Dental Associates One of First in Nation to Publicly Report Quality Indicators
October 28, 2020
Dental Associates was recently named one of the first regional dental organizations in the nation to publicly report quality indicators, as reported by the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ). Recognizing the direct link between oral health and overall health, Dental Associates will partner with the WCHQ to develop quality metrics related to oral health and chronic and acute diseases.
Below is an excerpt from the WCHQ's announcement:
Five regional Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) members became the first dental practices in the country to publicly report oral health quality measures to the WCHQ reporting website, WCHQ.org.
The five organizations are founding members of the WCHQ Oral Health Collaborative and include: ForwardDental; Marshfield Clinic Health System; Dental Associates; HealthPartners (MN); and Children’s Wisconsin. The practices serve a diverse demographic and geographic range of pediatric and adult patients in rural and urban communities throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The first publicly reported measures are: caries risk assessment in children; ongoing care in adults with periodontitis; and, topical fluoride application in high risk children. The three oral health measures are commonly found in family practice settings that care for children and adults.
The WCHQ acquires and analyzes the quality measures from de-identified data submitted by the dental organizations. Measure specifications along with the individual organization reports are available to the public on the WCHQ website.
“WCHQ has proven that ‘what gets measured and reported publicly, improves faster,’” according to Chris Queram, President/CEO, WCHQ. “It has been exciting to see dentists work with our organization and join physicians and health systems to work toward setting a new standard of overall, holistic care. Our goal is to see a closer alignment between oral and medical providers in our region because a number of serious health issues must be managed in both settings.”
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Thomas Manos, DDS, MS, is owner and CEO of Dental Associates. Collecting data and using it to improve quality is not new to Dental Associates. A data-driven and patient-centric practice, Dr. Manos said they are looking forward to working with WCHQ as a partner to continue to develop quality metrics related to oral health.
“There is a critical link between oral health and general health and well-being. We know poor dental hygiene is linked to an increase in chronic and acute diseases,” according to Dr. Manos. “We are looking forward to working with our colleagues in both the medical and oral health communities to improve the overall health of the people we all serve.”
The WCHQ Oral Health Collaborative is working on its next set of metrics with a goal to help practitioners better manage patients with chronic medical conditions using the results of measures that incorporate medical and dental data.
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