Maine Health Access Foundation

Challenge
Too few Maine people have access to dental care, especially individuals who are uninsured. This drives many people to go without care or to seek care in costly hospital emergency departments where they do not get definitive treatment.

Solution
Community Dental, a safety net dental care provider, teamed up with Rumford Hospital to develop a collaborative approach so people with dental pain and disease get timely, high quality treatment in a new local dental center, rather than seeking care in the Rumford Emergency Department.

Impact
The Community Dental Center in Rumford, which opened February 2008, has served over 3,200 new patients in its first 24 months of operationEmergency dental care has been provided to 1,575 patients at the Rumford Dental CenterRumford Hospital has referred 152 patients and 97 received care at the Dental Center, rather than in the Emergency DepartmentOver 2,500 patients seen by the partnership organizations have participated in health assessments with 234 receiving appropriate care following referrals from primary care or mental health providers

Community Dental’s five centers provide dental services to insured and uninsured Maine people. Their new partnership with Rumford Hospital provides outpatient care to people visiting Emergency Departments for dental disease and pain. Tri-County Mental Health Services and River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition have joined this partnership to ensure people with mental illness feel comfortable seeking oral health care services. Now patients can receive integrated primary care, behavioral health and dental care in ways that meet their needs.

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