Melissa P. Baez, MPH: No financial relationships to disclose
Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic had an immediate and direct impact on our work at the St. David's Dental Program, leading to an immediate reduction in free quality care. This reduction, in turn, exacerbated inequalities in oral health for the economically disadvantaged elementary students we work to serve, significantly reducing the consent form return rates for treatment acceptance. OBJECTIVES. 1) Discuss our Operations and Management shift to adapt to the pandemic and future public health emergencies and the outcomes of change in our infrastructure. 2) Discuss the best ways to collect data and how data is used to plan for the upcoming School Year. 3) We will discuss the importance of communication with our external partners and how it affects our program. METHODS. Our dental operations team overcame challenges by updating our operations' program infrastructure, changing our logistics, and shifting our operations protocols to increase treatment acceptance numbers. Simultaneously, the elementary schools we worked with had difficulties of their own. In turn, St David's Foundation staff identified communication strategies and increased efforts to strengthen our relationship with the schools. RESULTS. The updates to our operations' program infrastructure, change in our logistics, and shift in our operations protocols led to increased restorative acceptance rates. CONCLUSIONS. Constant communication within our program and with external partners, continuous updates in projections while planning for the elementary school year, and improved outreach communication efforts led to a higher treatment acceptance return. They were proven key to the success of the St. David's Foundation Dental Program.
