s12903-024-03853-2
s12903-024-03853-2
s12903-024-03853-2
Abstract
Background A phase-III interdisciplinary quality improvement program, the preanesthetic oral examination (PAOE),
was implemented as a new program in an academic medical center to prevent perioperative dental injuries. This
study was aimed at surveying the perceived service quality and satisfaction of patients who had undergone PAOE
based on the SERVQUAL model.
Methods This cross-sectional survey was conducted at the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital using convenience
sampling. Patients referred for PAOE (PAOE group) and those who had voluntarily availed dental services (control
group) were recruited. A modified SERVQUAL questionnaire was used to assess the perceived service quality and
patient satisfaction with dental services. Cronbach’s alpha for SERVQUAL was 0.861.
Results We enrolled 286 (68.8%) and 130 (31.2%) participants in the PAOE and control groups, respectively. The path
analysis revealed that the PAOE group scored lower in dimensions of reliability (β = -0.074, P = 0.003), responsiveness
(β = -0.148, P = 0.006), and empathy (β = -0.140, P = 0.011). Furthermore, reliability (β = 0.655, P < 0.001) and
responsiveness (β = 0.147, P = 0.008) showed a direct effect on patient satisfaction. Overall, participants were highly
satisfied with the dental services.
Conclusions The PAOE group showed lower satisfaction and perceived quality of dental services compared to
the control group. Although implementing an interdisciplinary program reduces the perceived service quality,
its influence is limited. Employing an interdisciplinary teamwork is a win–win strategy encouraged to improve
patient safety and reduce malpractice claims. Future suggestions should focus on establishing waiting times
that are considered reasonable by patients. Patient-centered education related to the risk of perioperative dental
injuries should be provided, and awareness of oral conditions for patient safety should be improved. Moreover,
interprofessional education in continuous and undergraduate programs is necessary to improve professional quality.
Keywords Interdisciplinary cooperation, Patient safety, Perioperative dental injury, Quality improvement, Service
quality
3
*Correspondence: Department of Anesthesiology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital,
Chen-Yi Lee Kaohsiung, Taiwan
4
[email protected]; [email protected] Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine,
1
Department of Oral Hygiene, College of Dental Medicine, Kaohsiung Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
5
Medical University, No. 100, Shih-Chuan 1st Road, Kaohsiung School of Dentistry, College of Dental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical
80708, Taiwan University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2 6
Department of Dentistry, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan Kaohsiung, Taiwan
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Wu et al. BMC Oral Health (2024) 24:120 Page 2 of 8
Table 1 Patient characteristics (n = 416) Table 3 Comparing the perspectives on dental service by
Variables N (%) χ2 P patient type
Total Patient type Perspectives N (%) χ2 P
PAOE Control Total Patient type
(n = 286) (n = 130) PAOE Control
Sex (n = 286) (n = 130)
Male 156(37.5) 108(37.8) 82(63.1) 0.027 0.870 Satisfaction
Female 260(62.5) 178(62.2) 48(36.9) “Agree” 365 237 (82.9) 127 (97.7) 18.463 < 0.001***
Age group (87.5)
(years) “Non-committal” 32 29 (10.1) 3 (2.3)
20–29 89(21.4) 50(17.5) 39(30.0) 12.553 0.014* or “disagree” (7.7)
30–39 78(18.8) 51(17.8) 27(20.8) No response 20 20 (7.0) 0 (0.0)
(4.8)
40–49 114(27.4) 87(30.4) 27(20.8)
Recommendation
50–59 102(24.5) 77(26.9) 25(19.2)
“Agree” 353 230 (80.4) 123 (94.6) 15.353 < 0.001***
60–64 33(7.9) 21(7.3) 12(9.2)
(84.9)
Education level
“Non-committal” 46 39 (13.6) 7 (5.4)
College or 256(61.5) 159(56.0) 97(74.6) 13.945 < 0.001***
or “disagree” (11.1)
higher
No response 17 17 (5.9) 0 (0.0)
Senior/vo- 129(31.0) 100(35.2) 29(22.3)
(4.1)
cational high
Necessity
school
“Agree” -- 240(83.9) -- -- --
Junior high 29(7.0) 25(8.8) 4(3.1)
school or lower “Non-committal” -- 28(9.8) --
or “disagree”
Resident in
Kaohsiung No response -- 18(6.3) --
Yes 350(84.1) 245(85.7) 105(80.8) 1.604 0.205 PAOE, preanesthetic oral examination; ***: P < 0.001
Table 4 Comparing the perceived service quality by patient interval = 0.000, 0.065; CFI = 0.996 and TLI = 0.989. The
type model revealed that the PAOE group scored lower in
Variables Patient type (M ± SD) t P reliability (β = -0.074, P = 0.003), responsiveness (β =
PAOE Control
-0.148, P = 0.006), and empathy (β = -0.140, P = 0.011)
(n = 286) (n = 130)
compared to the control group. Furthermore, reliabil-
Tangibles (4–28) 25.07 ± 3.44 25.74 ± 2.85 -1.920 0.056
ity (β = 0.655, P < 0.001) and responsiveness (β = 0.147,
Reliability (5–35) 31.47 ± 4.42 32.92 ± 3.15 -3.783 < 0.001***
P = 0.008) directly affected the patient satisfaction.
