By Alex Hamilton
Have you just finished your studies and are looking to start your long career as a dentist?
There is a lot involved in becoming a dentist, including a long list of guidelines you’ll be required to follow to protect your career. No matter what your specialization, you should spend ample time researching these guidelines and understanding what is required of you as a dentist before practicing. Some of the most important considerations include:
→ Patient Confidentiality
As you’d be well aware, patient confidentiality is one of the most important factors to be mindful of when working anywhere in the medical industry. Medical professionals and dentists have an ethical, professional and legal duty to keep client information confidential and private. This includes ensuring that appropriate steps and processes have been put in place to keep this information safe. HIPAA guidelines are broad, and are designed to help you protect your patients’ vital, personal data.
Not only is patient confidentiality an important legal aspect of your career, it’s also a strong moral issue that will help you to create and retain a bond of trust with your clients. All practices and medical professionals should familiarize themselves with the laws that apply in their specific area.
→ Medical Note Keeping
When working in the medical profession, you’ll likely be keeping notes on your clients or patients as a way to record their history and aid your memory at any given time. When writing such notes, it’s important to remember that in most circumstances these notes must be provided to the patient should they request them.
A good standard to follow when writing confidential patient notes can be found in section 8.4 of the Good medical practice: a code of conduct document.
→ Securing Confidential Patient Information
As a dentist, you will be collecting confidential information about your clients on a regular basis. It’s important that all information stays confidential to ensure that your patients’ privacy rights are being met. This includes ensuring that all paper documents are safeguarded and online security measures have been implemented to protect your database. Many times, paper documents are overlooked as the focus of security is on the network itself. If you do have paper charts, you’ll want to make sure that they are locked down at night and need a key to retrieve.
In terms of your electronic data, even with the most secure database information is still vulnerable to serious cyber attacks and ransomware attacks. One way to protect you and / or your business is to invest in adequate cyber-crime insurance, thereby reducing the financial hardships that could impact you or your business. Additionally, it’s important to get a consultation from an expert in the IT security field to ensure that all of the proper protocols for secure networking are in place.
→ Medical Insurance
One of the best ways to protect you throughout your career as a dentist is to take out adequate medical insurance. Claims made against medical practices and professionals stemming from negligence, defamation etc. can be career-crippling without the appropriate cover. Finding the right policy takes comprehensive research and a thorough understanding of what you require as a medical practitioner.
The two most common insurance policies all medical practitioners should invest in include medical indemnity insurance and medical malpractice insurance. There are a host of other insurance types that you’ll need in your policy as well. So, what is the difference between all of these policies, and what do they provide cover for?
→ Malpractice, Disability, Indemnity and Life Insurance
If you are a dentist or a medical practitioner, you’ll likely require these important types of insurance. These provide cover for you as a medical professional in the event of a claim being made against you. Additionally, medical indemnity insurance is one of the most vital insurance policies for businesses that provide advisory services, such as a medical or dental business.
- Medical indemnity insurance usually provides cover for:
- Costs arising from defending a claim
- Training costs
- Compensation costs
If you run your own medical establishment then you will also require medical malpractice insurance. This type of insurance provides cover for your medical practice and employees in the event of a client taking out a claim against your business.
In order to find the right claim for your business, it might be worth speaking to medical malpractice insurance brokers. Brokers will work with you to understand your business before finding the right insurance policy which adequately covers your business.
- Medical malpractice insurance usually provides cover for:
- Defamation costs
- Medical breach of duty
- Loss of documents
*Please Note: Every insurance policy provider will have a range of unique inclusions and exclusions in their policy. Before selecting the right insurance policy for your circumstances carefully read through the policy documents.
About the Author
This article is written by Alex Hamilton, who recommends Professional Essentials – professional brokers specializing in insurance for the medical industry. You can catch Alex on Google+.