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Dental compliance is an important factor for a successful dental practice. Every employee should understand the importance of maintaining compliance in the office. It is important that the office maintains documentation standards, review HIPAA regulations, and consider labor laws on a regular basis.

Let’s see three tips for improving dental compliance:

• Assign a compliance officer
• Integrate compliance software
• Don’t forget patient compliance

Assign compliance officer

Everyone in the office will not have time to become an expert in all areas of compliance. It is more effective to assign a compliance officer within the office to take care of compliance requirements. Other than their primary job functions, this person is responsible for maintaining documentation, training new employees, and holding an annual meeting to train current employees. In small dental practice, it is only necessary for one person to hold this role. In a larger practice it is good to assign to several team members to form a group for compliance. The compliance officer(s) should have excellent documentation skills, organizational skills and communications.

Integrate leading compliance software

There is a variety of software that can help maintain compliance. Integrating the right compliance software can make the task easier. Not having compliance in place can lead to a huge penalty. It is better to be proactive than being reactive when it comes to compliance. A simple lack of awareness can lead to financial loss and can affect the reputation of your dental practice.

Give priority to patient compliance

Patient compliance is often forgotten, and patient compliance is very challenging for dental practices. Usually, an appointment would end with a practice advising treatment at the end of their session, then the patient leaves the office until the next appointment. The next time that same patient comes in, they have already forgotten the advice given during the last appointment. Dental practices have the responsibility to advocate good oral health, and the need to encourage positive behavior is very important now. Now how can we improve patient compliance?

Reminders: Routine check-up is termed as a patient reminder. Instead of sending as just appointment reminder, you can send the patient tips about good health which educates them about the importance of routine checks.

Re-iterate with data: It is difficult for the patients to understand the dental terminology. You can use visuals and models to help them to understand better.

Keep it simple: Don’t overload with too much information that the patient may not understand.

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