Background: Government subsidized dental care is provided as a community safety-net to complement the private dental sector. The aim of this study was to detail the geographic catchment characteristics of three outer metropolitan government dental clinics. Methods: Three outer metropolitan dental clinics with the greatest number of geocoded triage patients were selected for the study. In total these three facilities had 5742 patients over the 12-week period with 2010 at clinic A, 1278 at clinic B and 2454 at clinic C. Cumulative proportions of patients' residential address locations at distances were calculated; there was close correlation between the three clinics. A best fit curve with a correlation coefficient of 0.998 was developed. Results: In summary, approximately 50% of patients were within 6 km of the clinic and 75% were within 10 km. Conclusions: This study has critical outcomes for the planning of future services in developing a network model for care. The data presented will assist in the development of more evidence-based approaches to planning new service network structures.

The aim of this study was to develop a method for the analysis of the influence of public transport supply in a large city (Melbourne) on the access to emergency dental treatment. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools were used to associate the geographical distribution of patients (and their socioeconomic status) with accessibility (through public transport supply, i.e. bus, tram and/or train) to emergency dental care. The methodology used allowed analysis of the socioeconomic status of patient residential areas and both spatial location and supply frequency of public transport by using existing data from patient records, census and transport departments. In metropolitan Melbourne, a total of 13 784 patients met the inclusion criteria for the study sample, of which 95% (n = 13 077) were living within a 50 km radius of the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne. Low socioeconomic areas had a higher demand for dental emergency care in the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne. Public transport supply was similar across the various socioeconomic strata in the population, with 80% of patients having good access to public transport. However, when considering only high-frequency bus stops, the percentage of patients living within 400 m from a bus stop dropped to 65%. Despite this, the number of patients (adjusted to the population) coming from areas not supplied by public transport, and from areas with good or poor public transport supply, was similar. The methodology applied in the present study highlights the importance of evaluating not only the spatial distribution but also the frequency of public transport supply when studying access to services. This methodology can be extrapolated to other settings to identity transport/access patterns for a variety of services.

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respectively. Regression found that the residents, nurses, and attendings all made statistically significant contributions to the variation in AOT with percent R 2 s of 0.9%, 0.3%, and 0.3%, respectively. Regression of residuals showed significant, independent effects of the residents and nurses. The contributions to the variations are much higher when all ordering providers are studied (60.2% for ordering provider and 42.5% for nurse)Conclusion: We noted heterogeneity in mean AOT across both resident and attending physicians. In addition, the AOT for a given patient was associated with AOTs of other cases managed by the same care team. Within each personnel type, some providers on average demonstrated quicker AOTs compared to peers. Considering the practice environment is constant, the heterogeneity in mean AOT suggests differences in practice patterns. These results support the role of a positive deviance approach to QI with focus on the residents and nurses in identifying and disseminating best tactics within our emergency department.