Hospitals in Action >> Case Examples

GEARY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, Junction City, KS
Geary Community Oral Health Initiative

What is it?
We brought community partners together and identified two key factors in addressing the dental crisis: Education and Access.   We developed a set of standards and criteria for Emergency Room Dental Care for Indigent and Uninsured.  With these standards in place, local dentists agreed to treat patients as referred by ER personnel.  These patients have agreed to a Document of Understanding ensuring their responsibilities for follow-through.  We provided support to the Community Health Center to facilitate their addition of a dental clinic to provide critical service for the underserved and uninsured.  We provided screening equipment to better identify children with dental problems who are then referred to a local dentist or treated during regular visits from ReachOut Health Care America directly in the schools.  We provide a variety of oral health educational materials and three-dimensional models for use at all agencies, medical facilities, health fairs, school events and other gatherings where dental hygiene is being discussed.  We help, when possible, to sign up eligible children for HealthWave coverage.  We support public agencies and physicians who provide information on good dental hygiene and pre-natal care.  Children are being screened and treated at a much higher number and the Community Health Center Dental Clinic will open within months.  While gaps remain, they have narrowed and we have created a working relationship and dialogue among caregivers, schools, and local agencies in continuance of our mission.  Our cachement area benefits when our entire healthcare community pools our resources to work toward common goals.

Who is it for?
The entire patient cachement area for Geary Community Hospital

Why do they do it?   
Caregivers at Geary Community Hospital recognized the call to action when an area-wide health survey confirmed that the lack of basic dental care was the number one health concern in our area.  The hospital in conjunction with the Geary Community Healthcare Foundation recognized the need for a collaborative dental safety net.  Dental hygiene is a significant issue that can affect overall health as medical research continues to identify links to pre-term labor and other serious health risks.  It was obvious that coordinated efforts needed to be found to address ways to aid children and adults underserved and uninsured who lacked access to proper dental care.  Patients were seeking help in the Emergency Room frequently for dental-related symptoms and GCH was losing over $100,000 for problems that couldn't be resolved in the ER.  We created a collaborative with our hospital, our physicians, local dentists, the School District, Fort Riley, the Health Department, City and County official and other concerned agencies throughout Geary County, We recognized that we were in the perfect position to bring entities together and in doing so, we forged working agreements to fill the gaps in care, take the burden off of the Emergency Room and create a coordinated response to avert what had been a growing crisis.

Contact: Jolana Montgomery-Matney
Telephone: (785) 238-3787
E-mail: jmontgomery@gchks.org