Simple things you can implement in your practice today to make managing collections less of a hassle.
Patient forms can be a challenge. Patients don’t like filling them out and it’s time consuming for your team to input the patient’s data and scan forms, not to mention the cost of paper and toner ink.
However, it is crucial that your office has vital information about your patients. Many medical conditions can interfere with the way you provide dental treatment so it’s important to have a comprehensive medical history. It’s also important to have patient’s insurance information as well as a signed financial policy to avoid unpleasant financial surprises. Plus, you are required to have signed HIPAA forms, and there may be several other forms your office requires.
As an office manager, you know how important it is to have the information from these forms and to have it correctly entered into your Dentrix system. But there is an easier way.
Dentrix offers the Questionnaires module. In my experience, correctly using this module is a huge time saver! You have the ability to customize and create your own forms.
The information fields in the questionnaires you create correspond with the patient information you store in Dentrix. Once you create the forms you can have them available on your office website. Your patients can fill out their forms from the comfort of their home and submit them to your office.
For a patient to be able to fill out and submit forms before they arrive in the office is very beneficial. This can help to eliminate surprises before the patient arrives, for example if the patient has a medical condition and has a need to pre-medicate. Having patients fill out the forms ahead of time can also help your schedule to run on time. All it takes is having one patient who is slow to fill out their forms while in the waiting room, to cause the whole schedule to run behind for the rest of the day!
Another reason for having patients fill out forms prior to arriving in your office is that you will then have other valuable information, like their insurance information, which you will be able to verify before they come in for their appointment.
When patients fill out their Questionnaires forms online, these forms sync with Dentrix, allowing data to be easily updated in the patient’s Family File.
This is a big time-saver for staff and eliminates the problems of trying to interpret patient handwriting, or duplicate data entry.
I have found using online Questionnaires to be very efficient for the office. It eliminates surprises such as medical concerns or insurance issues before the patient arrives for their appointment. It eliminates the need for manual data entry and it makes filling out forms more convenient for the patient.
For more information on how to incorporate this great feature in your office, visit Dentrix Patient Engage or call 833.471.7253.
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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.
