The Development of MaccabiDent Quality Measures for Oral Health

Introduction: Success depends, at least in part, on the quality of the product, quality of service, and quality of infrastructure. Lack of quality measures in dentistry limits improvements in oral health care. This article focused on developing quality measures in dentistry. Materials and Methods: Quality measures were developed and data from a three-year period were evaluated for MaccabiDent, a provider of dental services in Israel, treating 650,000 patients a year. The following 4 measurements were examined: The percentage of orthodontic patients who underwent a bi-annual dental examination with x- rays and were treated by a hygienist; The percentage of children aged 3-12, in a B or C risk group that had a fluoride application twice yearly; Continuing Education for dental care providers; Implant success rate. Results: 43.3% of patients had at least one dental examination with x-rays. 76.5% of the children had a fluoride application at least twice a year, with an average of 58.9% in all clinics. 13.8% of care givers reported participation in Continuing Education courses. Success rate of implants was 99%. Discussion: Our findings, based on three years of data, will provide the foundation for the development of measures that will improve quality in all 53 dental clinics of the Health Dental Organization (HDO). Conclusion: The most important outcome of this article is to show the importance of determining and measuring quality variables which might serve as a lead for a national index.