A Pilot Study of the Effect of Dental Facility Design on Productivity.

The purpose of this study was to test a methodology for determining the dental treatment room DTR arrangement and mode of practice which best insures maximum productivity in the Army Dental Care System. The specific objectives of the study were a to determine the most productive dental clinic design presently in use in the Army and b to determine the change in productivity when multiple DTRs are used by a single dentist with varying combinations of dental assistant DA and dental hygienist DH support. The basic approach for this project was to compare the productivity of three general duty dental officers who rotated through three different types of dental facilities and practiced using five different provider combinations for one week each. It was concluded the findings should be considered trends rather than facts because of the small sample size and inability to control scheduling of personnel and facilities to conform to a recognized statistical design. The new modular clinic was shown to be the design in which the rotating teams were most productive. Finally it was concluded that the most productive combinations were those in which the dentist was supported by two primary DTRs and two DAs. Author