So this is something that's helpful for anyone who's trying to figure out, you know, why are we supposed to do that? And where does it say that? I also enjoyed a session on dental burrs. Again, I thought there's uh how are they going to fill an hour-long program all about just burrs? And I realize there's a lot that many times people don't know. Uh, there's sterile burrs, there's non-sterile burrs, and there's a way to maintain your packaging so that you know the difference between them rather than just opening up those packages when you get them and putting them in a tackle box. Uh, then there's also information about diamond burrs. And uh, I know there's a little bit of uh information debate on whether that's going to be disposable or reusable. I'll let uh that topic come up at a later time. Uh, and then I also found that there was difficulty for most people in understanding what the what the symbols are on a package of burrs. And just like there are symbols when you do your laundry and like don't iron or use hot water or wash separately, and I always have to look those symbols up. There are symbols for that describe the burr and and whether it's a singular use or whether how it should be processed, whether it's sterile or non-sterile, and various different other types of explanations about burrs that dental professionals need to know. And then uh finally, I enjoyed a uh standard operating procedure workshop, but I thought it would be very easy. And I thought, well, they're giving us an hour to create a standard operating procedure on the topic was water lines. And I was at a round table with uh six other people, uh consultants like myself, and then also uh people from industry that are actually in the water line product industry. And we thought, well, let's get this uh knocked out in five minutes and we'll visit for the other 45 or 55 minutes. When we got right down to it, it really took us a long time to come up with a step-by-step by step procedure on how to do this, a standard operating procedure. And we had it done uh maybe five minutes before the bell ring time was up, and we realized that we had forgotten several items. So, our uh overall summation of writing standard operating procedures for various different things you do in a dental office is that it takes a community, it takes several folks, not just one person, to sit down with a piece of paper and think of everything that you need to do. If you're the person who is the lead dental assistant, then uh engage your clinical assistants that might be uh maybe uh collecting the water sample. And then perhaps your front office person who may be responsible for calling for the mailing label, FedEx or UPS, and and then making sure it's on a time of the week or day that is uh is a doable time rather than a weekend or at the end of the day. So I brought away a lot from those simple three classes, and I got lots more than three takeaways that I'd love to share at a later date.
SPEAKER_03Leslie, those are amazing. Uh, you had so many insights. I would like just kind of comment on two of them. And one is the policies and the procedures. I love how you distinguish between what the policy and the procedure is because that's so important. And I my vision for dentistry, Leslie, when it comes to policies and procedures, is that one day we will get to the point where when there's confusion on a team about something, whatever that something is, and then maybe the exposure control plan or hazard communication or or even the infection control policies, that they will go to those policies and they say, let me see what the policy says. Because in working with medical clients, um, that's the first question that they have. What does our policy say? Because they should follow the policy. And I think that that's my vision that one day we'll get to that point in dentistry. And I loved what you said about SOPs. They can seem daunting at first when you're trying to set up, you know, the standard operating procedures, whether it's infection control or just even the procedures, you know, to onboard new dental assistants so they know how to better assist the doctors. Um, it takes a team effort. So I think that's a really important takeaway to know that we could take together we can all make a practice better. But thank you, Leslie. Mary, you attended some interesting programs, I'm sure. Please share with our listeners what you attended and what some of your takeaways were.
SPEAKER_00I did, Linda. Thank you. Um, one of the overreaching themes, I think, at the conference this year was dental unit water lines for a number of reasons. And I was um observing a table clinic that was presented by two OSAP members or two ADS members. I have to get OSAP out of my brain, um Monica Sataki and Kelly Timms. And they focused on SOPs like Leslie was just talking about, just for dental unit water lines. And what these two consultants have done is developed a whole array of SOPs for various types of waterline maintenance systems. So if you use, for example, the stereo sil straws, or if you're using uh liquid or a tablet that you add to your dental unit um water bottle, they have step-by-step SOPs already developed and they are making them complementary to anyone that requests them. So we hope to have Monica and Kelly on a future podcast where they can talk to us more about what they've done, but we'll also include them with their permission and in the resources for um this podcast because they are fabulous. And I totally agree, Leslie, with your observation that it takes the community, it takes the village, because one person can't think of all the steps in an SOP. There was another panelist um in this program, Dr. David Kirsten, who is part of the Washington State Dental Board who developed their dental unit water line standard for the state of Washington that is part of their dental rules and everyone must comply. And he, among other things, talked about um testing of water lines and water standards. And as most people know, the standard that the CDC wants us to comply with is less than 500 colony-forming units of heterotrophic bacteria per milliliter of water, which is the same as the safe drinking water standard. A number of years ago, the American Dental Association suggested a standard of 200 CFUs, and that's really what the products that are out there on the market are designed to meet, and they exceed that, meaning they take the CFU counts even lower than that. And what Dr. Kirchsen said just really struck me was just because you might be at 499, which would be a pass on a pass fail test, doesn't mean it's a good thing necessarily, especially since we have so many immune-compromised and immune-suppressed patients now in our patient population. So I thought that was really kind of an interesting observation. We did hear some updates of what's going on at the centers for disease control and prevention. But the one disappointment I think that most of us had was that we were hoping we'd get an announcement that the new version of the CDC guidelines for infection control and dental settings would be ready soon. But after talking with a couple of the um folks from the Division of Oral Health at the CDC, we're hearing that it's gonna still be a while. It may be until the end of this year before those are ready. Um, but they say that there's going to be some significant changes to those. So I would say to our listeners, stay tuned. We'll be sure to um do a podcast when that time comes.
