Contributors

Schols JMGA (presenter) ^1,2,3

Halfens RJG^3,4

van der Putten GJ^2,5

de Baat C^2,6

Country - Intitutions 

¹ Department General Practice/Caphri/ Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

² BENECOMO, Flemish-Netherlands Geriatric Oral Research Group

³  The Dutch National Prevalence Survey of Care Problems (LPZ). Department of Health Care and Nursing Science/Caphri/ Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

⁴ Department of Health Care and Nursing Science/Caphri/ Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

⁵ Stichting De Opbouw, Zorgaccent Amersfoort, Amersfoort, The Netherlands,

⁶ Department of Oral Function and Prosthetic Dentistry, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Title

Measuring the prevalence of oral health problems yearly in different health care sectors; an interesting option?

Summary

Each year, the Dutch National Prevalence Measurement on Care problems (LPZ) puts Dutch health care under the magnifying glass at a single fixed moment in time. The patients and residents of hundreds of hospitals, nursing and residential homes as well as home care organizations are involved (2009: a total of 50.000 patients). All are examined on the same day for the possible presence of some common and very relevant care problems.

Pairs of nurses, caregivers and doctors receive instructions and go from bed to bed to examine patients in their institutions. In the home care sector the integral measurement is spread out over four days.

In 2009, this happened for the 12th time in a row.

The LPZ thus annually collects large amounts of data which show how many patients suffer

from pressure ulcers, incontinence, malnutrition and intertrigo, and how many of them suffer from fall incidents or are physically restrained during their stay in the institutions.

LPZ also measures the current policy in the different health care sectors and for different target groups regarding these care problems; this means for instance to what extent preventive measures are undertaken and which treatment interventions are performed.

The participating institutions can view their own results and benchmark them with institutions of their own health care sector to see how well they are doing.

The total results combined, provide insight into the general quality of basic care provided by Dutch health care organizations. Moreover trends can be observed during the years.

Since 2008, the same measurement is carried out in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and in the near future in Belgium and New Zealand as well.

The prevalence of oral health problems in the elderly, and especially in frail and disabled elderly, receiving home care or long-term institutional care, is of growing importance.

This importance, however, still is underestimated in daily practice.

A yearly measurement of the prevalence of oral health problems in this target group might raise awareness under health care professionals and contribute in optimization of oral health care.

In this presentation the possible execution of this option is discussed.