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Dental Access
Governor Creates KidsFirst Task Force 9/3/04
WHA Resource Guide for Increasing Dental Access
February 24, 2003
TO: WHA Member Organizations
FROM: Steve Brenton, President
SUBJECT: WHA Resource Guide for Increasing Dental Access
There is a dental access crisis in Wisconsin for low income persons, and it's VERY REAL! Hospital emergency department personnel all over Wisconsin, rural and urban alike, are telling poignant stories of patients, young and old, who present themselves in pain due to a lack of dental care. This suffering caused by a dire lack of dental care, and dentists and dental hygienists willing to see the uninsured and even Medicaid/BadgerCare patients, must end. By default, lack of appropriate dental care is fast becoming a "hospital issue" and a real concern. Patients are coming to our hospitals for medical care for tooth decay and abscesses. In all too many Wisconsin communities, the emergency room is becoming the safety net for dental care.
The Wisconsin Hospital Association, along with the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative (RWHC), has convened a group of passionate individuals representing hospitals and other organizations that have been involved in facilitating, creating and sometimes managing dental clinics and dental services in their market areas. Various models of increasing dental access are prevalent throughout Wisconsin and are included in a resource manual that we are sharing with our members. The manual contains examples of what hospitals can do to promote dental access for low income persons in their communities. These initiatives are NOT meant to be long-term solutions to this crisis, but rather are examples of caring community hospitals that are addressing a huge public health crisis.
WHA and RWHC present these ideas to you and your community hoping that they will stimulate and challenge you to launch a program in your community. It is our hope that by sharing these initiatives, you will see fit to engage others within your community to put their heads and hearts together to find a solution.
WHA wishes to thank Tim Size of the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative and the other members of the Work Group on Dental Access for their excellent efforts. They are further identified in the manual.
Link to WHA Resource Guide for Increasing Dental Access (pdf)
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