Dental Van Shenanigans Use of vans to take healthcare services to the medically underserved is common in rural areas and inner cities. One Midwestern city had a federally funded community health center (CHC) that provided some dental clinic services to the needy. The CHC was well qualified but was known for an aggressive management style and creating self-serving alliances. This questionable management style was seen by CHC managers as the most savvy and efficient path to financial success. Unilaterally, the CHC developed a proposal for a van with two dental treatment areas to take primary care dental services to underserved inner-city school children. Then the CHC worked behind the scenes at other local agencies to get some of their funds to support the van. The effort included colluding with board members from other agencies on matters of those board members' personal interests in exchange for the board members' putting financial support of the dental van on their organizations' meeting agendas. Of course, these differing interests or actual conflicts of interest were not disclosed when dental van support was included on the agendas. The staffs of the other agencies were not consulted in advance, because CHC management thought it was unlikely that those staffs would support allocating funds for the CHC's big public relations initiative. One agency learned about the dental van and the CHC's effort to obtain some of their budget when the van appeared as an agenda item that was added at the last minute. The proposal did not pass, however, because the board members who had conspired with the CHC were unable to answer the other board members' questions about how support of the CHC's dental van furthered their agency's mission. The dental van was badly needed in the community, but it was about to lose its funding. Only if the staff from the other agency argued in support of the CHC's effort would it pass. Supporting the dental van, however, required that the agency's staff overcome its anger that the CHC's efforts had been surreptitious and had sought to gain support in a devious manner. Longest, B. B., & Darr, K. (2014). Types and structures of health services organizations and systems. In Managing health services organizations and systems (6th ed., p. 53). Baltimore, MD. In the discussion of the community health center's (CHC's) actions, consider the possible repercussions of the position you take. 1. Make the assumption that your agency's budget had funds available. Should your staff have spoken in support of the dental van project even though it was outside your agency's mission and it was put on the agenda through questionable means? Why or why not? 2. Competitiveness or a desire for preeminence and public relations advantage may cause agencies providing public health services to act unethically or dishonestly. What is the best way to work to improve public health when this occurs? ***Answer must be a minimum of 250 words in APA format, using 3 peer-reviewed references (One provided above)