Despite a large loss in resources to Sarrell Dental Center, employees like dental assistant Jennifer Cantrell are prepared to keep up the work they do for needy children.
On Monday, the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Dentistry announced that it was ending its five-year partnership with the dental center. This dissolution ended a $400,000 contract in which UAB students and residents would work at the Anniston and Bessemer offices.
Sarrell spokesperson Brandi Parris said because of their use of students, these are the two of the company’s eight statewide offices that will be impacted the most.
“It shouldn’t have much of an impact on the Talladega office,” she said.
Parris said the biggest affect the separation will have locally is that resources may be spread thinner than usual, and even that would only be temporary.
For example, a pediatric dentist who treats children in Talladega may be called on to fill in more at the now-smaller Anniston and Bessemer locations.
She said dentists at Sarrell work “where they’re needed” yet maintain a high level of consistency at their locations. Rather than being stationed only at specific locations, dentists mostly work regularly at locations and rotate “wherever they’re needed.”
Sarrell keeps a dentist at each location during all business hours.
While Talladega looks to remain intact for the most part, the Anniston and Bessemer centers will feel a greater loss in resources, which will in turn be felt by the indigent children they serve.
The contract dissolution followed a January meeting of the Alabama Dental Association trustees during which disagreements about practices by Sarrell against those of for-profit dentists. A transcript of the meeting was published by The Anniston Star.
Parris told The Associated Press that UAB acted under pressure from alumni and private dentists.
She also told The AP that the lack of access to dental care has fueled Sarrell’s growth.
“I think it is that growth that scares them,” her statement included. “They don’t understand it.”
Sarrell’s administrators feel that UAB’s decision is a harmful one that is taking away a needed resource for the state’s low-income children.
“It’s amazing that we’re having this problem now because there’s already such a lack of access to dental care,” Parris said.
Parris said the children will be the ones hurt the most by UAB’s decision.
In an e-mail to The Anniston Star, Sarrell’s CEO, Jeff Parker wrote, “With one swipe of a pen, the access to care for so many has been greatly diminished. However, we will work quickly to try to fill this void that has been created by UAB’s decision.”
While health care concerns were a subject of the January meeting, statements imply that Sarrell’s practices were not a cause for the contract termination.
For example, Dr. John Thornton, who is the associate dean of UAB’s School of Dentistry, has worked at the Anniston clinic for four years. He told The Star he was “very pleased with the quality of health care we provide.”
In an e-mail to The Star, UAB’s associate vice-president of public relations Dale Turnbough wrote, “There are no issues whatsoever related to quality of care or payment for services.”
Parris said that in five years of operation, eight locations and around 130,000 children treated, there have never been any consumer complaints.
Parker told The Star that the for-profit dentists represented by ALDA were a threat to Sarrell because it is the state’s largest dental provider and that these actions would also endanger other non-profit dentists.
The Anniston Star and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Post a Comment
