Online Program

280823
Building an inter-professional primary care oral health delivery model


Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 4:50 p.m. - 5:10 p.m.

Anthony Cahill, PhD, University of New Mexico, Center for Development and Disability, Albuquerque, NM
Amy Pilley, MPH, Center for Development and Disability, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM
The purpose of the session will be to explain the development and early implementation of an inter-professional primary care oral health model involving El Pueblo Health Services (an FQHC look-alike), the College of Nursing, and the Department of Dental Medicine at the University of New Mexico. Inter-professional practice occurs when multiple health professionals work together with patients and communities to deliver the highest quality of care. More than a referral system, more than a warm hand-off, inter-professional collaborative practice involves continuous interaction and knowledge sharing between professionals, organized to solve or explore a variety of education /care issues all while seeking to optimize the patient's participation. The overall goal of our inter-professional primary care oral health delivery model is to integrate oral health services into a primary care delivery system in order to improve the oral, and overall, health status of patients of all three distinct practices. What is truly exciting about the project is that it engages dentists, primary care providers, and nurse practitioners in exploring new roles in providing better overall care for patients. Community members, community health workers, and public health professionals are also engaged in ensuring that all perspectives are included and contribute to the success of the project. We will describe the initial processes, the evolving infrastructure and environment, and the challenges and successes to date. We hope to inspire our public health colleagues to explore collaborations with diverse partners in developing innovative solutions to access to care issues.

Learning Areas:

Administration, management, leadership

Learning Objectives:
Describe formation of inter-professional working teams and their processes of selecting and devleoping oral health application and implementation strategies. Describe logistical and operational challenges involved in supporting integration of primary care nurse, medical and dental practices in patient-centered services.

Keyword(s): Oral Health, Access to Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As the Director, Division of Disability and Health Policy at UNM, I work in areas of evaluation and research methodology; outcomes and performance-based research; design, implementation and analysis of large-scale mail and telephone surveys; database and decision support system development; and applied statistical analysis. I serve on numerous boards and commissions in the field of disability, including serving as Chair of the New Mexico Governor’s Commission on Disability, and have over 25 years of experience.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.