Rocking Horse Community Health Center (RHC), located in Springfield, Ohio, is piloting a dental integration program with support from Partners For Kids, designed to increase preventive dental visits among children, ages 1 to 4, who have completed a well-child visit at RHC. The goal of this initiative is to improve early access to preventive oral health care.
RHC pediatric dentist Brandi Hall, DMD, and her dental assistant, Aleia Smith, schedule time slots during well-child visits for dental examinations and “baby hygiene” appointments. Collaboration with RHC Pediatricians and Family Physician, Carol Barlage, MD, CMO, has made this possible.
These integrated visits include oral examination, cleaning and fluoride varnish application. The visits also include providing the parents with nutrition and hygiene counseling to optimize oral health. If clinical decay is identified, the child is scheduled for follow-up care in the RHC dental clinic.
These integrated visits require a short amount of additional appointment time, are low resource for the dental team and do not require full dental equipment to be completed.
To further expand these efforts, RHC is looking for a Registered Dental Hygienist to support the dental team and the medical-dental integration program. RHC is also working to streamline internal dental referrals for children, ages 1 to 4. Medical providers maintain a referral list of local Medicaid-accepting dentists to accommodate families who prefer external dental care.
Program metrics are tracked through RHC’s electronic health record and Partners For Kids’ claims data. Each integrated visit is documented using an internal dental code to capture the number of children served, while Partners For Kids analyzes provider billing data to identify patients who obtain dental care through external referrals.
If your practice is interested in learning more about this program, or other oral health services offered by Partners For Kids, please reach out to Andrea Workman at Andrea.Workman@NationwideChildrens.org.