The effect of care coordination on pediatric dental patient attendance.

PURPOSE: The objectives of this retrospective study were to determine if care coordination improved appointment-keeping behavior, and identify factors associated with patient attendance at an urban Medicaid dental clinic.

METHODS: Children with sedation appointments received care coordination comprising telephone reminders, education regarding the appointment, and were mailed reminders or home visits if necessary. Collected chart audit data included age, behavior, appointment history and caries status. After several months, care coordination services were extended to routine, nonsedation appointments. Sedation and routine appointment controls were matched by appointment date and selected from the previous year. Attendance information was obtained from appointment and patient records.

RESULTS: Sixty-one sedation appointments and 698 routine appointments were analyzed along with 61 and 931 control appointments, respectively. Sedation patients with care coordination had an attendance rate of 59% compared to 53% in the control group (P>.05). Routine patients with care coordination had an attendance rate of 70% compared to 62% in the control group (P<.001).) Data trends suggest that the children least likely to attend their appointments are those with: (1) high caries scores; (2) poor behavior; (3) long wait times between appointments; (4) multiple missed appointments; and (5) lack of a serviceable phone.

CONCLUSIONS: Care coordination can improve attendance at an urban Medicaid dental clinic, but improvements are modest. Prospective studies are needed to better delineate which interventions and which patient predictors result in the most improvement in attendance-keeping behavior.