Giddon Donald B, Swann Brian, Donoff R Bruce, Hertzman-Miller Ruth
Department of Developmental Biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
J Prim Prev. 2013 Aug;34(4):279-91. doi: 10.1007/s10935-013-0310-7.
The United States is currently experiencing a primary care shortage. One solution to improving health care is to increase the utilization of existing health care providers, particularly dentists, an opportunity that has been largely ignored. By employing mid-level providers for less complex procedures to deliver more accessible dental care at lower cost, dentists can redistribute tasks to their office workforce. They can then serve as oral physicians who can provide limited preventive primary care, including screening for chronic diseases, while continuing to oversee all dental care, whether provided by dentists or non-dentists. Thus, they could improve the health of the US population as well as increase access to dental care at lower cost, while partially alleviating the primary care shortage by filling a need for the screening aspects of primary care.
美国目前正面临初级保健短缺的问题。改善医疗保健的一个解决方案是提高现有医疗保健提供者的利用率，尤其是牙医，而这一机会在很大程度上被忽视了。通过雇佣中级医疗人员来处理不太复杂的程序，以更低的成本提供更易获得的牙科护理，牙医可以将任务重新分配给他们的办公室工作人员。然后，他们可以充当口腔医生，提供有限的预防性初级保健，包括慢性病筛查，同时继续监督所有牙科护理，无论这些护理是由牙医还是非牙医提供。因此，他们可以改善美国民众的健康状况，同时以更低的成本增加牙科护理的可及性，通过满足初级保健筛查方面的需求，部分缓解初级保健短缺的问题。
