Congratulations to the UF College of Dentistry Clinical Education Model Transition Team members — winners of a 2010 Prudential Davis Productivity Award from UF. They were recently recognized for their achievement by the university at a luncheon. Congratulations to the team members: Dr. Boyd Robinson, Richelle Janiec, Dr. Ronald Watson, Charles Lesch, Justus Weber, Lamar Brooks and Stephen Kostewicz.
This team spearheaded the planning and transition from a specialty-based to a general dentistry comprehensive care clinical model in the DMD education program. This required designing new clinical processes, planning and implementing physical plant changes, negotiating with specialty departments to provide faculty coverage, making changes to the clinical curriculum, hiring and training new staff and faculty team leaders, creating a new scheduling program and facilitating a major shift in organizational culture.
The new model, launched in August 2009, increased clinical revenues, improved student satisfaction, increased the number of patients/patient visits in the DMD clinics and improved the patient experience through the delivery of streamlined, comprehensive dental care. Although the move to a general dentistry model had been discussed many years in the college, the team was able to lead the transition and meet the launch deadline only six months after the decision was made.
Just two semesters after the new model was implemented, the success was evident. Clinical revenues increased more than $165,000 in the first year, and patient visit increased by more than 8,100 over the previous year; almost a 25 percent increase.
The Prudential-Davis Productivity Awards (DPA) program recognizes and rewards Floridas state government employees whose work significantly and measurably increases productivity, and promotes innovation to improve the delivery of state services and save money for Florida taxpayers and businesses.