Date: 12/30/2020
Author(s): Winston Tseng, Elizabeth Pleasants, Susan Ivey, Karen Sokal-Gutierrez, Jayanth Kumar, Kristin Hoeft, Alice Horowitz, Francisco Ramos-Gomez, Miku Sodhi, Jessica Liu, and Linda Neuhauser
Care coordination is a key strategy used to improve health outcomes and efficiency, yet there are limited examples in dentistry. A large dental accountable care organization piloted care coordination by retraining existing administrative staff to coordinate the care of high-risk patients. Following the pilot’s success, a formal “dental care advocate” (DCA) role was integrated system-wide. The goal of this new role is to improve care, patient engagement, and health outcomes while integrating staff into the clinical care team. We aim to describe the process of DCA role implementation and assess staff and clinician perceptions about the role pre- and post-implementation. Successful implementation of the new DCA role was facilitated by a strong organizational commitment to team-based dentistry and positive impressions of care coordination among staff and managers. Upskilling existing administrative staff with the necessary training to manage some high-risk patient needs is one method that can be used to implement care coordination efforts in dentistry.