title: Federally qualified health center dental clinics: financial information.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) dental clinics are a major component of the dental safety net system, providing care to 3.75 million patients annually. This study describes the financial and clinical operations of a sample of FQHCs.
  
  
  METHODS
  In cooperation with the National Network for Oral Health Access, FQHC dental clinics that could provide 12 months of electronic dental record information were asked to participate in the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on data from 28 dental clinics (14 FQHCs), 50 percent of patients were under 21 years of age. The primary payers were Medicaid (72.4 percent) and sliding-scale/self-pay patients (17.5 percent). Sites averaged 3.1 operatories, 0.66 dental hygienists, and 1.9 other staff per dentist. Annually, each FTE dentist and hygienist provided 2,801 and 2,073 patient visits, respectively. Eighty percent of services were diagnostic, preventive, and restorative. Patient care accounted for 82 percent of revenues, and personnel (64.2 percent) and central administration (13.4 percent) accounted for most expenses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on a small convenience sample of FQHC dental clinics, this study presents descriptive data on their clinical and financial operations. Compared with data from the UDS (Uniform Data System) report, study FQHCs were larger in terms of space, staff, and patients served. However, there was substantial variation among clinics for almost all measures. As the number and size of FQHC dental clinics increase, the Health Resources and Services Administration needs to provide them access to comparative data that they can use to benchmark their operations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Howard L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Bailit
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Devitto
authors.forename: Ronnie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Myne-Joslin
authors.forename: Tryfon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beazoglou
authors.forename: Taegan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McGowan
mesh_terms: D003752:Dental Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States
keywords: FQHCs; management information; safety net.