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Factors influencing the cost‐effectiveness of community health center dental programs in the U. S. A.
Author(s) -
Jong Anthony,
Gluck George M.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1974.tb01795.x
Subject(s) - medicine , community health center , revenue , dental health , community health , center (category theory) , population , cost effectiveness , gerontology , family medicine , environmental health , nursing , public health , finance , risk analysis (engineering) , business , chemistry , crystallography
The community health center has been viewed by many Americans as an important mechanism for the improvement of health of the urban poor. The millions of dollars allocated for a relatively small percentage of the population, however, has led to some criticisms of the concept. This paper deals with factors influencing the cost of dental services in a community health center and an analysis of several existing programs. The major factors affecting the cost effectiveness of the clinics appear to be the (1) broken appointment rate, (2) age distribution of the population served, (3) mixture of services rendered, and (4) additional community services rendered. Programs which have low broken appointment rates and which treat both adults and children seem to maintain a higher revenue‐cost ratio. This ratio was in the range of 0.78 to 1.10 for the three dental programs studied.