Recently, cooperation between medical and dental care is considered very important in regional comprehensive medical and welfare services. The department of dentistry of a hospital is highly expected to contribute to these social services. However, accurate data on promotional activities by dentistry-related departments, the numbers of full-time dentists, and the actual status of clinical activities are unavailable. We therefore carried out a questionnaire survey to investigate such information and assess the current status of dental departments in hospitals with 250 or more beds.
With the exception of medical and dental university hospitals, we mailed questionnaires to 1,842 hospitals with 250 or more beds that were registered as medical insurance facilities in the seven Regional Bureaus of Health and Welfare in December 2015.
The results were as follows. (1) No responses were obtained from 783 of the 1,842 facilities. The response rate was therefore 42.5%. (2) Among the 783 facilities, 549 facilities (70.1%) promoted their dental-related departments and 231 facilities(29.5%) did not. (3) The proportion of facilities that promoted their dental-related departments increased in parallel to the numbers of beds. For example, the promotion rate was 90% or higher in hospitals with 500 or more beds. (4) The proportion of hospitals that promoted their “departments of dentistry” was higher in facilities with low numbers of beds. In contrast, the proportion of hospitals that promoted their “Departments of Dental and Oral Surgery” increased in large facilities with 500 or more beds. (5) Among the 542 facilities that had dental-related departments, 390 facilities (72%) performed both outpatient and inpatient care. (6) In the 542 facilities, the average number of full-time dentists was 2.5, the average number of full-time dental hygienists was 3.0, and the average number of full-time dental technicians was 0.5. Moreover, the most common number of full-time dentists was 2. (7) Regular members of the Japanese Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (JSOMS) served in 440 (81.2%) of the 542 facilities.
A survey reported by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2013 stated that the average number of full-time dentists in moderate-size hospitals was 5 or more. Our survey, however, revealed that the actual average number of full-time dentists was about 2.5 persons in hospitals with 250 or more beds. We confirmed that these data should be useful as basic documentation for promoting new departments of dentistry and oral surgery or for requesting increases in dental staff in hospitals.
