Responsibility loadings for dental services by general dentists

Abstract

BackgroundResponsibility loadings determine relative value units of dental services that translate services into a common scale of work effort. The aims of this paper were to elicit responsibility loadings for a subset of dental services and to relate responsibility loadings to ratings of importance of the components of responsibility.MethodsResponsibility loadings and ratings of components of responsibility were collected using mailed questionnaires from a random sample of Australian private general practice dentists in 2007 (response rate = 77%).ResultsMedian responsibility loadings were 1.25 for an initial oral examination and for a 3+-surface amalgam restoration, 1.50 for a simple extraction and for root canal obturation (single canal), and 1.75 for subgingival curettage (per quadrant). Across the five services coefficients from a multivariate logit model showed that ratings of importance of knowledge (0.34), dexterity (0.24), physical effort (0.28) and mental effort (0.48) were associated with responsibility loadings (P < 0.05).ConclusionsThe elicited median responsibility loadings showed agreement with previous estimates indicating convergent validity. Components of responsibility were associated with loadings indicating that components can explain and predict responsibility aspects of dental service provision.

The effect of organizational loads on work stress, emotional commitment, and turnover intention

“…Accordingly, responsibility load is shaped by the employee's title and work content. Tasks that require more knowledge, decisionmaking, and skill carry a higher responsibility load (Brennan & Spencer, 2010). New administrative candidates have very little decision-making responsibility, which benefits relatively fewer people while they learn tasks that require limited skill and job components (Fried, Grant, Levi, Hadani, & Slowik, 2007).…”

Components of responsibility in estimating relative value units: How do dentists value their work?

“…Some of these are based on time and time‐cost units . However, being restricted to time as the measure of relative value of services does not account for the responsibility aspects of service provision . Another approach is the use of fees to estimates RVUs, but fees may reflect other factors such as consumer perceptions, or infrastructure costs not directly related to the resources required to provide the service.…”

“…20 However, being restricted to time as the measure of relative value of services does not account for the responsibility aspects of service provision. 13 Another approach is the use of fees to estimates RVUs, 8 but fees T A B L E 3 Adjusted coefficients (SE) from ordered logit models of responsibility weight for dental services The observed variation in weights across service areas showed that dentists discriminated between services in a systematic and cognizant manner. Further, the logical variation observed provides an indication of face validity in that the discrimination in responsibility weights was consistent with clinical expectations.…”

“…Assessing the importance of various components of responsibility, such as knowledge, experience and physical effort, can illustrate what practitioners consider when providing valuations of their clinical work. Previous research into components of responsibility suggested that such components explain and predict responsibility aspects of dental service provision, but the research was limited to a small subset of services . To generalize such findings requires representative sampling of dentists and ratings of a complete range of dental service items.…”

“…Previous research into components of responsibility suggested that such components explain and predict responsibility aspects of dental service provision, but the research was limited to a small subset of services. 13 To generalize such findings requires representative sampling of dentists and ratings of a complete range of dental service items. Therefore, the aims of the study were to describe the responsibility weights for dental services by main service area and assess the association of ratings of the importance of the components of responsibility with elicited responsibility weights.…”