Improving Access to Oral Health and Dental Care for Underserved Populations with Grant Making

Dental safety-net providers such as Federally Qualified Health Centers, Federally Qualified Health Center Look-alikes, community health clinics, rural health clinics, health departments, and hospitals with dental clinics have made great strides in improving oral health of low-income and vulnerable populations. However, many of these safety-nets lack adequate resources and the capacity to address barriers associated with good oral health. There have been calls to provide greater resources for these safety-net providers to build or strengthen their capacity to offer quality oral health programs and to reduce oral health disparities. With grants totaling $1.9 million, Highmark Foundation's Improving Access to Oral Health and Dental Care for Underserved Populations was an opportunity to assist dental safety-net providers with improving access to oral and dental health care for underserved populations. Through grant funding, 21 safety net providers implemented one of three strategies: (1) challenge grants to improve coordination and build capacity; (2) regional strategy to support geographic expansion of services; and (3) expand or improve existing dental equipment. To measure the effectiveness of the grants in meeting the needs of the safety net providers and the oral health needs of their patients, baseline and follow-up surveys were administered to safety net clinics administrators and dental staff. Results demonstrated that the initiative met its stated objectives. Grantees were successful in improving access to oral health and dental care, reducing emergency room patient visits, increasing referral rates, recruiting and retaining dental professionals, significantly decreasing no-show rates and most important, sustaining services.