STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES IN DENTISTRY: OPTIMIZING WORKFLOWS AND IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF TREATMENT

Abstract

Introduction. Standardization of the work of medical institutions, including the dental profession, helps to minimize risks associated with the human factor and ensure consistently high quality of services. The standardization tool is standard operating procedures (SOPs), which are internal documents of the institution and should cover every aspect of its activities. Objective: to analyze the mandatory implementation of SOPs in daily dental practice in Ukraine and other countries of the world; to emphasize the importance of these documents for building the proper quality of medical services. Materials and methods: the method of literature search in the networks Google Scholar, Medline, PubMed was used. Results and their discussion. Through a literature search in scientific databases, it was established that the issue of implementing SOPs in dental practice is insufficiently studied. The database of regulatory and recommendation documents on the regulation of dental activities through the development of local procedures was analyzed. Standard operating procedures are a set of predefined rules, procedures and standards that govern the activities and decisions of dentists and the team of the dental office. The types of SOPs (administrative, practical, infection control procedures) that are developed for various aspects of the work of dentists are considered; the advantages of their implementation in daily dental practice are emphasized. Conclusions. The implementation of standard operating procedures is a reliable tool for effective modern management of activities in dentistry, improving the quality of treatment and optimizing unified work processes. At the same time, the prospect of further research is the analysis of the improvement of medical care quality indicators in various departments of dental institutions due to the implementation of SOPs.