Testing dental quality measures: Emergency department visits for nontraumatic dental conditions and subsequent follow-up dental visits

BackgroundThe goal of this study was to test the feasibility, reliability, and validity of the Dental Quality Alliance’s adult dental quality measures for system-level implementation for ambulatory care sensitive (ACS) emergency department (ED) visits for nontraumatic dental conditions (NTDCs) in adults and follow-up after ED visits for NTDCs in adults.MethodsMedicaid enrollment and claims data from Oregon and Iowa were used for measure testing. Testing included validation of diagnosis codes in claims data through patient record reviews of ED visits and calculations of κ statistic, sensitivity, and specificity.ResultsAdult Medicaid enrollees’ ACS NTDC ED visits ranged from 209 through 310 per 100,000 member-months. In both states, patients in the age category 25 through 34 years and non-Hispanic Black patients had the highest rates of ACS ED visits for NTDCs. Only one-third of all ED visits were associated with a follow-up dental visit within 30 days, decreasing to approximately one-fifth with a 7-day follow-up. The agreement between the claims data and patient records for identification of ACS ED visits for NTDCs was 93%, κ statistic was 0.85, sensitivity was 92%, and specificity was 94%.ConclusionsTesting revealed the feasibility, reliability, and validity of 2 DQA quality measures. Most beneficiaries did not have a follow-up with a dentist within 30 days of an ED visit.Practical ImplicationsAdoption of quality measures by state Medicaid programs and other integrated care systems will enable active tracking of beneficiaries with ED visits for NTDCs and develop strategies to connect them to dental homes.