Wisconsin Medical Dental Integration Project

Integrating oral health services into primary care clinics and health systems

Full Project Name:Wisconsin Medical Dental Integration Project (WIMDIP)Primary Community Organization:Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Children's Health Alliance of WisconsinPrimary Academic Partner:Constance Gundacker, MD, MPH, PediatricsAward Amount:$528,610

Award Date

January2019

Project Duration:48 months

Project Description Narrative:

Wisconsin is ranked 50th amongst all states for access to oral health services for children enrolled in Medicaid. To improve access to dental health services and reduce the impact and incidence of dental disease on overall health outcomes, project partners will establish a medical dental integration model where primary care clinics integrate dental hygienists into the medical team to provide preventive services to pregnant women and young children.

Community partners: Wisconsin Dental Association, Wisconsin Dental Hygienists' Association, American Academy of Pediatrics - Wisconsin Chapter, Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association, Aurora Health Care, American Family Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Gundersen Health, NorthLakes Community Health Center, Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, Ascension, St. Vincent Children's Hospital

Outcomes & Lessons Learned:

Supported four Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), one nonprofit clinic, and two large health systems to plan for or implement the Wisconsin Medical Dental Integration (WI-MDI) model to integrate dental hygienists into primary care clinics
Resulted in five dental hygienists working in an integrated role across five clinicsengaging in 12,000 pediatric encounters and 240 encounters with pregnant individuals
Partnered with the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership Information Technology team to develop automated reports from electronic health records to facilitate oral health data extraction and determine population health impact
Disseminated project efforts through 11 academic and community-facing presentations