Introduction

The focus for this case study is a dental clinic housed within an urban community health center. Prior to entering the CDHC pilot training program, the CDHC practiced as a dental assistant expanded function dental assistant. Post-training, the CDHC has focused on disease-specific outreach initiatives which target staff and patients from four areas in the health center: medical, perinatal, diabetes, and pediatric.

For this initiative, the goal of the CDHC was to provide preventive services, promote oral health and, through patient navigation and care coordination, increase access to dental care for the clinic’s pediatric patients in order to help them maintain their oral and overall health. Starting December 2011, the CDHC educated staff in the pediatric clinic about oral health and dental referrals, and coordinated dental care for pediatric patients.

To measure the success of this goal, the current case study answers the following questions:

1. Did outreach to other departments result in pediatric patients visiting the dental clinic?
2. How many pediatric patients resulted from the CDHC’s work?
3. How many pediatric patients were new to the dental clinic?
4. What types of dental services were provided to pediatric patients at the dental clinic?
5. What was the value of the dental care provided to pediatric patients at the dental clinic?
6. What was the missed appointment rate for pediatric patients who had appointments at the dental clinic?