Effective Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Model to Eliminate New Cavitations in Underserved Communities

Comprehensive health homes located within community and school-based health settings effectively reduce health disparities by improving access to primary care services for the families they serve.  These interprofessional models offer health care professional trainees the opportunity to gain experience, not only in their unique healthcare specialty, but also working in a collaborative team environment.  All 270 Western University of Health Sciences College of Dental Medicine (WUCDM) students are educated through an integrated curriculum, incorporating community based dental education, interprofessional collaborative practice, and practice management to eliminate new cavitations in patient’s ages 0-17 in Los Angeles County elementary schools. At the Mulhall Family Center comprehensive home, WUCDM dental students, El Monte City School District (EMCSD) family nurse practitioners and school nurses, psychologists, and social workers allow for bi-directional referral processing and the administering of total body health in an interprofessional environment. The primary care education incorporates a modern interprofessional approach for eliminating new cavitations in children by integrating DentaQuest continuous quality improvement measures. Over an 18 month period, 100% of the WUCDM patient’s ages 0-17 in EMCSD received a comprehensive examination including caries and periodontal risk assessments along with behavioral and educational tools to decrease childhood caries. Through the successful application of this model and completion of Phase I treatment, 48.6% of these patients have returned with no new cavitations at the 3 or 6 month recall appointment. This demonstrates an effective intercollaborative practice disease management model for providing quality care for children in disadvantaged communities.