A breakdown of different areas in Dentrix for recording information.
Here is a brief breakdown of the different note areas. Click on each heading to view additional information:
Treatment Notes
Information and details pertaining to a patient’s visit, including charting treatment, treatment plans, health history, and referrals. Learn more about treatment notes.
Patient Information Notes
Personal notes about the patient (for example, hobbies or birthdays), or notes attached to documents stored under a patient’s name. Learn more about patient information notes.
Insurance Notes
Anything note dealing with insurance or claims. Documenting information in these notes will help with follow-up on claims for anyone who is working on the Insurance Aging Report. Learn more about insurance notes.
Financial Notes
Notes about payments, additional charges, and/or adjustments that were made on a patient account, and to document terms and agreements made about an overdue balance. Learn more about financial notes.
Appointment Notes
These note should be used for information relevant for specific appointments. These notes will not automatically go into the next appointment scheduled for that patient. Learn more about financial notes.
Office Journal Notes
Any contact made with the patient should be entered into the Office Journal, and there are many entries that go into the Office Journal automatically. When you add your own journal entry, it allows you to put in your ID and will date/time stamp it. This is accessible from any module within Dentrix. Learn more about Office Journal notes.
Procedure Notes
Each time you enter a procedure, you can attach a note. Usually, the procedure note would be used to document clinical information about the procedure performed. However, that information can also be entered into the clinical notes. Procedure notes are locked when a procedure is moved into history following the closing of the month. Procedure notes can be printed from the Progress Notes panel.
Guarantor Notes
These are typically more sensitive notes about the account or financial issues. This note box only shows up in three places in Dentrix – Ledger, billing statements, and the Collections Manager report. Learn more about guarantor notes.
Documentation is so important. Making sure we are all “documenting” in the same place will help everyone know where to put the right information, and where to find it. Consistency is key here. Have a discussion in your team meeting about where you should put your notes.
Learn More
If you found these ideas helpful, learn more about the Dentrix Profitability Coaching Program, where one of our highly skilled and experienced profitability coaches teaches you and your team these and many other great concepts, strategies and ideas.
By Irma Loftis, Henry Schein One Practice Consultant