title: A pilot improvement project in hospital-based oral healthcare: improving caries risk assessment documentation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the impact of a continuous improvement project to improve completion of a caries risk assessment (CRA) and to assess its impact on delivery of dental caries prevention.
  
  
  METHODS
  Single centre clinical improvement project.
  
  
  METHODS
  A paediatric dental department within a UK dental hospital over the course of 2008-2009.Subjects (materials) and methods Continuous monitoring of documentation of a CRA was instigated and results fed back to clinicians. Tools were developed to structure the process of CRA. After six months of intervention, a comparison of preventive care to a pre-intervention sample was undertaken.
  
  
  METHODS
  The main outcome measure was completion of a CRA. Comparison was also made with pre-intervention data on levels of preventive care received.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over the 12 month project the mean rate of CRA completion improved from 30% over the first 6 months to 73% in the second 6 months. Compared to the pre-intervention sample, all items of the caries prevention package had improved, with delivery of toothpaste strength advice (16% vs 60%, p = 0.001) and diet advice (32% vs 70%, p = 0.004) improving significantly.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By targeting and improving CRA completion the quality of preventive care delivered has also significantly improved.
authors.affiliation: Glasgow Dental Hospital and School, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow. a.keightley@nhs.net
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Keightley
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lucey
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leitch
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Lloyd
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004282:Documentation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055094:Evidence-Based Dentistry / Q000379:methods; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006801:Humans; D010377:Pediatric Dentistry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D018570:Risk Assessment; D006113:United Kingdom