Overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary care
The Age-Friendly Health System movement has been a unifying factor in caring for older adults at the University of Utah Health. Despite progress, challenges to efficient healthcare collaboration exist, particularly between geriatric primary care and oral health. This manuscript presents four of thos...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Open Exploration Publishing Inc.
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Exploration of Medicine |
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| Online Access: | https://www.explorationpub.com/uploads/Article/A1001277/1001277.pdf |
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| _version_ | 1832586166447112192 |
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| author | Alberto Enrique Varela Donna Baluchi Timothy W. Farrell José E. Rodríguez |
| author_facet | Alberto Enrique Varela Donna Baluchi Timothy W. Farrell José E. Rodríguez |
| author_sort | Alberto Enrique Varela |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Age-Friendly Health System movement has been a unifying factor in caring for older adults at the University of Utah Health. Despite progress, challenges to efficient healthcare collaboration exist, particularly between geriatric primary care and oral health. This manuscript presents four of those challenges (lack of communication between medical and dental providers, the distance between medical and dental services, patient discomfort with the inclusion of oral health in primary health care, and provider discomfort in requesting oral health information in medical encounters) with the solutions derived at the University of Utah Health. Leaders at University of Utah Health developed five interventions to address these challenges (participation in the development of EPIC Wisdom©, a fully integrated oral health record in the electronic health record (EHR), co-location in new centers and oral health consultation in existing centers, implementing a geriatric health assessment that included oral health, widespread adoption of the 4 Ms framework). Applying the lessons learned from these challenges can benefit all older adults and may help prevent the conditions associated with periodontal disease. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e852d8fd779d417f863996399e8e1fd6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2692-3106 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Open Exploration Publishing Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Exploration of Medicine |
| spelling | doaj-art-e852d8fd779d417f863996399e8e1fd62025-01-26T08:32:27ZengOpen Exploration Publishing Inc.Exploration of Medicine2692-31062025-01-016100127710.37349/emed.2025.1001277Overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary careAlberto Enrique Varela0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3312-8006Donna Baluchi1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1229-9102Timothy W. Farrell2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0070-8757José E. Rodríguez3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9015-5097Division of Special Care, School of Dentistry, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108-1213, United StatesSpencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132-0002, United StatesDivision of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States; VA Salt Lake City Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Salt Lake City, UT 84148, United StatesDepartment of Family and Preventive Medicine, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84132-0001, United StatesThe Age-Friendly Health System movement has been a unifying factor in caring for older adults at the University of Utah Health. Despite progress, challenges to efficient healthcare collaboration exist, particularly between geriatric primary care and oral health. This manuscript presents four of those challenges (lack of communication between medical and dental providers, the distance between medical and dental services, patient discomfort with the inclusion of oral health in primary health care, and provider discomfort in requesting oral health information in medical encounters) with the solutions derived at the University of Utah Health. Leaders at University of Utah Health developed five interventions to address these challenges (participation in the development of EPIC Wisdom©, a fully integrated oral health record in the electronic health record (EHR), co-location in new centers and oral health consultation in existing centers, implementing a geriatric health assessment that included oral health, widespread adoption of the 4 Ms framework). Applying the lessons learned from these challenges can benefit all older adults and may help prevent the conditions associated with periodontal disease.https://www.explorationpub.com/uploads/Article/A1001277/1001277.pdfgeriatricsoralsystemicinterprofessionalcollaborationperiodontal disease |
| spellingShingle | Alberto Enrique Varela Donna Baluchi Timothy W. Farrell José E. Rodríguez Overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary care Exploration of Medicine geriatrics oral systemic interprofessional collaboration periodontal disease |
| title | Overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary care |
| title_full | Overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary care |
| title_fullStr | Overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary care |
| title_full_unstemmed | Overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary care |
| title_short | Overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary care |
| title_sort | overcoming challenges to integration of oral health into geriatric primary care |
| topic | geriatrics oral systemic interprofessional collaboration periodontal disease |
| url | https://www.explorationpub.com/uploads/Article/A1001277/1001277.pdf |
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