Part I – Over the next five years, oral health increasingly will be integrated into whole person health. And in parallel, standardized quality and outcome measures, which have historically lagged in the field of dentistry, will be demanded. In this three-part series, I’ll examine the history of quality assessment in dental care, discuss why dental quality measurement has lagged other health sectors, explain why the time has come for dentistry to become proactive in the quality-of-care movement, and illustrate how one dental company is systematically implementing a quality assessment program.

To continue reading, please go to https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrist/2021/08/02/boldly-evolving-dentistry-into-whole-person-care-part-i-why-dentistry-lags-in-quality-measurement/?sh=7b99fbdc30a5.

Part II – To fully understand where dentistry is today in terms of quality measurement, it’s useful to step back and review the overall history and trajectory of quality measurement in general medicine.

Evidence-based care dates back to the 1850s when Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, demonstrated how basic sanitation and hygiene standards decreased soldier mortality. Fast forward to 1965, the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid began to condition reimbursement on quality, instituting hospital quality requirements that were considered “Conditions of Participation.”

To continue reading, please go to https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrist/2021/08/04/boldly-evolving-dentistry-into-whole-person-care-part-ii-history-of-quality-measurement-in-medicine/?sh=2754a8312366

Part III – As discussed in Part I and Part II of this series, dentistry is in the nascent stage of developing and implementing the quality measures that have increasingly become the standard in clinical medicine today. In our final installment, I’ll examine one company’s approach to establishing themselves as a leader in the field of dental quality.

To continue reading, please go to https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrist/2021/08/09/boldly-evolving-dentistry-into-whole-person-care-part-iii–the-d4c-dental-brands-journey/?sh=3756ef8d2bbb