Dental patients as partners in promoting quality and safety: a qualitative exploratory study.

Objective: Active patient involvement in promoting quality and safety is a priority for healthcare. We investigated how dental patients perceive their role as partners in promoting quality and safety across various dental care settings.

Methods: Focus group sessions were conducted at three dental practice settings: an academic dental center, a community dental clinic, and a large group private practice, from October 2018-July 2019.

Patients' Experiences of Dental Diagnostic Failures: A Qualitative Study Using Social Media.

Objective: Despite the many advancements made in patient safety over the past decade, combating diagnostic errors (DEs) remains a crucial, yet understudied initiative toward improvement. This study sought to understand the perception of dental patients who have experienced a dental diagnostic failure (DDF) and to identify patient-centered strategies to help reduce future occurrences of DDF.

Methods: Through social media recruitment, we conducted a screening survey, initial assessment, and 67 individual patient interviews to capture the effects of misdiagnosis, missed diagnosis, or delayed diagnosis on patient lives.

Testing dental quality measures: Emergency department visits for nontraumatic dental conditions and subsequent follow-up dental visits.

Background: The goal of this study was to test the feasibility, reliability, and validity of the Dental Quality Alliance's adult dental quality measures for system-level implementation for ambulatory care sensitive (ACS) emergency department (ED) visits for nontraumatic dental conditions (NTDCs) in adults and follow-up after ED visits for NTDCs in adults.

Methods: Medicaid enrollment and claims data from Oregon and Iowa were used for measure testing. Testing included validation of diagnosis codes in claims data through patient record reviews of ED visits and calculations of κ statistic, sensitivity, and specificity.

Dental patients' perceptions of and desired content from patient health portals.

Background: Patient health portals (PHPs) encourage patient engagement to achieve the quadruple aim of health care: to improve the patient's experience of care, improve population health, reduce health care costs, and improve the work life of health care providers. The purpose of this study was to capture dental patients' perspectives on PHPs and their desired content. Specifically, the authors examined the important features for dental patients to have as well as the barriers and facilitators of PHPs.

Changes in dental and medical visits before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among U.S. children aged 1-17 years.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has tremendously impacted the U.S. healthcare system, but no study has examined the impact of the pandemic on utilization of dental care among U.