Time for a Change in US Health Care Delivery System

In a paper published in a special edition of the Journal of Public Health Dentistry released in June 2010, Professor & Chair of Health Policy & Health Services Research Dr. Raul Garcia discussed enhancements needed for oral health care services in order to eliminate oral health disparities. The article is titled, "Envisioning Success: the Future of the Oral Health Care Delivery System in the United States," and was also authored by Drs. Ronald Inge, Linda Niessen, and Dominick DePaola—all members of the Santa Fe Group, a nonprofit organization committed to serving as a catalyst for innovations in health care.

The article reviews and expands on contributions from the Institute of Medicine’s 2009 workshop, "US Oral Health Workforce in the Coming Decade." At the workshop evidence was presented on the inequities in oral health outcomes in the US resulting from the inability of the current dental workforce to meet the needs of diverse, and often-times underserved, populations.

"The challenge for dentistry is to determine if innovative workforce solutions can be developed that will decrease disparities in access and improve the health of the nation as a whole," wrote Dr. Garcia. "Successful implementation of workforce innovations must include: reducing resistance to change by organized dentistry, adapting current and creating new educational and training programs, reforming policy governing dental practice, and creating a financing system that will enable the success of these changes."

The article goes on to define the metrics needed to evaluate success including: safety, lower disease incidence, lower prevalence of untreated disease, increased utilization of preventative services, decreased utilization of emergency services, enhanced access to needed services, and improved patient satisfaction and oral-health related quality of life.

The article can be found in full here.