Dentists’ perception of primary health care services in family health and mother and child health clinics in Alexandria, Egypt
Marwa M Sabry
Alexandria University, Egypt
: Dent Health Curr Res
Abstract
This study compared dentists’ perceptions of provided services in Family Health (FH) and Mother and Child Health (MCH) clinics. A questionnaire was distributed to 120 dentists in 7 FH and 4 MCH clinics in Alexandria, Egypt in 2012. The questionnaire assessed personal and professional background, perceptions of primary health care (PHC) role, types of services provided, patient recall and referral systems and perception of service quality. The response rate was 100%. More FH dentists perceived their role to include providing care for children and pregnant women. Restorations and scaling were provided by 90% of all dentists. More FH dentists reported providing simple extractions, pediatric extractions and multi-rooted endodontic treatment (P=0.03, 0.001 and 0.001). In FH clinics, where the performancebased incentive system was implemented, a greater number of patients were served and there was a shift in the type of services provided although dentists had a less positive perception of quality aspects. Thus, there is a need for the establishment of a mission and clear guidelines for the FH clinics to guide service provision.
Biography
Marwa M Sabry has completed her Master’s degree in Dental Public Health on 2013 from Alexandria University. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD. She had some post in health care management as; a Master degree in hospital administration from Alexandria University 2010, total quality management diploma from American University in Cairo 2011, lean six sigma green belts from World Class Training Institution 2012, and lean six sigma black belts from Cambridge College 2012. She used to apply public health in the community as she conducted several education programs with cooperation with charity associations, schools, hospitals, elderly homes to provide preventive health awareness to different targeted groups on organized events; orphan day, health day, child day, etc.
