Changes and factors associated with dentists' willingness to treat patients with severe disabilities.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigated changes in dentists' willingness to treat severely disabled patients and to understand dentists' opinions on reimbursements after the implementation of a dental care financial reward program in Taiwan.


METHODS
Three hundred dentists from 29 teaching hospitals were randomly selected to answer a structured questionnaire, and 184 structured questionnaires were returned. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the factors associated with dentists' willingness to treat severely disabled patients.


RESULTS
Approximately 60% of the dentists said reimbursements for treatment of severely disabled patients were reasonable. 50.4% of dentists were willing or very willing to treat disabled patients. Seventy-nine percent dentists affected by the program had a higher willingness but 83.7% dentists said this program did not make a significant difference to their income. 52.8% of dentists agreed the program would increase the quality of dental care. The factors significantly affecting dentists' willingness included dentist's age, specialty field, perception of the program in promoting the quality of dental services, and perception of the ability to provide adequate treatments for severely disabled patients.


CONCLUSIONS
The rewards program significantly increased the willingness of most hospital-base dentists to treat the severely disabled patients although the effect of incentive to their income was limited.
Tsai
Wen-Chen
WC
Department of Health Services Management, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
Kung
Pei-Tseng
PT
Chiang
Hsien-Hsiung
HH
Chang
Wei-Chieh
WC
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003730:Dental Care for Persons with Disabilities / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003796:Dental Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007347:Insurance, Dental; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists' / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan