Goals: The goal of any health care system is to provide those necessary health care services to the target population to alleviate pain, disability and to prolong life. IDC was established on March 20, 1981 to address the oral health needs of the nursing home population. Dr. Griffiths -the founder- went on to establish IDC's revolutionary standards as the underpinnings of the Federal and National Standards for nursing homes.
The goal of the IDC system is to establish a real world evaluative tool to measure the oral health status of the target population. The methodology can be expanded to other health and social services. Most programs use as an evaluative tool raw numbers of procedures performed without regard to the Outcome of the care being delivered. The most important question that must be answered is: How much healthier is the population being served than when you started.
IDC's system provides an ongoing quality assessment and assurance system that has withstood the test of time. The IDC covered population can be assessed at periodic points in time in terms of the health of the entire group. Through this system limited resources are efficiently utilized and review groups such as HCFA, JACHO, State review agencies as well as On-site and Regional administrative personnel have a web-based tool for allocation of resources and evaluations.
How it works: The IDC system works by assessing an effective health needs score utilizing the copyrighted OHSTI index on each patient at each visit. The dentist who does the assessment is trained and assisted by IDC in performing this procedure, the first of its kind to combine, psychological, medical and dental status into an overall score. These individual scores are then aggregated through a data base management information system to arrive at an overall score of oral health for the defined group. This system successfully contributed to the 1115 waiver request of the State of Florida for its Medicaid program.
Target Population: The target population of individuals will be treated according to time and materials limitations. Services can include a range of services in the dental field as well as the medical field. This can include in-patient care at the facility, bedside care and treatment at other local facilities as dictated by the situation of the client and the facility. A report on the health status of the entire population designated will be given to the residential facility administrator on periodic bases.
Conclusion: If you want to have a true outcome based dental / medical program the IDC system is the longest tested system available to your organization. All other systems provide numbers data but do not indicate the true status of your defined population.
|
