Interprofessional Oral Health Collaboration: A Survey of Knowledge and Practice Behaviors of Hospital-Based Primary Care Medical Providers in New York City

Nadia Laniado; Megan Cloidt; Brian Altonen; Victor Badner

doi:10.2147/AMEP.S332797

Interprofessional Oral Health Collaboration: A Survey of Knowledge and Practice Behaviors of Hospital-Based Primary Care Medical Providers in New York City

Adv Med Educ Pract. 2021 Oct 14:12:1211-1218. doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S332797. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Nadia Laniado¹, Megan Cloidt¹, Brian Altonen², Victor Badner¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dentistry, Health+Hospitals/Jacobi Medical Center Bronx, New York, NY, 10461, USA.
² Department of Research Administration, Health+Hospitals/Central Office, New York, NY, 10013, USA.

Abstract

Background: The siloed delivery of oral and medical health care in the United States has contributed to a lack of awareness of the consequences of poor oral health and has hampered effective interprofessional education and collaboration. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and practice behaviors of primary care medical providers in an urban safety-net hospital regarding collaboration with dentists and integration of oral health into overall health-care delivery.

Methods: A 36-item survey was designed in a web-based platform (Survey Monkey^®) and electronically distributed in September 2020 to 181 primary care medical providers (physicians, nurses, physician assistants) within a municipal hospital in the Bronx, New York. The questionnaire included sections on demographics, current practices, oral health knowledge, and opinions regarding interprofessional collaboration. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses using the chi-square and Fisher's exact test were performed with a significance level of 0.05.

Results: The response rate was 66% (119 respondents). The vast majority (80%) reported little or no training in oral health and 85% reported no team experience with oral health professionals. Medical providers' confidence in examining the oral cavity was positively associated with previous additional training (p = 0.001) and with team experience (p = 0.005). The two most commonly reported barriers to willingness to collaborate were lack of formal relationships with dental providers (74%) and competing priorities (69%).

Conclusion: Overall, there is very limited awareness and integration of oral health into the clinical practice of medical providers at this safety-net hospital. However, those providers with previous training and team experience had greater oral health confidence. Given the critical importance of oral health to overall health, increased efforts should be directed to further educate and train medical providers and address barriers to interprofessional care.

Keywords: health promotion; interprofessional relations; oral health; oral health care; primary health care.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant number D88HP37548. They have no role in the study design, execution, or publication of the study.