Use Dentrix features to help implement your plans for improvement and productivity in the new year.
It’s that time of year when you are thinking about New Year’s resolutions and the improvements and changes you want to make in the coming year. Here are some examples of New Year’s resolutions you can make for your dental office and how Dentrix can help you to implement them.
Spend Less Time Contacting Insurance Companies
Many dental offices spend lots of time contacting insurance companies to verify patients’ insurance benefits and check on the status of claims. This is a time-consuming task with lots of wasted time spent on hold. You can use the Insurance Manager to save time on the phone. You can check insurance eligibility and benefits in the Insurance Manager by clicking the “E” icon in the insurance window in the Family File:
You can also click the “E” icon in the Appointment Information window.
This is a quick and easy way to check a patient’s eligibility. Within an insurance claim in the Ledger, you can also click the “E” icon in the Status block to check if the claim has been received and is being processed by the insurance carrier.
Save Time When Sending Billing Statements
Printing billing statements and sending them in the mail is time consuming and costly for your office. You have to print the billing statements using your office printer ink and paper, then stuff them into envelopes and stamp them. This process can be simplified by using QuickBill Mail, which will do all the printing, stuffing, stamping, and mailing work for you. You just verify which statements you want to send. Alternatively, you can use QuickBill Email to email statements to patients. Patients can securely make payments online which is more convenient for them and helps you get paid faster.
Schedule More Efficiently
The schedule in the Appointment Book controls the flow of the office. The way appointments are scheduled can make or break the day in your office. For example, if you schedule a complicated case first thing in the morning and don’t allow adequate time for that appointment, your office could be running behind for the rest of the day. Or if you schedule two patients for scaling and root planing appointments back to back with your hygienist, she may be exhausted by the end of the second appointment. You can use Perfect Day Scheduling to create appointment blocks for different types of procedures. If you try to schedule an appointment that doesn’t fit the criteria of the appointment block, you will receive a Dentrix warning. This will help you to achieve a more efficient schedule.
Improve Inter-Office Communication
Communication is key in every dental office. How does your office handle the patient hand-off from the clinical team to the administrative team? There are several things that need to be communicated during that time, such as which procedures were done today, which procedures have been treatment planned, and when the patient’s next visit should be. I recommend using Patient Route Slips or Patient Visit Forms to communicate this information between team members.
The new year is an ideal time to make resolutions on ways your office can improve and grow in the upcoming year. Your team can use the features in Dentrix to help you achieve goals that make your office more productive and run more efficiently.
Learn More
For additional information, read the following :
- Patient Eligibility at a Glance
- Scheduling the Perfect Day
- Route Slips or Patient Visit Forms? Which is Right for Your Office?
By Charlotte Skaggs
Certified Dentrix Trainer and The Dentrix Office Manager columnist
Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for over 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.
