April 8, 2013
Dear Partner,
We have all heard the troubling news of the March 28th investigation over the alleged risky infection control practices of a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based oral surgery office. Infection control is part of the national conversation now.
Developing a deeper understanding of federal and local compliance as well as what aspects of infection control guidelines are most relevant to dentistry is a key part of addressing the concerns arising from this situation.
In keeping with our role as your infection control specialist, we offer a continuing education program teaching IC best practices. These seminars are conducted throughout the country with new dates and locations added as requested. (Please see the attached PDF for more information.)
To help you and your team answer questions about this developing case, we are including in this letter a link to the complete STATEMENT OF COMPLAINT document from the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry, as well as a summary of the allegations. They are as follows:
-Assistants unlicensed to conduct such duties were performing IV sedation and determining amounts of drugs to be administered.
-Drug logs were not maintained nor was there a daily count of scheduled drugs.
-The drug cabinet was unlocked and unsupervised.
-Multiple drug vials (scheduled and legend) were expired.
-Open drug trays were kept and multi-dose vials of controlled and legend drugs were used on multiple patients.
-The staff transported instruments and drugs to a second office where the doctor did not have a DEA permit.
-The doctor’s drug licenses were not on display and no dental assistant permits were found except for one expanded duty permit for radiation safety.
-Due to the high population of infectious disease carrier clients, two sets of instruments were kept. One for known carriers and one for non-carriers. Each set of instruments was cleaned in a different manner. (Carrier client instruments were dipped in bleach along with other cleaning methods.)
-Red-brown spots made some instruments appear to be rusted. CDC has determined that rusted instruments are porous and cannot be properly sterilized.
-The sterilizer was not being used properly as no monthly test was performed and sent to a lab to determine that it was successfully sterilizing instruments. According to records, no such test had been done in the last six years.
-No autoclave bags were used; instead, instruments were wrapped in cloth and secured by autoclave tape.
-No written infection control policies were available or used by staff.
As you are likely to be deluged with requests for more information regarding proper IC protocol, do not hesitate to contact your local SciCan representative. Our team members regularly attend infection control education sessions and possess the knowledge and expertise to perform on-site IC reviews and recommend more efficient and compliant options for dental practitioners.
To further educate your staff on the matter, please consider hosting one of our infection control seminars. These are conducted by nationally-recognized speakers who are trained on the latest State and National IC protocols, and are offered throughout the country, underwritten by SciCan.
For more ideas on addressing this issue with clients, please review the press release from OSAP on this subject. Should there be any further questions, please contact your local SciCan representative for advice or to learn when the next infection control seminar is scheduled for your area.