When Your Community Health opened its digital dental and denture service two years ago, it started a journey that had the potential to transform patients’ lives.
Through a partnership with Larter Consulting (Larter), Your Community Health discovered hidden insights that may propel the venture well beyond its initial focus on service delivery to local residents in Melbourne’s north.
The oral health challenge was immense
Your Community Health often deals with people in great need and those who have experienced disadvantage. Oral health has long been identified as a key challenge.
For many going to the dentist is not a favoured thing to do, but this becomes especially problematic and distressing for people dealing with dementia and other complex health concerns.
The impact on dementia patients and their families can be extremely challenging. Your Community Health decided to address this issue, moving away from a private outsourced model of producing dentures to instead harness technology and offer the service in-house.
In-house service leads to more efficient treatment and better outcomes
By producing dentures in-house using 3D technology instead of having to source them privately, Your Community Health could dramatically reduce appointments, provide more services, and reduce public health waiting lists.
“Losing a denture meant starting the process all over again,” Cate Grindlay, Executive Director Primary & Integrated Care at Your Community Health says.
“We often work with older people, people with dementia or experiencing homelessness and people who have experienced disadvantage with complex lives.
“Our digital dental service allows the dentures to be produced in a much more efficient way and reduces complexity for clients and their families.”
Time to review the numbers and look to the future – engaging Larter
Having operated the service for a few years, Your Community Health sought the analysis and input of Larter to review the program’s progress and offer any recommendations for improvement.
Larter Senior Consultant Cleone Shannon says the service is achieving its goals and has tremendous upside, despite only being relatively new and taking some time to get off the ground.
“Your Community Health is doing a great job and progressing its original commitment and purpose,” Shannon says.
“After two years of this program they have a path ahead to continue providing a service that reduces the number of appointments to obtain dentures, reduces stress on clients and families and can free up additional resources.
“We have worked with Your Community Health to encourage them to really measure the patient experience and the social impact such a service is having.
“They have the data, and it will continue to be valuable in showing the impact and effectiveness of such a service and its potential to do more.”
Larter found plans to expand the service had considerable merit given the encouraging progress in just a few years.
Potential to help even more patients after the Larter review
For Your Community Health, Larter’s involvement has already changed organisational thinking with some unexpected business outcomes set to drive the service forward.
“Larter did a deep dive internally, looking at not only our financial position but the sustainability of our service and triggers for further investment,” Grindlay said.
“From the start we recognised Larter has the demonstrated expertise and track record in providing sound advice while understanding values based organisations like ours and community health in general.
“They asked the right questions, and many questions we wouldn’t have necessarily asked ourselves.
“The benefit of working with Cleone is her ability to ask questions clinicians wouldn’t ask and produce recommendations that hadn’t been in scope before and took our model forward.
“We got an expert set of eyes that truly understood the service we have offered for the last two years.
“Larter Consulting has a deserved reputation as people who get it. They are hugely focused on the financials but also the community health sector and the for-purpose model we provide.”
An exciting new era for Oral Health treatment for those in need
The next phase for the digital dental program is set to be continued steady and sustainable growth.
“Broadening the availability of our digital dental services is great for clients and great for public health as it will mean more appointments for public patients and a reduction in the waiting list.” Grindlay added.
Your Community Health is not only on a sustainable path but has recently signed an agreement to provide the dentures produced in house to two regional community health service organisations.
Supported by an innovation grant from Oral Health Victoria to provide support for the purchase of digital hardware, the future looks brighter for this service as it expands its reach.
Larter was pleased to partner with Your Community Health. Contact us to explore how Larter can help your organisation and community through meaningful evaluation.