Clinical governance

Every clinician’s privileges are recorded by type: document, prescribe, review or study investigator. Each privilege carries the license number, the issuing authority, the verification evidence and the dates it is effective from and to. A privilege is pending until the clinical governance administrator has checked the evidence and verified it; it can later be suspended or expire. The practice can review the recorded verification and effective dates for each prescribing privilege.

Care-team assignments record which dentist is assigned to which patient, for what purpose and over which dates. An assignment is active while it applies and ended when it no longer does. When a visiting specialist joins a patient’s treatment for a course of root-canal work, the assignment says so and ends when the course does.

Review the recorded privilege period and care assignment together before scheduling the clinician for a patient.

The clinical governance administrator owns privileges and assignments; clinicians and reviewers read them.

• Verified on evidence. License, authority and evidence are checked before verification.
• Dated assignments. Each assignment has a purpose and effective dates.
• History kept. Review suspended, expired and ended states in the record.

List the privilege types each role needs and the evidence you accept for each. Agree how far ahead of expiry a renewal starts and who chases it. Agree the access purposes for care-team assignments and who may end one. Decide how a suspension is recorded and communicated. Prepare examples of a newly verified dentist, a privilege about to expire and a visiting specialist assigned for one course of treatment.

A new associate dentist joins. The administrator records her prescribe and document privileges with her license number, the dental council as issuing authority and a scan of her registration, effective from her start date. After checking the professional evidence, the administrator marks both privileges Verified.

A visiting endodontist is brought in for one patient’s root-canal treatment. The administrator creates a care-team assignment for that patient with the purpose “endodontic treatment”, effective for six weeks. When the course finishes, the assignment is ended; the assignment record still shows its purpose and effective dates.

• Privilege verification inbox — Privileges waiting for verification, with evidence.
• Active care team assignments — Current assignments with patient, dentist, purpose and dates.

• Verify clinical privileges: From evidence to a verified privilege.

Review roles and permissions before go-live.