Many activities require risk management such as in the financial sector when stock or currency trading takes place, but how often do you hear of risk management used within the dental industry? Dentistry might seem a world away from the stock market, however, that does not mean that a dentist nor a dental practice is not at risk, and in particular legal risk.
Unfortunately, the risk is ever-present that an action taken by yourself or someone within your dental practice could lead to a situation where an individual, normally a patient, sees fit to make a legal claim. The specifics of such a claim will differ but within the dental industry, they are most likely to relate to dental treatment not being deemed satisfactory by the patient.
Thankfully, such legal claims are extremely rare, and many dentists go through their entire careers without once being subject to one. Nevertheless, that does not mean that they were never at risk of one. Likewise, you or your dental practice could be at risk of a legal claim and what we wish to do in this article is to give you some simple risk management advice to avoid one.
First Step…Retain A Lawyer
Before we go into some specific strategies regarding risk management we cannot go further without recommending that you hire a good lawyer on a retainer. No matter how much risk management takes place, it cannot stop a determined patient, even if they are unjustified, from starting legal proceedings against you.
