Quality Assurance Program

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In Ontario, the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA) requires all health regulatory colleges under the Act to develop and to maintain a quality assurance program to ensure the provision of optimal quality care to the public and to promote continuing quality improvement among its members. The role of the regulatory college is to assure the public that dental hygiene care is safe, ethical, effective and of high quality.

The mission of the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario (CDHO) is to regulate the practice of dental hygiene in the interest of the overall health and safety of the public of Ontario.

In the development of the quality assurance program, CDHO acknowledges that dental hygienists are competent professionals whose goals include maintaining and improving their level of competence based on accepted standards of practice.

As self-regulating professionals, dental hygienists are expected to:

• assure that their professional responsibility to the client prevails;
• apply the CDHO Dental Hygiene Standards of Practice, CDHO Code of Ethics, and CDHO regulations and bylaws to their dental hygiene practice;
• maintain and improve their level of competence through the continuous acquisition of knowledge, skills and judgement; and
• be accountable for their actions.

The Quality Assurance Committee is a statutory committee of the CDHO and, as such, it is responsible for the implementation, the ongoing maintenance and evaluation of the Quality Assurance Program. The CDHO Quality Assurance Program is designed to foster openess and candidness between dental hygienists and the Quality Assurance Committee.