Contemporary views of dental practitioners' on patient safety

Background There is little known about general dental practitioners' (GDPs) views on patient safety in dentistry; we believe this to be the first paper describing their opinions and ideas for maintaining or improving safe practices. Methods Focus groups were used to gather the views of 12 GDPs (who also hold university teaching contracts) on the following topics: Defining patient safety, the important issues in patient safety, safeguards and tools for maintaining safe care, never events and research priorities. Thematic analysis was performed on the verbatim transcripts. Results Key themes from the practitioners included: Medical history (polypharmacy and co-morbidities), competence and skill level, the use of safeguards and tools to ensure safety, the importance of effective communication (including working with a chaperone) and the role of reflective practice. Suggestions for improvement included: effective sharing of information with other healthcare professionals, easy access to guidelines and educational tools, adoption of practice protocols, team working and the use of universal charting systems to limit ambiguity. Conclusions GDPs are well versed in the concept of patient safety and are keen to implement evidence based tools and/or interventions designed to improve safety for their patients.