Objective
To develop the first standardized definition of the patient‐centered dental home (PCDH).
Data Sources/Study Setting
Primary data from a 55‐member national expert panel and public comments.
Study Design
We used a modified Delphi process with three rounds of surveys to collect panelists’ ratings of PCDH characteristics and open‐ended comments. The process was supplemented with a 1‐month public comment period.
Data Collection/Extraction Methods
We calculated median ratings, analyzed consensus using the interpercentile range adjusted for symmetry, and qualitatively evaluated comments.
Principal Findings
Forty‐nine experts (89%) completed three rounds and identified eight essential PCDH characteristics, resulting in the following definition: “The patient‐centered dental home is a model of care that is accessible, comprehensive, continuous, coordinated, patient‐ and family‐centered, and focused on quality and safety as an integrated part of a health home for people throughout the life span.”
Conclusions
This PCDH definition provides the foundation for developing measures for research, care improvement, and accreditation and is aligned with the patient‐centered medical home. Consensus among a broad national expert panel—including provider, payer, and accreditation stakeholder organizations and experts in medicine, dentistry, and quality measurement—supports the definition's usability and its potential to facilitate medical‐dental primary care integration.
Dentists' perceptions about Medicaid potentially are modifiable by changing program policies in ways to improve access for vulnerable populations, including new Medicaid enrollees.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.