Practice success tips to help you adapt to the new normal during the pandemic.
Updated 9/16/20
To help your team bounce back from COVID-19, we’re providing practical tips you can share with your business partners and team members. We don’t know when the crisis will end, but we’re committed to helping you manage through it and come out of it better prepared to serve your patients.
- Bounce Back Tip #7: Give Your Patients More Ways to Pay
- Bounce Back Tip #6: Offer Online Booking
- Bounce Back Tip #5: Create a Virtual Waiting Room
- Bounce Back Tip #4: 5 Ways to Prep Your Schedule for Patients
- Bounce Back Tip #3: Prepare for Treatment Triage
- Bounce Back Tip #2: Don’t Leave Insurance Money on the Table
- Bounce Back Tip #1: Explore Sources of Financial Relief
- Bounce Back Bonus Tip: Dentrix Training for Your Team
We have also shared several articles to help you adapt your processes in order to make your scheduling more effective and fill the gaps in your schedule caused by the shutdown and continuing safety concerns.
- How to Fill Open Time in Your Hygiene Schedule
- Dealing with Appointment Cancellations in a COVID-19 World
- Adding COVID-19 Tracking Protocols to the Appointment Checklist
- Strategies for Contactless Checkout and Online Bill Payment
- Allow Patients to Fill Out Forms Online
- Reassure Patients It’s Safe to Come Back
Bounce Back Tip #7: Give Your Patients More Ways to Pay
The COVID-19 crisis is causing financial stress for you and your patients. As you cautiously resume routine operations, you’ll need revenue—you’ll need to get paid for your services. At the same time, your patients will need payment options that fit their financial circumstances. Dentrix provides revenue cycle management solutions for both of you.
Share these tips with your team and help them prepare your practice to bounce back from COVID-19.
- Offer CareCredit Patient Financing
- Schedule Recurring Credit Card Payments with Dentrix Pay
- Email Your Billing Statements and Let Patients Pay Online with QuickBill eStatements (video)
Watch the on-demand webinar to see a demonstration of how to use these features. Click here to watch the video.
For more tips, please visit our COVID-19 Resources.
Bounce Back Tip #6: Offer Online Booking
When you re-open your practice, you’ll want to make it easy for patients to schedule. They’ve already been waiting for months. Once you re-open, why make them wait a minute longer than necessary to book an appointment?
With online booking in Dentrix, you can provide busy patients the option to book appointments 24/7. And, best of all, you can control the blocks of time, types of appointments, and providers available for booking.
Share these tips with your team and help them prepare your practice to bounce back from COVID-19.
- Allowing Patients to Book Appointments Online (video)
- Working with Online Bookings in the Appointment Book
- Setting Up Online Booking Options
- Online Booking from the Patient’s Perspective
Watch the on-demand webinar to see a demonstration of how to use these features. Click here to watch the video.
For more tips, please visit our COVID-19 Resources.
Bounce Back Tip #5: Create a Virtual Waiting Room
As you prepare to re-open your practice, you will need to make some adjustments to help keep your patients and team safe. The ADA released a Return to Work Interim Guidance Toolkit with helpful suggestions.
With Dentrix Patient Engage, you can create a virtual waiting room to reduce in-person interaction and help maintain social distancing during a patient’s visit. This will help your patients and team feel safer coming back to the office.
Share this tip with your team and help them prepare your practice to bounce back from COVID-19.
Watch the on-demand webinar to see a demonstration of these features.
Click here to watch the video about patient communication and contactless check-in.
Click here to watch the video about revenue cycle management and contactless check out.
For more tips, please visit our COVID-19 Resources.
Bounce Back Tip #4: 5 Ways to Prep Your Schedule for Patients
You care about your patients. Some of them are your close friends. Some even feel like family. We go out of our way for the people we care about. When you open your doors and begin seeing patients again, you may need to go out of your way for them.
For example, you may need to open earlier, stay open later, or see patients on weekends. You may want to reserve an operatory or blocks of time for patients who have a higher risk of becoming ill. And you may need to add time between appointments for extra sterilization measures to help keep your patients safe.
Dentrix makes it easy to adjust your practice and provider schedules. Share these tips with your team and help them prepare your practice to bounce back from COVID-19.
- Altering Your Practice Hours in Dentrix
- Changing a Provider’s Schedule in Dentrix
- Changing Operatory Hours and Availability in Dentrix
- Creating Time Between Appointments for Safety Precautions
- Setting Up Time Blocks for Providers to See At-Risk Patients
Watch the on-demand webinar to see a demonstration of how to use these features. Click here to watch the video.
For more tips, visit our COVID-19 Resources.
Bounce Back Tip #3: Prepare for Treatment Triage
When you open your doors and begin seeing patients again, you’re going to have a backlog of patient care. You’ll need ways to prioritize patient needs before you start scheduling. Dentrix includes tools to help you identify patients with urgent treatment plans, patients who are overdue for periodontal treatment, and patients who are willing to come in ASAP. Share these tips with your team and help them prepare your practice to bounce back from COVID-19.
- Finding Patients with Urgent Treatment Needs
- Locating Patients Who Need a Specific Type of Continuing Care Treatment
- Creating Custom Appointment Book Lists
- Generating a List of Patients Who Had Appointments When the Office Closed
Watch the on-demand webinar to see a demonstration of how to use these features. Click here to watch the video.
For more tips, please visit our COVID-19 Resources.
Bounce Back Tip #2: Don’t Leave Insurance Money on the Table
Sustaining your business operations requires income. Even if you aren’t treating or billing patients right now, you can still capture some income by conducting an audit of your insurance billing records and following up on open claims. Share these tips with your team to help sustain your practice while you prepare to bounce back from COVID-19.
- Finding Procedures that Haven’t Been Billed to Insurance
- Finding Claims that Haven’t Been Sent to Insurance
- Finding Outstanding Insurance Claims for Follow-up
For a deeper dive, read Don’t Leave Money on the Table in Dentrix Magazine or watch the recorded webinar. Click here to watch the video.
For more tips, please visit our COVID-19 Resources.
Bounce Back Tip #1: Explore Sources of Financial Relief
Securing financial relief for your practice may be essential to help you support your team and eventually bounce back from COVID-19. The Federal Government passed the CARES Act legislation on March 27, 2020, allocating $349 billion to the Small Business Administration to guarantee loans to small businesses, including dental practices. Share and discuss these resources with your team to learn more about sources of financial relief for your practice.
- Federal CARES Act Overview and Key Provisions
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) Small Business Guidance & Loan Resources
- Coronavirus Federal Tax Relief
- Henry Schein Financial Services Programs
- Financial Survival for Dental Practices During COVID-19
For more tips, please visit our COVID-19 Resources.
Bounce Back Bonus Tip: Dentrix Training for Your Team
To help your team develop the skills they’ll need to help your practice bounce back, we’ve waived all Dentrix Mastery TracksTM testing fees. If you’re on a Dentrix Customer Service Plan, your team can take any tests, including mastery-level tests, free of charge.
Dentrix Mastery Tracks provides online Dentrix training and testing for your entire team. Team members learn from structured on-demand courses and then take tests to evaluate their Dentrix skills. Read what team members like yours are saying about the Mastery Tracks experience. Watch our video to see how easy it is to get started.
Prepare your team today to help your practice bounce back tomorrow. Start your Dentrix Mastery Tracks training.
