Sunbury Community Health Dental Service Quality and Safety Report

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1 Sunbury Community Health Dental Service Quality and Safety Report Quality, safety and continuous improvement are at the heart of everything we do at Sunbury Community Health. We constantly work to recognise needs, plan and act to meet those needs, evaluate our success and find ways to improve further. National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards The NSQHS Standards describe quality and safety systems that aim to protect clients from harm and improve the quality of health services. The assessment process is a way for us to take responsibility, and be accountable for the safety and quality of services we provide. In April 2014, our dental service was assessed against standards in the areas of: 1. Governance for Safety and Quality in Health Service Organisations 2. Partnering with Consumers 3. Preventing and Controlling Healthcare Associated Infection Client demographics Our dental team provides oral health care services to Sunbury and its surrounding community. Over the period, January to March this year, 1246 people accessed our dental service. The service prioritises specific groups in our community including: Children or young people in residential care Youth in custodial care People with mental health issues Eligible pregnant women From July 2013 to March 2014, 34 people from these priority groups received dental treatment with no waiting time; compared to 40 people in the previous 12 months. In-line with our strategic plan our dental team will be looking at increasing the number of people from these groups who are accessing our service. Additionally, the dental team provides services to people from a variety of cultural backgrounds, as shown in Table 1 which highlights the percentage of people from diverse cultural backgrounds accessing our dental service.

2 Table 1: Culturally diverse communities accessing SCH dental services Percentage Born outside of Australia English as a second language Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Refugee or asylum seeker 0.4% 0.25% 0.1 Client survey results We actively seek client feedback to tell us what we are doing well and to identify areas where we can improve. In December 2013, 76 dental clients responded to a survey regarding our dental services. Summarised below are the key findings from this survey. Figure 1: Type of treatment received by survey respondents Type of treatment received 20% General treatment 48% Emergency treatment Dentures 32% Figure 1 provides information on the type of treatment survey respondent received. General treatment accounting for nearly one half of treatment received.

3 Figure 2: Means of transport for respondent to dental appointment at SCH Means of transport to appointment 5% 3% 1% 85% Seventy-nine percent of clients reported travel times of less than 30 minutes. This suggests that the majority of people who access our dental service are local residents. It is noted that a large percentage of clients travel to the service by car. Parking facilities will be an important consideration in any plans for expansion of services. Car Walk Public transport Taxi Community assistance Figure 3: SCH dental team time performance Scheduled appointment time performance 1 47% 31% On time Less than five minutes Five to 15 minutes More than 15 minutes

4 Although our dental staff aim to see people at their scheduled appointment time, unexpected treatment requirements and dental emergencies mean that this is not always possible. The industry considers a waiting time of up to 15 minutes a reasonable limit. Six percent of clients reported they waited longer than the 15 minute limit. Our dental service will review booking processes to improve their performance in relation to waiting times. Client satisfaction Clients report high levels of satisfaction in relation to: Helpfulness of reception staff Feeling welcome at the dental service Being provided with adequate information about the dental service Being given the opportunity to ask questions Ninety-seven percent of clients were always satisfied with the treatment received and the remaining three percent (two people), reported that they were sometimes satisfied. Of the three percent who were sometimes satisfied, 1.5 percent reported that their dissatisfaction related to length of wait list period for their treatment to commence rather than quality of treatment received. Wait list There are three wait lists for treatment at the SCH dental service. These are: general, denture and priority denture. It is a requirement that the wait for priority denture treatment is no longer than 12 weeks. Our dental service has met this target consistently over the past few years. Table 2 outlines the general and denture wait list times. Table 2: Waiting list data Wait list in months Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May General Denture Although the wait lists remain high, nearly 18 and 33 months at end of May 2014 for general and denture, the general wait time has steadily reduced since July From July 2013 to end of May 2014, 1235 new individuals were added to the general waiting list and 1409 individuals were seen or removed from the waiting list, a reduction of 174 individuals from the waiting list. Over the same period (July 2013 to May

5 2014), the number of individuals added to denture waiting list is 146 and 123 individual were removed, an increase of 23 individuals to the waiting list. Sunbury Community Health is limited by its ability to provide services by available funding. We will continue to work to improve access to our quality dental services by using available resources efficiently and productively. Infection control safety The dental service undertakes a large number of tasks to ensure client safety and minimise the spread of infection. This includes training, knowledge testing, observing and feeding back to staff and monitoring activities such as sterilizing equipment. An external audit of infection control measures in March 2014 indicated that Sunbury Community Health s dental service achieved 98% compliance. The service has also achieved 100% compliance with sterilization and aseptic techniques audits.