IAF Dental clinics monitoring tool increases productivity and customer satisfaction

Background: the dental clinics in the Israeli-Air-Forces (IAF) are managed based on two distinct outcomes: (i) reports of accomplished "completed dental procedures" (e.g.: extractions) in the form of a daily sum of 'standard-dental-units': SDU (ii) a bi-annual survey of satisfaction filed by a random group of IAF soldiers who are asked to rank their perception of the quality-of-service (QoS) when compared to feeding, clothing, and other services the IAF provides. Traditionally, IAF dental clinics receive high QoS ranks as compared to all other (>30) personal service providers. However, despite maintaining high SDU counts, many of the IAF clinics provided inadequate dental services relative to the needs, on the grounds that increased dental efficiency would spoil high QoS perception. To this end, a new management tool was introduced: Production Quantification Index (PQI) providing a monthly/yearly cumulative estimate of "completed dental procedures". Objectives: To study the effectiveness of setting periodic PQI goals for each IAF dental clinic compared to the PQI calculated from earlier SDU measurements. We tested the hypothesis that introducing PQI would lower QoS ranks due to the increased pressure on staff members. Methods: PQI goals were set in conjunction with the dental staff matching the specific needs and capability of each dental clinic. Obtained PQI values were monitored in 15 IAF clinics during the years 2000-2004 and were statistically correlated with estimates of QoS. Results: PQI results revealed a cumulative 30% increase (!) in the number of completed dental procedures over the study period. Most QoS values – high as they were – escalated. The perception of the quality of dental services improved amongst IAF military personnel. Results show a high correlation (R=0.65) between yearly trends of PQI and QoS. Conclusions: Introduction of a measurable long term production parameter (PQI) resulted in increased productivity coupled with increased customer satisfaction.