Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — Seventeen Kansas safety net clinics that provide dental care will share a $100,000 grant awarded last week to the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved.

The grant comes from the DentaQuest Foundation via the National Association of Community Health Centers.

In addition to the money, DentaQuest will lend oral health consulting and training services to KAMU staff and directly to the safety net clinic dentists. Both the money and professional services will be aimed at helping the clinics deliver services more efficiently and improve quality, said KAMU Deputy Director Jason Wesco.

"Sometimes in clinics you're so focused on just doing the service," Wesco said, "and there's so much work to do that you get the money to open the clinic, you hire the dentist and you're happy to have just done that. Often there's a lot more to do to make sure the patient experience is good, that the quality is outstanding, all of those sorts of things."

Wesco said some of the money also would be used to explore delivering other medical services to patients while they're at the clinics for oral care. The added services might include HIV screenings, blood pressure checks, checking diabetics' blood sugar levels or depression screenings, Wesco said.

Associations in four other states also received portions of the total $250,000 grant announced this week by DentaQuest:

• Arizona Association of Community Health Centers,

• Georgia Association for Primary Health Care,

• Illinois Primary Health Care Association, and

• Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers.

The Kansas communities with a dental safety net clinic are:

• Kansas City

• Olathe

• Lawrence

• Topeka

• Pittsburg

• Baxter Springs

• Iola

• Emporia

• Manhattan

• Junction City

• Salina

• Wichita

• Hutchinson

• Newton

• Garden City

• Hays