Interruptions in a dental setting and evaluating the efficacy of an intervention: A pilot study.

Introduction: Interruptions during dental treatment are frequent, and often impact provider satisfaction and processing times We investigate the source and duration of such interruptions at a German dental clinic.
Methods: A pre-post approach was adopted at this dental clinic. This included direct observations of 3 dentists and 3 dental hygienists, and a survey of providers. Following that, an intervention (switchable 'Do Not Enter' sign) was chosen, and a pilot study was conducted to evaluate if the chosen intervention can reduce processing time and improve provider satisfaction. Additional observations and surveys were performed afterwards.
Results: Pre-intervention data indicated that interruptions have the highest negative impact on provider satisfaction at this clinic as well as on processing time during longer and more complex treatments, where a minor error due to an interruption could lead to rework of 30 minutes and more. The total number of interruptions dropped by 72.5% after the intervention, short interruptions (< 1min) by 86%. Provider survey indicated improvement due to the intervention in perceived workload, provider work satisfaction, patient safety and stress.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates that a switchable sign can substantially reduce the number of interruptions in this dental clinic. It also shows the potential of improving the work environment by reducing interruptions to the dental providers.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Ziegler, Parikh. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)