[Dutch Act of Agreement on Medical Treatment. Knowledge among dentists].
After more than 25 years of debate about the legislation of patient rights in the Netherlands, the 'Agreement on Medical Treatment' act was passed by the Dutch government in 1995. This article descibes the amount of knowledge general dental practitioners have on several topics of this law, four years after its introduction. A questionnaire was send to 806 dental practitioners, random drawn from the registers of the Dutch Dental Association. The response-rate was 41.6%. Results show that respondents are well informed about some of the most important topics of this law, such as the requirement to obtain the patient's consent to major dental treatments and the fact that information must be based on the 'patient need standard'. Other rights and duties however, are less known. For example, it is still not well known that for routine treatments the patient's explicit consent is not needed, but can be assumed. Also, knowledge about the minimal period for retaining patient dossiers is scarcely present. Some explanations for this lack of knowledge are discussed, especially the lack of relevance of some topics of this law for the dental practice.
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Afdeling Sociale tandheelkunde en voorlichtingskunde van het Academisch Centrum Tandheelkunde Amsterdam (ACTA).
D003792:Dental Records; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D007879:Legislation, Dental; D007883:Legislation, Medical; D009426:Netherlands; D010344:Patient Advocacy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011361:Professional Competence; D012494:Sampling Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires