Independent review among several remedies for School of Dental Medicine

An independent review of the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine, initiated by leadership at the school and the University of Colorado Denver, concluded this week, with a report praising the school for its corrective measures taken in light of recent reports.

Earlier this year, stories in The Denver Post alleged irregularities in how practitioners were credentialed, which led the university to prohibit five faculty members from seeing patients until the matter is resolved. Stories also questioned how prescription drugs were dispensed, which might violate federal drug law.

For the external academic review, Kenneth Kalkwarf, D.D.S., M.S., dean of the University of Texas Dental School in San Antonio, and Richard Valachovic, D.M.D., M.P.H., executive director of the American Dental Education Association, were given access to all areas of the School of Dental Medicine. Besides the review, administrators have taken action in several ways to address any and all problems related to issues that have been raised:

• A full, ongoing internal review of all issues raised
• Full participation in the establishment of new legislation seeking to clarify state licensing rules
• Full participation with the state licensing board to come into immediate compliance
• Full cooperation with all Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) inquiries
• Full review and revision of the school's internal credentialing policies and procedures
• Revision of internal credentialing policies and procedures

Dean Denise Kassebaum has reached out to the DEA to let its representatives know they are welcome on the campus and that their guidance regarding the issues raised is appreciated. The School of Dental Medicine is going through an administrative inspection and will share findings with the DEA once available.

Regarding state law governing licensing, it was only the intention of the School of Dental Medicine to request an amendment to state law allowing international faculty to receive credentials that would allow them to practice with our affiliated institutions. Changes to the bill's language created unintended consequences which caused a few faculty members to fall out of compliance in August 2009. In all but one of those cases, faculty members have received the licenses and are in full compliance.

UC Denver administrators have participated fully with state lawmakers to clarify language in this session's Department of Regulatory Agencies bill (House Bill 10-1128) to avoid confusion in the future. The bill is expected to be signed into law by the governor soon.