Dr. Roseann Mulligan Special Patients Clinic awarded grant to upgrade facilities
The Specialty Dental Clinic Grant aims to improve access to oral healthcare for special-needs patients across California.
BY JOHN HOBBS MA ’14
WHEN YOU ARE A PATIENT with special healthcare needs, finding a lasting dental home can be a challenge.
Whether it’s a lack of training in how to treat special-needs patients, insufficient physical infrastructure necessary to adequately support these patients or the absence of financial incentives from third-party payers, many dental clinics are not eager to treat special patients. In fact, the majority of special needs patients have experienced difficulty accessing dental care.
It was the reason the Dr. Roseann Mulligan Special Patients Clinic was established in 1985 as a dental home for adult patients with cognitive and developmental delays; physical, psychological or medical disabilities; the frail elderly; and patients living with HIV/AIDS.
“It was clear to me that not everyone was receiving care,” said Associate Dean of Dental Public Health and Community Outreach Roseann Mulligan MS ’87 in a 2015 issue of TroDent. “I set about creating a clinic where people with disabilities could get that care and were welcome.”
Now, as it celebrates its 40th anniversary the Special Patients Clinic is poised to make an even greater impact on this patient population, thanks to a $3.4 million Specialty Dental Clinic Grant awarded by the California Health Facilities Financing Authority (CHFFA).
“We are excited and deeply grateful to receive this funding, which will enable us to provide culturally competent, high-quality care to our most vulnerable patients—those with no other place to turn,” Mulligan said. “For over 40 years, we have been dedicated to this vital service, and we remain committed to continuing this mission.”
The state-funded CHFFA grant was established to help improve oral healthcare access in California for special needs populations through the development and expansion of specialty dental clinics.
At Ostrow, the grant will fund the renovation of the clinic’s eight operatories and the addition of three new operatories outfitted to allow treatment for bariatric patients as well as patients who use personal mobility systems. The remodeled areas will also be enlarged to allow for the presence of a family member or caregiver during treatment. It will also include the addition of a larger restroom for bariatric patients, an electronic health record review room and a patient check-in desk.
“With this important renovation, we will be equipped to accommodate an even greater number of patients, including bariatric and wheelchair-using individuals, thanks to the new spatial accommodations and specialized equipment that were previously unavailable in our SPC,” said Department Chair of Geriatrics, Special Needs and Behavioral Sciences Piedad Suarez Durall MS ’18. “We anticipate a significant reduction in our waitlist, as the demand for these essential services continues to rise alongside the growing patient population of special needs patients.”
Slated to be completed in October 2027, the clinic upgrades will give Ostrow the infrastructure necessary to increase annual patient visits in the Special Patients Clinic by nearly 40 percent.
“No Place More Deserving”
Established in the mid-1980s, the Dr. Roseann Mulligan Special Patients Clinic has served as both a dental home for patients with special needs — hundreds of patients each year — as well as a training ground for future dental professionals to gain invaluable experience working with this distinct patient population.
As part of their studies, DDS students complete a week-long clinical rotation in the Special Patients Clinic. Some will then choose to go on to spend extra time treating these patients. It is estimated that the Special Patients Clinic has served as a training ground for nearly 8,000 dental and dental hygiene students since its founding four decades ago.
“Our students need to feel comfortable treating these special-needs patients, because this could be the only opportunity for these patients to receive dental care,” Suarez said in a recent issue of TroDent.
The clinic was named the Dr. Roseann Mulligan Special Patients Clinic in 2015, thanks to a generous gift from Mulligan and her spouse Associate Dean of Distance Learning and Telehealth Glenn Clark. The gift provided the clinic with an endowment, the annual interest of which has continued to fund the operation this past decade.
“I can’t think of a more vulnerable and less-cared for population than an adult with special needs,” Clark said of the couple’s decision to fund the clinic in 2015. “If you have major health issues or you’re cognitively impaired or have some developmental disability, no one will treat you. So we couldn’t think of any other place in the school that is more deserving.”