Assessment of the efficiency of dental services in Turkey

Accessibility to dental services by immigrant and refugee children residing in Turkey

BACKGROUND

Turkey is hosting the world's largest immigrant population under temporary and international protection. Due to the social inequalities contributing to early childhood dental caries, the effectiveness of dental care service for immigrant children should be evaluated.

AIM

To evaluate the accessibility of immigrant and refugee children residing in four different regions of Turkey to oral health products and dental treatment services.

DESIGN

A questionnaire consisting of 21 questions was administered: The first six questions elicited demographic data, and the remaining 15 questions asked about oral health habits, access to oral hygiene materials, and dental treatment services. Participants included the parents of 430 children under the age of 18, who were registered with migrant associations in the regions where they lived (Istanbul, Samsun, Hatay, or Ankara).

RESULTS

The majority of the participants were from Syria and Iraq. Of the participants, 42.1% reported that their children's oral hygiene habits had changed negatively after they migrated, 71.9% reported that they had not been to the dentist in the last year, and 82.8% reported that they had not been to the dentist for more than 12 months. Access to oral and dental hygiene products was not difficult for 68.4%. About 62.6%, however, reported that they had difficulty accessing dental treatment.

CONCLUSION

The findings showed that this disadvantaged group had difficulty accessing dental treatment. Therefore, there is a need for national and international health strategies to ensure that immigrant and refugee children have effective access to dental treatment.

Does Efficiency of Oral and Dental Health Centers Change by the Development Level of Regions?

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to analyze the efficiency levels of oral and dental health centers (ODHCs) affiliated to the Ministry of Health from the perspective of the development levels in the regions.

METHODS

Within the framework of this study, the efficiencies of 127 ODHCs are evaluated with the data envelopment analysis based on Charnes, Cooper, Rhodes (CCR); Banker, Charnes, Cooper (BCC); and scale efficiency methods.

RESULTS

It is found that CCR, BCC, and scale efficiencies of the 42 ODHCs located in the first region, the highest development region, are efficient by 31%, 50%, and 38% whereas 13%, 26%, and 26% of other 85 ODHCs located in other regions are efficient, respectively. Additionally, the average efficiency scores of 42 ODHCs in the first region by CCR (0.82), BCC (0.89), and score efficiency (0.93) are much higher than the average efficiency scores of 85 ODHCs in other regions by CCR (0.73), BCC (0.80), and scale efficiency (0.92).

CONCLUSIONS

According to the findings, it is considered that the individuals from the first region use the oral and dental healthcare more than the individuals do in other regions because the access to oral and dental healthcare is higher in the first region and the individuals living in this region have better predisposing and enabling factors. The study results are thought to present evidence-based information to health policy makers regarding the regional planning of oral and dental healthcare.

Performance assessment of medical diagnostic laboratories: A network DEA approach

RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of this paper is to measure the efficiency and ranking of medical diagnostic laboratories by applying a network data envelopment analysis (NDEA).

METHODS

In this study, each medical diagnostic laboratory is considered as a decision-making unit (DMU), and an NDEA model is utilized to calculate the efficiency of each medical diagnostic laboratory. Therefore, we design a series of four-stage system composed of three main laboratory processes (the pretest process, the test process, and the posttest process). We also consider sustainability criteria in order to cover social, economic, and environmental problems of health care organizations.

RESULTS

The results show that three of the 22 considered laboratories are efficient. Therefore, the NDEA approach can lead to performance scores and ultimately real ranking. Also, the average efficiency scores show that the decrease of the reception unit's efficiency results in a decrease of the efficiency of each laboratory. Therefore, the laboratories can increase the number of patients. Along with the intermediate values of the reception unit and the sampling unit, the efficiency of the reception unit increases, which results in an increase for the overall efficiency of each laboratory.

CONCLUSION

The proposed model can appropriately help the administrators and managers to identify inefficient units in their laboratory and ultimately improve the laboratory performance.

Sustainable efficiency assessment of private diagnostic laboratories under uncertainty

Purpose

Assessing the performance of medical laboratories plays an important role in the quality of health services. However, because of imprecise data, reliable results from laboratory performance cannot be obtained easily. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of interval network data envelopment analysis (INDEA) based on sustainable development indicators under uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, each medical diagnostic laboratory is considered as a decision-making unit (DMU) and an INDEA model is used for calculating the efficiency of each medical diagnostic laboratory under imprecise inputs and outputs. The proposed model helps provide managers with effective performance scores for deficiencies and business improvements. The proposed model with realistic efficiency scores can help administrators manage their deficiencies and ultimately improve their business.

Findings

The results indicate that uncertainty can lead to changes in performance scores, rankings and performance classifications. Therefore, the use of DEA models under certainty can be potentially misleading.

Originality/value

The contribution of this study provides useful insights into the use of INDEA as a modeling tool to aid managerial decision-making in assessing efficiency of medical diagnostic laboratories based on sustainable development indicators under uncertainty.

A Collaborative and Ubiquitous System for Fabricating Dental Parts Using 3D Printing Technologies

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has great potential for establishing a ubiquitous service in the medical industry. However, the planning, optimization, and control of a ubiquitous 3D printing network have not been sufficiently discussed. Therefore, this study established a collaborative and ubiquitous system for making dental parts using 3D printing. The collaborative and ubiquitous system split an order for the 3D printing facilities to fulfill the order collaboratively and forms a delivery plan to pick up the 3D objects. To optimize the performance of the two tasks, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model and a mixed-integer quadratic programming (MIQP) model are proposed, respectively. In addition, slack information is derived and provided to each 3D printing facility so that it can determine the feasibility of resuming the same 3D printing process locally from the beginning without violating the optimality of the original printing and delivery plan. Further, more slack is gained by considering the chain effect between two successive 3D printing facilities. The effectiveness of the collaborative and ubiquitous system was validated using a regional experiment in Taichung City, Taiwan. Compared with two existing methods, the collaborative and ubiquitous 3D printing network reduced the manufacturing lead time by 45% on average. Furthermore, with the slack information, a 3D printing facility could make an independent decision about the feasibility of resuming the same 3D printing process locally from the beginning.