Qualitative assessment of the dental health services provided at a dental school in Kerman, Iran

Abstract

Increasing the quality of the services provided in a Dental School can raise the satisfaction level of patients and consequently increase the level of their oral health. This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of dental care and services provided to patients referred to a Dental School in Kerman, Iran. In this qualitative study, face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted with 41 participants [25 patients (P), 5 nurses (N), 6 dental academic staff (AS), and 5 dental students (S)]. Then, the interviews were transcribed and analyzed, using content analysis of data. Data analysis in qualitative research involves breaking down the data and searching for codes and categories that are then reassembled to form themes. Both positive and negative themes emerged. Positive themes included: good infection control, service accessibility, patient appointments and visits were not assigned on merit, precise examinations, and comprehensive treatment plans. Negative themes included: long wait time, lack of options to pass waiting time, such as newspapers and television, an insufficient number of nurses, and not enough professors for supervision. In addition, the results of this study show that the patients and dental staff have high expectations in relation to dental services, and that implementation of these expectations would increase the overall satisfaction with and the quality of the level of services. Finally, some recommendations for improving services in the Kerman Dental School were given to the managing team of the Dental School.

Patient assessment of the quality of dental care services in a Nigerian hospital

“…Some workers have used patient satisfaction as a proxy for quality of dental care by using the Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire [9][10][11] . Others assessed only patient perception of care received [12,13] . These studies concluded that patients' satisfaction implied quality care.…”

“…Rad and others evaluated patients at an Iranian dental school clinic on the assumption that increasing quality of care would improve patient satisfaction thereby encouraging increasing oral health care [12] . They found that patients had high expectations of quality dental care and appreciated the infection control practises and the accessibility of the dental clinic.…”

“…They found that patients had high expectations of quality dental care and appreciated the infection control practises and the accessibility of the dental clinic. However, patients complained of long waiting times, insufficient number of nurses and inadequate supervision of attending clinicians [12] . The study did not quantify the degree of expectation or disapproval.…”

“…Expectations are future focused, while perceptions are "after the fact" [14,17] . These previous studies [12,13] did not measure the degree to which quality of dental care had been evaluated as the "quality gap" essential to such rigour could not be evaluated by their study tools. In this study, the view of Parasuraman et al [14,17] that quality of a service such as dental care is best assessed by the "quality gap" obtained between patients' expectations and perceptions was utilised.…”

Flipped clinical training: a structured training method for undergraduates in complete denture prosthesis

“…Patients visiting university hospitals are often offended by the quality of care provided by student dentists during the learning phase as they have no experience. Patient’s expectations and attitude frequently affect the learning especially when there is a need to correct the procedure for bringing the intended quality [15]. Flipped training optimizes students knowledge and familiarization of the procedure before they start treating patients and thereby increase their level of competence.…”