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Care pathways to improve patient care and involvement

Care pathways standardise how care is provided while ensuring treatment and preventive care are tailored to individual patient needs. They can be used to monitor patient outcomes, and benefit both patients and dental care professionals in NHS and private practice

Integrated care pathways can benefit both dental professionals and their patients (Department of Health (DH), 2012). The standardising processes of care pathways have a proven track record of delivering quality improvements which, in turn, have been used by healthcare commissioners to monitor activity and health outcomes.

Although the care pathways concept emerged from NHS dental care commissioning requirements, the basic principles of quality and value of care these pathways aim to secure are equally as valuable in private practice. The aims of care pathways are set out in Box 1.

Care pathways are intended to:

Enable people to look after their bodies

Give information on dental health issues

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