Delivery of comprehensive children's dental services using portable dental clinics in NYC public schools. A six-year analysis.
In 1990, the Bureau of Dental Health Services of the New York City Department of Health launched a major initiative to modernize a network of school-based dental clinics located throughout the city. Since 1913, the bureau has provided dental care to public school children; however, the clinics were not properly maintained or upgraded, and were in a state of disrepair and obsolescence. Anticipating that the survival of the program was in question, the school program was converted to a fleet of state-of-the-art portable dental clinics permitting targeting of underserved, high-risk poor and immigrant populations. Demographics had changed dramatically over the years; the program could now situate services where they were needed most, and provide a broader array of care where access was a problem. This paper presents a six-year analysis of the program and builds a strong case to show that a portable delivery system can equal or in many ways surpass the effectiveness and capabilities of a fixed-state approach.
Herman
N G
NG
Office of Oral Health, Programs and Policy, New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., USA.
Rosenthal
M
M
Franklin
D M
DM
D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D003190:Comprehensive Dental Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D003740:Dental Clinics / Q000458:organization & administration; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008283:Maintenance; D008489:Medical Indigency; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008952:Mobile Health Units / Q000458:organization & administration; D009519:New York City; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011203:Poverty; D011636:Public Health Dentistry; D012571:School Dentistry / Q000458:organization & administration