Responsiveness 22.45 ± 7.00 25.48 ± 4.48 -5.240 < 0.001***
(4–28) Regarding the influences of sociodemographic variables,
Assurance (4–28) 25.05 ± 4.31 26.05 ± 2.57 -2.918 0.004** the older age group scored lower in responsiveness (β =
Empathy (5–35) 29.81 ± 7.56 32.82 ± 4.61 -4.946 < 0.001*** -0.122, P = 0.038), whereas the group with a higher edu-
PAOE, preanesthetic oral examination; **: P < 0.01; ***: P < 0.001 cation level scored higher in responsiveness (β = 0.155,
P = 0.011). The PAOE group was lower in education level.
and empathy; those with college or a higher education Hence, age, education level, and employment showed
level scored significantly higher in responsiveness and significant interrelationships between each other. Finally,
empathy; and student status was significantly more asso- the five dimensions of perceived service quality exhibited
ciated with responsiveness and empathy (see Appendix). significant interrelationships.
Sex and residence were of no significance in relation to
the five perceived service quality dimensions. Discussion
In the present study, a detailed oral examination was
Path-analysis model performed by a dental team, including the assessment
Figure 1 illustrates a proposed path model based on the of tooth mobility. The tooth mobility and fixation rates
literature review and the results of univariate analyses in were 13.3% and 8.4%, respectively. The posterior teeth
this study. Participants who studied mostly at the medi- with grade-I mobility were not fixed because of the
cal university near the hospital with student status were unaffected pathology relative to the anterior teeth with
excluded from the data analysis. Figure 2 illustrates the grade-I mobility; therefore, they had a lower fixation rate.
path-analysis model. The model fit to the data was sat- Moreover, POAE group in the phase III program showed
isfactory with the following values: χ2 = 19.765; df = 15; a higher mobility rate than the pre-operative patients in
P = 0.181; SRMR = 0.038; RMSEA = 0.031, 90% confidence phases I and II (7.53% and 9.74%, respectively) [3]. The
Fig. 1 Theoretical framework of the study. A proposed path model predicting patient satisfaction
PAOE, preanesthetic oral examination
Wu et al. BMC Oral Health (2024) 24:120 Page 6 of 8
Fig. 2 Path-analysis model relating service quality, patient type, and sociodemographic variables to patient satisfaction
Standardized path coefficients are presented
Non-significant paths are represented by dashed lines
The significant paths with P < 0.01 are in bold
Significance: *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001
PAOE, preanesthetic oral examination
difference between Phase III and Phase I or Phase II is general dental patients. Therefore, they tended to possess
that a qualified dental team surveyed the oral condition lower health literacy [22]. The reliability scale indicates
of the participant before surgery. Therefore, this result the service quality dimension representing timeliness and
might be explained by the thorough examination con- accuracy. A lower score indicates that the interdisciplin-
ducted by the qualified dental team. ary quality improvement program increased the length
In the present study, patients in the PAOE group scored of hospital stay of patients in the PAOE group, possibly
significantly lower in most dimensions of SERVQUAL leading to reduced patient satisfaction. Moreover, the
compared to the control group. Moreover, they reported responsiveness scale indicates the dimensions related to
significantly lower satisfaction compared to the con- information and communication. PAOE is a new pro-
trol group. In the path-analysis model, the five dimen- gram; therefore, most patients may have insufficient
sions of SERVQUAL were interrelated. The patient knowledge about its importance, as demonstrated by
type directly affected the reliability, responsiveness, and the lower agreement of the necessity to perform an oral
empathy scores; age directly affected the responsiveness examination before anesthesia in the present study, this
score; educational level directly affected the responsive- is consistent with previous studies on preoperative clinics
ness score and empathy scores; and the reliability and [10–12]. In clinical practice, the need for a preanesthetic
responsiveness scores were significant indicators affect- oral examination was explained by a visiting staff mem-
ing patient satisfaction (Fig. 2). The interrelationships ber before the oral examination. However, at times, the
between PAOE, age, education level, and employment patients did not even understand the anesthesia process.
