Chapter 4. Clinical Operations—Introduction

Chapters 1, 2 and 3 provided information to help you:

• Decide whether to build a safety net clinic
• Appreciate design and staffing issues, and
• Understand possibilities to fund and assure sustainability for your safety net dental clinic.

This chapter covers the operations of a safety net dental clinic, including:

• Staffing
• Risk management
• Health records and information management
• Purchasing and inventory management
• Patient scheduling and consent
• Billing and collections
• Infection control
• Environmental health
• Safety issues

The framework for organizing all of these clinic operations is generally through a policies and procedures manual. Details and examples of policies, procedures, guidelines, regulations, and more are provided throughout.