Lean Six Sigma Kaizen: A business approach for front office procedures in a public health dental clinic

Many public health dental clinics are often small parts of a vast public health organization. The bureaucracy of a large health dept. can often place large administrative burdens on the dental front office staff. These administrative tasks often reduce the time available for treatment. Incomplete dental treatment can lead to other health issues, more expensive treatments, and dissatisfied patients. Having overall efficiencies in the upfront dental process will allow for more complete and timely treatment. These will also lead to better employee moral through clear and consistent standards. Dental front office operations can be time consuming and cumbersome, thus impeding the time available to treat patients. This can affect the quantity and quality of treatment done. By using methods from the Lean Six Sigma program where efficiency, quality, and teamwork are the drivers of success, a public health department dental clinic can use this business approach to be more efficient and effective with its finite funding and personnel, while maintaining a high standard of service to its patients.