Title
Dental Director’s Report - Dr. Cockey
Body
Dental Staffing
• Two dentists have been hired to cover the North Chicago and Belvidere Medical Building (BMB) practice sites. Their initial start date is December 9, 2019.
• A dental assistant for our North Chicago site has been hired and is currently going through orientation.
• We will soon be posting a full-time dental assistant position for our Zion practice which has been in operation now for approximately 14 months. Currently we have 3 days of coverage and continue to focus on pediatric patients. The addition of a dental assistant will increase patient access and will also add to our overall capacity within the agency.
• We hope to revisit a previous service whereby dental screenings were provided to WIC clients. Patients seen were provided dental fluoride varnish applications as well as oral health education and a dental screening. Those patients requiring services would be scheduled in one of our clinic sites. This service was curtailed with the opening of our Zion practice location.
The Coleman Associates DPI (Dramatic Performance Improvement) Initiative at North Chicago and North Shore
We anticipate rolling out the current processes of robust calls, schedule jockeying, huddles, and open scheduling at the North Chicago and North Shore practice locations in order to enhance the patient experience and decrease the no-show rate. We have two dental representatives on the DPI team.
Dental Assistant Extern Training
We will be hosting a dental assistant extern and plan to place them at our BMB location. The extern will be with us for an estimated 5 months. Our role is to provide them hands-on experience within a general dental practice. Should this training venture be successful, we may consider taking on additional dental externs throughout the agency.
Suggested Motion
None, for information only.