University of Colorado officials were a bit slow off the mark in beginning an independent review of problems that have emerged at their dental school.
Initially, we were concerned the school wasn’t doing enough to examine allegations of irregularities in credentialing practioners and dispensing prescription drugs detailed in a Denver Post investigation.
However, after an editorial board meeting with university officials this past week in which they described the internal and external reviews that have begun — some of them just recently — we believe they are on the right track.
Stories by Post reporters Kevin Vaughan and Jennifer Brown, published in January, described how the dental school had allowed dental residents to procure and prescribe drugs using the federal credentials of faculty members who were not present at the time and had no contact with the patients.
Such a practice could be a violation of federal drug laws.
The stories also raised questions about the licensure of some school dentists, leading the school to stop five faculty members from seeing patients while questions about their status were resolved.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is conducting a review of the situation at the dental school, and CU administrators say they are cooperating fully with the agency’s efforts. They also say they will release the DEA’s report to the public, which we think is commendable.
School officials say they also have been engaged in an ongoing internal evaluation of the irregularities, a process that began when The Post first brought operational issues to light.
And Dr. M. Roy Wilson, chancellor of CU’s downtown and Anschutz medical campuses, told us that the school decided to bring in two outside experts to conduct a wide-ranging review. Dr. Richard Valachovic, executive director of the American Dental Education Association, and Dr. Kenneth Kalkwarf, dean of the University of Texas dental school at Austin, will conduct the review.
We will be interested to see the report they generate after visiting the school and delving into its operations.
CU’s dental school has an admirable record of training professionals and providing treatment to populations that otherwise might have nowhere else to turn for care, including the developmentally disabled.
In 2009, the school provided more than $4.8 million in uncompensated care through various programs. There is no doubt the dental school is an asset to our communities.
The allegations involving the school have been troubling, and we are glad to see university administrators taking them seriously.
We look forward to seeing a comprehensive evaluation of the problems and the steps the school will take to correct them.
