240 - Teleconferencing to Lower Missed Appointments and Dental Home Establishment

Purpose: This quality improvement study aims to implement teleconference encounters before new patient (NP) exam appointments to decrease the missed appointment rate and to establish dental homes for new patients.

Methods: All new patients scheduled within the study time range will be recruited to utilize teleconferencing before their scheduled appointments. This study will use the collected data to calculate and compare missed appointment rates for NP appointments for patients who did and did not utilize teleconferencing before their scheduled appointments.

Results: When the parents utilized teleconference, 77% showed up to their NP exam, and 23% no showed their NP exam. Of the parents that did not utilize teleconference, 55.3% showed up to their NP exam, and 44.7% no showed their NP exam.




Conclusion: It is hypothesized that teleconferencing can be used as an adjunct tool in dental care, with further applications in addition to the improvement of no-show rates for NP exams.