Author: John Girdwood

Responsible for overseeing all aspects of a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) grant funding Detroit Mercy’s Michigan Initiate for Mothers and Infant Oral Health through the Division of Dental Public Health and Outreach at Detroit Mercy Dental

Michigan Rural Health Conference Presentation Idea

Unfortunately, this submission was not accepted by the conference.

However, we are currently working toward offering the material (possibly through webinar) as an Oral Health Grand Rounds program to rural providers in Michigan.  Stay tuned!

Submitted by: John Girdwood, MSA, PhD; Statewide Project Manager; University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry; girdwojr@udmercy.edu; (774) 473-9663

Title of Presentation: Adding Oral Health Care to the Prenatal Visit

Length of Presentation: 30 min

Objectives: At the completion of the presentation, each attendee will be equipped with (1) specific practical tools to use for implementing an oral health program in an OBGYN clinic and (2) general overview of options for integrating oral health elsewhere in most medical clinics.

Session Description

The purpose of the Michigan Initiative for Maternal and Infant Oral Health is to improve oral health of mothers and children in underserved areas. The grant-funded effort began as a 1-year project at 6 pilot sites. The initial aim was to examine the feasibility and impact of placing a registered dental hygienist within an OBGYN medical clinic. While the approach was an important first step toward reaching patients in the inaugural year, it was essential to strategically plan a more robust sustainable model while concurrently building the new program.

Pilot sites are, and the project best fits, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) but we are building a standardized model that works at almost any site and purposefully sought out pilot sites from a wide range of areas (SES/geography) including the Upper Peninsula copper country.

Short 1-2 paragraph presenter bio:

Dr. John Girdwood is the statewide project manager for the Michigan Initiative for Maternal and Infant Oral Health, a 1-year grant-funded effort at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry. Dr. Girdwood has a research platform based on life course outcomes and focuses on families and communities as units of analysis. Dr. Girdwood is an applied sociologist who has worked on quality improvement efforts for health care organizations including OBGYN, PED, homecare and hospice, as well as strategic planning for a new medical school. Prior to Detroit Mercy, he was project manager for the Michigan Caries Prevention Program and supported Community-Based Dental Education at the University of Michigan.

Type of audience best suited to your presentation and maximum number of attendees, if applicable: Any of the following members of a med clinic (esp. OBGYN/PED) team: physician, medical director, IT, billing, hygienist, dental assistant, dentist, dental director, CEO, CFO

AV Needs: Projector and hookup for a PowerPoint

Integration Webinar

I just watched a great webinar put out by NNOHA called “Integration of Oral Health Care into Prenatal Care and Diabetic Management: A Community Safety Net Clinic Experience.”  You can watch the webinar here and download the slides here.  I encourage you to check it out!

I learned a lot and a few things stuck with me:

  1. The site gave patients educational brochures like many of us do but the clinicians found most of those brochures in the garbage of the lobby where patients would discard them on the way out, not even making it home.
  2. The best way to ensure patients show up for dental visits is to schedule dental visits at the same time as OBGYN visits.

Separately, I listened in on this webinar put out by HRSA called “The CDC HI-5 Initiative:  The Intervention and Application of Health Impact in Five Years” and you can watch that here.

Grace Health Case Study Nationally Recognized

Grace Health is recognized in a paper commissioned by the Roundtable on Health Literacy, Health and Medicine Division, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.  The paper is now posted online.  Click here for a direct link and jump to page 208.

Title

Atchison KA, Rozier RG and Weintraub JA. Integrating Oral Health, Primary Care, and Health Literacy: Considerations for Health Professional Practice, Education and Policy, 2017.

Click here to go to the main website, scroll down to click on commissioned papers.  The paper on Grace Health is currently the first one listed, though with a slightly different title: A Potential Pathway to Connecting Dental Health with General Health (2017).  All four case studies that were conducted are in Section 5.  The Grace Health case study is the third one, starting on page 208.

The document will likely be edited soon so the document will eventually look more “official” and polished.  They will also be disseminating information about the overall project.  A national workshop will follow, most likely in November 2018.

Read more about Grace Health and other cool projects on the links above!

Maternal and Infant Oral Health

Improving the oral health of mothers and children!

Perinatal Fast-Track Program in Grand Traverse Region

Check out what Emily Llore, MPH presented to the MOHC.  Emily is the Coalition Coordinator of the Grand Traverse Region, one of nine regional coalitions in Michigan.  From her presentation:

  • At 8 clinic locations, pregnant patients will be given priority in scheduling and be seen within 30 days of call.  Initial appointments will include
    an exam and development of a treatment plan.
  • At 3 clinic locations, pregnant patient must be seen the same week they call or their doctor calls.  Initial appointments will include an exam and development of a treatment plan.  This protocol guarantees pregnant women will have access to a dentist/dental provider within 1 week of calling. The provider will determine what needs to be done, how urgent it is (mother and baby’s health) in accordance with perinatal dental care standards.

Click here to learn more about the Grand Traverse Regional Oral Health Coalition.

Detroit Mercy Team makes visit to Muskegon

Detroit Mercy Dental Regional Coordinators Christian Garcia (North/West Region) and Monica Jensen (East/Central) made a visit to the Muskegon County Oral Health Coalition meeting on 11/15/17.

Muskegon County Oral Health Coalition
Muskegon County Oral Health Coalition

There are so many great things happening in Muskegon!  We are looking forward to working with Muskegon Family Care, one of our six pilot sites on the Maternal and Infant Oral Health Initiative!

Historical Look at Grace Health

The Grace Health Model for Pregnant Mothers has been fully functioning since the clinic received funding from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan.  They launched 7/14/2014 which means Grace Health has 3 years of experience caring for the oral health of pregnant mothers utilizing the PA161 hygiene program.  For more information about the Grace Health Model, please read either of the following links:

1st Patient to Complete Oral Health Program

1st Anniversary of Grace Health’s Space for OB/GYN