Acreditação e avaliação da qualidade de serviços odontológicos

Abstract

The National Accreditation Organization developed an evaluation manual for health services, whose main criteria focused on Administrative Management, People Management and Care. Initially, in 1998, this program focused on evaluating hospitals. However, it was only in 2012 that the assessment criteria were adapted for dental services. With this in mind, the general aim of this study is to draw up an assessment of the quality of dental services, using the criteria established by the ONA's Brazilian Accreditation Manual and the Servqual model as a reference. To this end, the research method was defined as a case study in order to achieve validation in both public and private schools in a city located in the south of Minas Gerais. The results were evaluated using statistical tests and the Hierarchical Analysis Process. With the participation of 159 patients and seven dentists interviewed in the Municipal Network, the Servqual model shows that, for both interviewees, the quality sub-criteria were Equipment and Service provided correctly, on time; and the intervention sub-criterion was the fact that the Dentist was polite to the patient. In relation to the ONA model, patients pointed to the sub-criterion Channel as an improvement, the means of reporting abnormalities in relation to the service; for dentists, the improvement was the sub-criterion Hygiene of offices. In the parallel between seven dentists from the Municipal Network and five dentists from the Private Network, the criteria coincided. The results pointed to improvements, in relation to the Servqual model, in the Tangible, Safety in care and Professional responsibility criteria; and intervention strategies in the Empathy criterion. In relation to the ONA model, the criteria Organizational Leadership and Infrastructure Management had to be worked on with the other criteria used in the assessment to ensure all the gaps were filled and guarantee the effectiveness of the service. These results suggest that the criteria selected from the Servqual model and the ONA model were complementary in the evaluation of both networks. As a practical action, we propose the promotion of events to raise awareness of oral health, and thus reduce the indicators for seeking dental care.