Improvement of waiting list management of to optimise undergraduate patient attendance

Objectives: A key challenge for the undergraduate dental course is to provide sufficient patient contacts for undergraduates, enabling them to gain the required clinical experience and competencies. Student patients are recruited and added to appropriate undergraduate waiting lists. The COVID-19 pandemic limited patient access to dental hospital treatment over 2 academic years which heightened the inaccuracy and length of the undergraduate waiting lists. Our main aim was to review and validate these patient waiting lists, to reduce the number of failed patient attendances and to maximise the quality of student chairside clinical exposure. This was combined with a new booking system to improve patient and student experience through standardised communication, reduced waiting times and improved attendance rates.
Methods: Through a quality improvement project we collated current waiting list numbers and rates of attendance on undergraduate restorative clinics. 1400 patients were contacted. Student, clinical and administrative staff feedback was sought on the current booking system which was utilised to develop a new booking system to improve both the patient and student experiences.
Results: Following validation patients on the waiting list reduced from 1400 to 386 and consequently attendance rates on student restorative clinics improved by 18%. In September 2021 attendance was recorded at 68% and following validation 86% in September 2022. Maximum waiting time reduced from 5 years to less than 6 months.
Conclusions: Through quality improvement & service user engagement, we have improved patient attendance rates. This has improved the student experience by improving efficiency, enabling students to optimise their chairside clinical sessions.