Compliance is very seldom (if ever) at the top of people’s lists of favourite areas of responsibility. Nevertheless, it’s an essential part of running a successful practice. Although most of us who currently work, or have worked in practice, appreciate the wisdom of having standards set by a body like the CQC, having to worry about compliance can often feel like something we could do without. Even the best run and safest practices will experience a wave of tension if they receive a notification that they’re to be inspected. There is so much time and effort involved in preparing for a comprehensive inspection, that the stress levels are bound to rise no matter how consistent you have been in maintaining your compliance!
Often, it’s the practice manager (PM) alone who shoulders the burden of compliance. However, that need not necessarily be the case. It can be easy to share the tasks involved in ensuring compliance across the whole team. Not only will it reduce the stress levels of the poor PM, but it also increases the chances that all tasks will be completed and offers an opportunity to give team members some more responsibility.
Also, when it comes round to your practice’s turn to be inspected, every member of the team will be spoken to by the inspectors so it’s good practise to ensure everyone has the knowledge to be able to feel confident when this happens. All the more reason to involve as many team members as possible in achieving compliance.
Training is key
To ensure this whole team approach is successful, each team member needs to have the right training and skills to feel confident to carry out their duties. This means taking the time to ensure they understand the context and importance of what they’re being asked to do.
Arming people with information about the CQC as a body, such as its remit, the different types of inspections it carries out and the sorts of areas covered in them, can help those team members involved to see how their tasks contribute to the whole. Explaining the key lines of enquiry (KLOE) and how they can help achieve what’s expected to ensure compliance will pay dividends. And it should go without saying that they need to be kept up to date with any changes to CQC regulations and procedures.
Adopting the right attitude towards compliance will help immensely. Rather than viewing it as additional bureaucracy, fostering an atmosphere where compliance and KLOEs are seen as positives will make it more likely to be viewed as a worthwhile addition to their duties. Key lines of enquiry provide a framework for them to work within which ensure good outcomes for patients, and not just boxes to be ticked. Coming together regularly to catch up on how well things are going will help to cement this as part of business as usual for them and make it less likely to be viewed as an additional chore.
It's important to ensure every new employee, regardless of whether they are new to dentistry or have experience in another practice, is trained on compliance and understands how important you and the rest of the practice view it to be. Include this training as part of your inductions and make sure it is also part of your staff handbook.
Keep it up
Compliance should not be something picked up and looked at every now and again, but rather an integral part of how the practice runs. That should also be the case when it comes to training as well. Although you’ll be given a couple of weeks’ notice if you are to be inspected, it’s always good to be prepared for anything. One way to do this is to set up mock inspections and interviews now and again to get people used to responding to questions about their particular areas of responsibility. You could also include compliance on your agenda during your regular team meetings. In addition, you could run quizzes or ask colleagues to conduct audits of each other’s areas. It could even be a topic that’s monitored and discussed at check ins and appraisals. Keeping it at the front of everyone’s mind is essential.
As well as continual training and awareness it’s important to ensure staff feel supported and able to speak up. If there are any issues with compliance, then the sooner they’re flagged, the quicker they can be rectified. Colleagues need to know that it is safe for them to raise concerns without any fear of reprisals. After all, one of the KLOEs is ‘well-led’, and a leader who is not prepared to listen and act on the legitimate concerns of a staff member is not leading the team well. Make sure you continue to communicate that you are there to listen to and support them.
Finally, encourage staff to spread their compliance work across the week. Leaving it all till Friday can mean it gets rushed. Better to devote smaller pockets of time to it throughout the week and give it the attention it deserves so it can be done right first time. Hopefully, this will also help to embed it as part of their usual practice duties rather than as something separate.
By ensuring your team feels supported and equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to carry out their tasks, you can spread the responsibilities more widely, safe in the knowledge things will be done properly. If you are a Practice Plan customer and would like some help on how to avoid some of the most common compliance pitfalls, you can register for the event ‘Leading a winning team within a CQC compliant backdrop’.
For more information visit www.practiceplan.co.uk/be-practice-plan/