Redefining scheduling guidelines: a research protocol for testing the feasibility and impact of the revised patient scheduling guideline on patient-centered care and overall efficiency of dental clinics

Abstract

The dental health care system has long been challenged with defining the levels of care to create an accurate and reliable method for triaging patients. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the demand for organized care. As a response, the American Dental Association (ADA) developed one of its first authorized protocols on how to schedule patients according to their ailments. Despite this report, no known guidelines have been found that facilitate systematized patient triage within dental health care settings. In the climate of today’s health care system especially, it is imperative to implement a methodical approach to effectively predicting the need for emergent, urgent, or elective care. The goal of this Capstone Project is to develop a scheduling guideline for the triage of dental patients and a research protocol for testing the guideline.