Characteristics of Hospitals Employing Dentists, and Utilization of Dental Care Services for Hospitalized Patients in Japan: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

Dental care for hospitalized patients can improve nutritional status and feeding function while reducing complications. However, such care in Japan is not uniformly provided. This investigation examined the presence and characteristics of hospitals where dentists work and the collaboration between medical and dental teams. This cross-sectional study involves 7205 hospitals using the administrative reports on the Hospital Bed Function of 2018. Indicators described were the proportion of hospitals employing dentists, those providing perioperative oral care, and those with a nutrition support team (NST) that included dentists. A two-level logistic regression model was performed using hospital-based and secondary medical area-based factors to identify factors associated with hospitals employing dentists and dental care services. Some hospitals had poor medical and dental collaboration, even those with dentists, and no-dentist hospitals had rare medical and dental collaboration. Factors positively associated with hospitals that employed dentists were diagnosis-procedure-combination-hospital types, the Japanese government-established hospitals compared with hospitals established by public organizations, among others. In conclusion, the present study found poor medical and dental collaboration was observed in some hospitals and that hospital type, region, and hospital founders were associated with the performance of collaborative medical and dental care.