SPEAKER_03Whoa, Mary, hold on to your hats with all that information. Thank you. Um updated CDC guidelines. We knew from those of us have gone to the meetings in the past that this was coming, but to know that it's getting closer and closer is great. And thank you for sharing all that information on the dental unit water lines. It seems like every year that is a hot topic at the ADS meeting. And you think every year, oh, we've learned everything we can't learn anymore. And every year they keep coming back with more and more information to really highlight the emphasis and the importance of safe water in a dental practice. Just recently I was doing a training for a group and and uh they hadn't been doing borderline, they've been putting some tablets in, but nothing else. And so I think people have a hard time, and by that I mean team members have a hard time understanding that just because you're using a good quality water in the water bottle, like distilled water, that's not all there is. So we're still um still trying to help teams, you know, become aware of all these areas and the details involved. Thank you, Mary. Olivia, I know that you also had the chance to present some programs. So we would love to hear about your experience and what nuggets that you brought back from the program.
SPEAKER_01Sure, Linda. It's always a pleasure to attend the conference. And you know, if you think about the content of the meetings, they're great. But visiting the exhibitors, the opportunity to network. So if any of our listeners have not attended an OSAP now known as ADS meeting, we encourage them. So you and I had a part in the risk assessments made simple and how to conduct an assessment. So for those of our listeners that are working for DSOs, this is of particular interest to them to assess risk. And even for those that work in smaller practices or solo practices, it's an important thing. So a takeaway for the listeners is to really understand that risk management process, which is the systematic process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating threats or uncertainties that can affect a dental practice. So you and I went through how to conduct that process, and we even use the example of using the CDC checklist, the infection control risk assessment, and basically go through the questions and the direct observations and then assign it, assign a risk to it. So at that point, when you're looking at all the no's, which would be incorrect responses, we would prioritize which uh areas that we would give our top attention. So, for example, maybe the cough etiquette poster is not displayed in the lobby, but that is not quite a crises as making sure that the sterilizer logs are up to date and that it's actually being conducted properly. And then we gave them examples on how to assign uh you know the likelihood, such as almost certain, likely, possible, and unlikely. So I think that was a good takeaway for our participants to learn how to do the risk assessment and how it benefits the organization. And then the other program that I presented was on the business of consulting. And this hopefully was of interest to those in attendance who are maybe working as a safety manager or safety director or anyone that's in the field that's interested in starting up their own consulting business. So we discussed different topics, such as how to choose the correct legal entity, business license insurance, such as errors and omissions, respecting copyrights, and then figuring out what services that you would want to offer and how your services are different than other people that basically do the same thing. And I think we're an example of that. We basically offer similar services, but we're all different in how we package those services or present them. And then we talked about avoiding different pitfalls, uh, such as you know, making sure you put back for self-employment taxes and growing your team as your consulting firm grows, then you bring on new team members. What does that look like? And then also the exit strategy when you get ready to retire. What would that exit strategy look like? So hopefully these programs were of interest to the participants. And as I mentioned, if our listeners have never been to the symposium or boot camp, definitely want to mark your calendars and attend with us. It looks like May 28th through the 31st for 2025, and it will be in Orlando for the next symposium. And then, of course, boot camp is in Atlanta. So hopefully we can have as many people to join us as possible.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, Olivia. Those are some really important topics that you presented, and I think our listeners should take the value. I hope they would take the value of conducting a risk assessment in their practice as a team, even, or it can be one person, whatever approach they choose. Let's get started on it because we want to be willing to look at the gaps, the holes, or possibly just opportunities for improvement in your practice or organization. And I think that's that's an important piece of always striving to improve and continuing to move forward with patient safety and quality care. Well, Diva's it sounds like it's certainly an exciting and informative annual conference. And even though we have a new look and name with the Association for Dental Safety, EDS will continue its mission of helping to operationalize dental infection control and safety related to laws, regulations, guidelines, standards, and best practices, everything that Leslie mentioned to ensure every dental visit is a safe visit. So, as Olivia mentioned, if you're not a member of this wonderful organization, we recommend that you check out all the terrific resources on the website. And for the time being, the website is still osap.org. And if you're a student, please be aware there's also a student membership. So we hope that you will mark your calendar for May 28th in Orlando, 2025, or January of 2025 for the boot camp in Atlanta. As the Compliance Divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating the regulatory world to keep you on course. Please subscribe to our podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecomplicedivas.com. Resources that we mentioned during the podcast can be found in the show notes. And as always, we invite you to submit questions to support at thecompliancedivas.com. And we also welcome you to scroll down at the end of the podcast today and leave us a review. We look forward to seeing you next time.