Organized and readable clinical notes can help expedite insurance claim approval and prevent delays.
Taking accurate clinical notes is a critical part of providing quality patient care and increasing insurance claim approval, but repeatedly entering the same phrases wastes valuable time for your team. With Dentrix clinical note templates, coupled with eAssist Dental Billing platform specialists, you have customizable options to standardize your clinical notes and automatically insert frequently used phrases to keep your dental billing processes streamlined. Templates save time if an appeal is necessary, with the added benefit of creating consistent and comprehensive clinical notes that build your practice’s credibility with both patients and insurance providers.
Designed to Save Time
Time is one of the most valuable commodities in a dental practice, so why waste it manually writing notes that could be automated? Dentrix clinical notes give you an easy way to automatically insert the phrases you use most often without having to type them out. With more than 70 customizable, pre-made templates and the option to create your own, clinical note templates are designed to save time for everyone on your team. This means your dental billing experts have all of the information necessary to support an appeal.
Saving time shouldn’t mean sacrificing accuracy or completeness. Clinical note templates can make the difference between rushed, illegible notes and concise, error-free ones. With more and more insurance carriers requiring clinical notes with claims, comprehensive clinical notes can make or break your revenue cycle. Dentrix Clinical Note Template prompts allow you to choose from a list of predefined options, eliminating the need to type out each word. No need to waste time puzzling over inconsistent phrasing or ambiguous abbreviations — templates provide an easy way to standardize notes taken by different people and allow new team members to take accurate, error-free notes with less training.
Specialized and Customizable
Dentrix comes with templates in 17 different categories, designed for everything from administrative details to X-rays. These templates are ready to use and easy to customize. You can also favorite your most frequently used templates to ensure you can easily find what you’re looking for so that the many options at your disposal never feel overwhelming.
SOAP Made Simple
Many dentists learn the SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment and plan) note format in dental school but may not feel the need to put the ideas into practice in their own work. Opting not to implement the SOAP format can be a missed opportunity to communicate efficiently in multidisciplinary teams and show credibility. With Dentrix clinical notes, you and your team can easily create documentation that follows the SOAP format that physicians, insurance providers and other dentists expect.
Consistency Builds Credibility
Just like consistent dental billing processes, keeping consistent notes supports a high standard of patient care and builds credibility with patients and insurance providers. Intuitive templates and helpful prompts give your team the framework they need to create uniform notes in a variety of situations. Standardized clinical notes ensure the important questions are consistently asked, and answers can be quickly and accurately recorded.
Consistent notes are also key when it comes to insurance claims. Insurance providers rely on complete, consistent information to accept a claim, and templates are an efficient way to help claims be accepted in a timely manner. And, since the templates are customizable, insurance providers are less likely to deny a claim because they suspect information is copied and pasted. These benefits work together to allow you to create polished, well-organized clinical notes that reflect well on your practice and help streamline the insurance claim process.
Using Clinical Notes
How to Use a Default Clinical Note Template
- With a patient selected in the Patient Chart, click the Clinical Notes tab in the bottom left of the Patient Chart.
- Choose the note category you want to use (for example, you can find the Soft Tissue Exam template in the Clinical Exam category).
- Double-click the clinical note you need; if prompts are included in the template, choose the appropriate options from each prompt.
- When your note is complete, the text will be added to the patient’s record, including the date and time it was created.
How to Create Your Own
- From the Template Setup dialog box, click New Template. This will open the New Clinical Note Template dialog box.
- Choose the category for your new template from the Category field.
- Type a name for the new template in the Template Name field.
- Type the template text into the Clinical Note Text field.
- Click OK to save your new template.
Get the Most Out of Dentrix with eAssist
Your team shouldn’t have to choose between creating accurate, consistent notes and staying on schedule. Clinical note templates make it easy to do both. The time saved during the note-taking process is just the beginning — organized and readable clinical notes can help expedite insurance claim approval and prevent delays caused by preventable mistakes.
Clinical note templates are one of the many solutions eAssist offers to simplify the everyday challenges of running a dental practice.
Learn More
Dentrix and eAssist are here to help you manage the complex and sometimes frustrating work that accompanies recordkeeping and the insurance claim process. Call 833.212.3389 or request a consultation today.
For additional information about clinical notes, read the following:
- Clinical Notes Made Easy
- Stay on Top of Your Clinical Notes
- Making Changes to Clinical Notes
- Ensuring Your Clinical Notes are Accurate
By Trish Jorgensen, eAssist Dental Billing Platform Specialist & Dentrix Trainer
