CDA Essentials 2015 • Volume 2 • Issue 5

Volume 2 Issue 5

ssues and

eople

New initiatives within the Dental Services at Canadian Forces Health Services Group have the potential to

improve patient outcomes

CHANGINGTHECULTURE

PATIENT SAFETY INDENTISTRY

(L. to r.): Shoba Ranganathan, Chief Quality and Patient Safety

Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group (CFHSG) and

Lieutenant Colonel (Dr.) Brenda Joy, Directorate of Dental

Services, CFHSG.

Very rarely is an error deliberate or

the result of incompetence. Usually,

an error occurs because of a system

failure or process breakdown.

– Shoba Ranganathan

or all health care professionals, a pri-

mary goal is the delivery of safe care

to produce better patient outcomes.

But ensuring patient safety requires

knowledge of the risks—an area that

has not been well studied in dentistry. At

the Canadian Forces Health Services Group

(CFHSG), new initiatives promise to shed

some light on patient safety in dentistry,

starting with military dental clinics.

The Knowledge Gap

Much of the research to date on patient

safety focuses on medicine and, in particular,

patients seen in acute care hospital

settings where it’s easier to track errors and

their potential impacts. In comparison, a

systematic approach to patient safety in

dentistry and other forms of health care

provided in ambulatory care settings has

been limited.

However, strategies and initiatives to

enhance patient safety in these sectors

are becoming more common, says Shoba

Ranganathan, Chief Quality and Patient

Safety Officer within the CFHSG. “For several

years, I worked as a quality improvement

manager in the Canadian Armed Forces

medical clinics,” she says. “When I was given

the opportunity to manage the program

for the entire CFHSG, involving the dental

services was a new and exciting component.

The dental personnel were very interested

and willing to engage in the patient safety

program, knowing the impact it could have

on their patients.”

As for why dentistry lags behind medicine

in its approach to patient safety, Lieutenant

Colonel (Dr.) Brenda Joy, from the Directorate

of Dental Services within the CFHSG,

adds, “The medical world has also had

accreditation activities push the patient

safety agenda. Formal accreditation of dental

clinics is a newer concept, so directing

efforts to develop a strong organizational

culture of patient safety is not something

that is as apparent within the greater dental

community.”

Ms. Ranganathan stresses the importance

of understanding patient safety from a

dentistry-specific perspective. “In outpatient-

type health care settings, patient safety

incidents that occur are different than in

acute care settings; many of them centre on

communication and documentation errors,”