Patient centered care
Compliance & best practices
Our office takes compliance with both government regulations and industry best practices seriously. Below you can find some of the highlights of policies, procedures, and steps that our office takes to ensure that your visit is both safe and secure.
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Commitment to inclusivity
Receiving high quality care at our office is not dependent on your race, color, national origin, primary language, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability status. Ever.
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Infection control
Our office adheres to the Center for Disease Control's Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Settings as well as the stringent best practices recommended by the American Dental Association. Our clinical team undergoes annual training in infection control best practices and our offices protocols, most recently in June of 2024.
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Water safety & testing
Our office uses commercially deionized water passed through dental unit waterline specific filters to provide safe water for routine procedures. These filters were changed in July of 2023 and last for one year. We test our waterlines biannually using a third party laboratory to ensure bacterial levels below the recommended limit; all waterlines passed in January of 2024. For surgical procedures, our office uses sterile water.
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Sterilization & sterilization monitoring
Our office employs three autoclave sterilizers that are tested weekly for their ability to kill microbes by as part of The University of Iowa's sterlization monitoring program. In addition, we conduct weekly tests of our pre-sterilization cleaning equipment. All of our instruments are individually packaged with sterilization indicators, and are always opened with you in the room.
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Emergency medical preparedness
All of our staff are basic life support (BLS) certified and proficient in our office's emergency protocols and procedures which are modeled on the recommendations of the American Dental Association and other authorities on the subject. We underwent our annual emergency medical preparedness training in March of 2024.
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HIPAA technological safeguards
Our office works with a well-known, local technology IT consulting company to provide enterprise level protections for our computer systems. Our technology policies and procedures are modeled after the best practice recommendations of the American Dental Association. Dr. Andrew Stevenson is our designated Security Officer. We held our annual HIPAA policy & procedure review in March of 2024.
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HIPAA administrative safeguards
Our office has completed and maintains a security risk assessment as required by law. Our office has strong policies and procedures in place to protect patient information, again modeled after the best practices recommended by the American Dental Association. Dr. Chad Stevenson is our designated Compliance Officer. We held our annual HIPAA policy & procedure review in March of 2024.
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Aids in communication
If you need aids in communication such as qualified signs language interpreters, written information in additional formats, qualified interpretters for other languages, or written information in another language we will provide them at no cost to you. If you would benefit from these services, please contact our office ahead of your scheduled appointment so we can arrange them for you.