Oath of Office

The new elected Board members recited and signed the Oath of Office. The oath, which is required under the Health Professions Act, is a declaration that the Board member will act in accordance with the law and in the interests of the public.

CDSBC Committee Overview

The Registrar provided an overview of each of CDSBC’s committees. Carmel Wiseman, Director of Complaints, explained the complaints process and the role of the Inquiry Committee. Ms. Wiseman also described how the Health Professions Review Board (HPRB) has impacted the complaints process. Complaints that are referred to the HPRB require more staff time and can be costly. This is a concern shared by many of the colleges regulated under the Health Professions Act.

Committee Projects – Update

Infection Control Guidelines

A working group from CDSBC and the College of Dental Hygienists is creating revised Infection Control Guidelines for use in the dental office. This includes a review of guidelines that exist in other jurisdictions in order to identify standards that are evidence-based, reasonable and can be implemented by dental professionals.

A draft is currently being developed by working group. When the draft is complete, the document will be referred to the Quality Assurance Committee and then to the CDSBC Board. Other stakeholders will be invited to provide feedback on the draft guidelines as part of the stakeholder consultation process (see below).

Minimal and Moderate Sedation Guidelines

This document is being updated to reflect modern practice and to make the content more user-friendly. The focus of the revised Guidelines will be more on the level of sedation as opposed to the type of sedation. The process has taken longer than expected but is now on track to be published in 2011. Stakeholder consultation will be a core piece of the document development.

Code of Ethics

The Ethics Committee is revising the Code of Ethics using a principle based approach that will be less prescriptive than the existing Code. The updated Code will rely more heavily on the practitioner’s use of professional judgment. The first step in the revision of this document was for the Ethics Committee to identify core values as the foundation from which ethical principles will be derived. These core values were approved by the Board in May 2010.

Dental Recordkeeping Course

CDSBC and the Quality Assurance Committee released revised Dental Recordkeeping Guidelines in spring of this year. The next step is to develop a dental recordkeeping course for dentists and CDAs. This is an important issue because good recordkeeping contributes to effective diagnosis and treatment planning.

The course is intended to improve the standard of dental recordkeeping in general as well as for practitioners who are referred through the complaints process.

Committee Appointments

CDSBC committee appointments for 2010/11 were distributed. There are still a few vacancies because the incoming public members have not yet been appointed by government. The final committee list will be posted on the CDSBC website when the vacancies are filled.

Board Priorities

The Board received a draft framework outlining the College’s priorities for 2010/11. It sets out four ongoing objectives: communications, complaints process, stakeholder relations, and Board and Committee development. The draft framework also identified specific projects that are already underway.

A longer term strategic plan for CDSBC will be developed by the Board in 2011.

Stakeholder Consultation

Stakeholder dialogue and consultation are important elements of CDSBC policy development. Registrar Heather MacKay presented a draft stakeholder consultation framework that outlines when and how stakeholder input should be included by CDSBC committees and working groups in the policy development process. The intent is for timely, transparent and accessible consultation.

This document will be used for both formal and informal consultation and will be forwarded to CDSBC committees for their use when developing policy.

Next Board Meeting

The next meeting of the CDSBC Board is Saturday, December 11 at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in Vancouver (Pearl Room, Level Two). The meeting will begin at 9:00 am.