SAFETY OF MEDICAL ACTIVITY IN DENTISTRY

Abstract

Today, ensuring the safety of patients and medical personnel is an integral part of medical practice. In dentistry, this problem is especially relevant, given the fact that dentists occupy one of the leading places in terms of the frequency of professional errors among doctors who have been sued, as well as the frequency of complaints from patients about the quality of medical care. This article discusses the safety of medical activities and the safety of medical care in medical organizations, in general, and in dentistry in particular, an analysis of the regulatory documentation in relation to these concepts is carried out, and issues of terminology are considered. Analysis of literary sources shows that today there is uncertainty in the interpretation of the concept of "safety of medical activity" due to the lack of a legislatively enshrined definition of this concept. With regard to dental practice, the safety of medical activities includes the safety of the patient, the safety of medical personnel, the safety of the environment in which dental care is provided, as well as the safety of pharmaceuticals and medical dental equipment. Organizational, legal, personnel and economic security can also be considered as constituent parts of the safety of medical activities. At the same time, there is no unambiguous understanding of the relationships between the concepts of safety of medical activity, safety of medical care, safety of medical services, safety of the medical environment. An important unresolved to date task is to determine the criteria for assessing the safety of medical activities. Taking into account the versatility of the concept of the safety of medical activities and the specifics of medical activities, it is necessary to develop criteria for assessing the safety of medical activities for each specialty, including dentistry. It seems that the assessment structure should be uniform for all medical activities, but include specific elements with criteria for the safety of medical activities in individual specialties.