Oral Health Care Quality Measurement and Its Role in Dental Education.

Concerns about health care quality have affected much of the health care delivery system including dentistry and dental education. Believing measurement is the key element in improving quality, the Dental Quality Alliance brought together major stakeholders in oral health care to lead the development of oral health performance measures that can be used to evaluate the performance of dental programs and practices. These measures complement the quality assurance measures dental schools use to ensure compliance with accreditation standards on patient care delivery. This article describes the rationale for and process of developing these performance measures and argues that dental schools should implement quality measurement processes in their clinical programs to improve the clinical practices of the present and better prepare their graduates for their practices of the future.