indicated that patients who required general anesthesia Insufficient health literacy and the use of dialect preva-
were older and with a relatively lower education than the lent in Southern Taiwan increased the gap between the
Wu et al. BMC Oral Health (2024) 24:120 Page 7 of 8
dentists and patients, indicating that patient-centered is a win–win strategy encouraged to improve patient
education is necessary in the future. safety and reduce malpractice claims.
Strategies and policies focused on preventing periop-
Abbreviations
erative dental injuries vary among institutions and coun- PAOE Preanesthetic oral examination
tries. At some institutions, anesthesiologists evaluate the SERVQUAL Service quality
risks of dental trauma based on the dental history or a M Mean
SD Standard deviation
self-report questionnaire related to the patient’s dental CFI Comparative fit index
status. Patients at high risk are transferred to dentists TLI Tucker-Lewis index
for a mouthguard [23–25]. Some Japanese institutions SRMR Standardized root mean squared residual
RMSEA Root mean square error of approximation
have included oral function management in an interdis-
ciplinary system for perioperative management [26]. In
Japan, treatment fees for perioperative oral management Supplementary Information
by dentists were included in the dental fee schedule of The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.
org/10.1186/s12903-024-03853-2.
the National Health Insurance to prevent postoperative
complications in 2012. Preoperative/perioperative oral Supplementary Material 1
management by dentists were proved to be effective in
preventing the occurrence of postoperative aspiration Acknowledgements
pneumonia and reducing mortality and total medical The authors would like to thank all the participants.
costs [27–29]. Although anesthesiologists consistently
Author contributions
work in the oral cavity of patients, they may not have JHW and CYL conceived and designed the study. JHW conducted the survey,
studied the comprehensive education of teeth, surround- collected the data, and wrote a draft. CYL performed data analyses and revised
ing tissues, and intraoral prostheses [9]. Therefore, the the manuscript. JHW, KTL, KIC, and JKD aided in interpreting the results and
drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
interdisciplinary cooperation involving anesthesiologists
and dental team seems to be a better strategy to simul- Funding
taneously reduce malpractice claims and improve patient This work was supported by the Kaohsiung Medical University (grant
no.: KMUH-110-0M71), Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (grant no.:
safety and postoperative outcomes. NSYSUKMU 109-P017), and National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan,
In the present study, although patients in the PAOE ROC (grant no.: MOST 111-2410-H-037-033-MY2).
group were reported to have lower perceived service
Data availability
quality and patient satisfaction compared to the control The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not
group, the reported scores remained high. This indi- publicly available because of the regulation of KMUHIRB, but are available
cates that the decline in service quality owing to the new from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
program was limited. Future suggestions should focus
on establishing adequate waiting times that are consid- Declarations
ered reasonable by patients. Patient-centered educa- Ethics approval and consent to participate
tion related to the risk of perioperative dental injuries All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and
should be provided, and awareness of the oral condition regulations. Informed consent was obtained from all the participants.
The study protocol was approved by the Human Experiment
for patient safety should be improved. Moreover, inter- and Ethics Committee of the Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, KMU
professional education in continuing and undergraduate (KMUHIRB-E(II)-20200166).
programs is necessary to improve professional quality.
Consent for publication
This study has several limitations. First, owing to con- Not applicable.
venience sampling, a potential sample bias may exist.
Second, only perceived service quality and satisfaction Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
were evaluated, and the gaps between expectations and
perceptions were not assessed. Future studies by address- Received: 28 August 2023 / Accepted: 3 January 2024
ing these limitations are warranted.
Conclusions
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