2008 Colorado Rural Dentist Survey

Many Coloradans living in rural areas of the state have difficulty getting access to oral health care because of an overall shortage of practicing dentists. To obtain an accurate and current picture of the state's rural dentist workforce, including training and practice issues related to recruiting dentists to work in rural areas, the Colorado Health Institute (CHI) was asked by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Oral Health Program to survey Colorado's rural dentists.

In July 2008, CHI sent a survey questionnaire to 365 individuals holding an active dentist license and practicing in rural areas of Colorado.

Findings from the survey were released in late fall 2008.

2009 Colorado Rural Physician Survey

With funding from The Colorado Trust, in June 2009 CHI surveyed Colorado’s 1,362 rural physicians to gather information about themselves, their practices and the unique issues of working in rural areas. The information is being used to inform legislators, providers, communities, the Colorado Area Health Education Centers, the Colorado medical Society, COPIC Insurance, the Health Resources and Services Administration Region 8 Office and the Colorado University Denver School of Medicine about the challenges of recruiting and retaining physicians in rural Colorado.

2009 Colorado Urban Dentist Survey

Many Coloradans have difficulty getting access to the oral health care they need, not only in rural areas but also in urban locations. In order to address this problem, policymakers at both the state and local levels need a better understanding of the training, practice and reimbursement issues related to recruiting and retaining dentists throughout Colorado’s urban communities.

The Colorado Health Institute (CHI) was asked by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Oral Health Program to survey Colorado’s non-rural dentists to provide a more comprehensive picture of the state’s dental workforce. The survey was mailed in July 2009 to a stratified random sample of 887 dentists in urban and suburban areas of the state.

American Community Survey (ACS)
The ACS is designed to provide general, social, economic and housing characteristics such as disability, poverty and employment status of communities.

Area Resource File
The Area Resource File (ARF) is collection of national and county-level health data from more than 50 sources. The ARF database contains statistics on the following categories of health resources: health professions, health training programs, health facilities, utilization and expenditures. It also contains geographic codes and descriptors and information on economic activity and socioeconomic and enviromental characteristics.

Cancer Incidence - Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Registries
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute collects and distributes high quality, comprehensive cancer data from a number of population-based cancer registries. Data include patient demographics, primary tumor site, morphology, stage at diagnosis, first course of treatment, and follow-up for vital status. The SEER Program is the only comprehensive source of population-based information in the United States that includes stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis and survival rates within each stage.
State cancer profiles are also available online.

Colorado Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
The Colorado Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a telephone survey sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor behaviors related to the leading causes of mortality and morbidity.

Colorado Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI)
The CFOI program is a national census conducted in partnership with states to compile work-related fatality data. CFOI data collection by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began in select states in 1972 and spread to include all 50 states and the District of Columbia by 1992. Colorado has published data on work-related fatalities occurring since 1982 and implemented the CFOI system in 1991.