There are not enough hours in the day!
Do you find that you are so busy during the workday with patient care that sometimes you forget to do tasks like following up with an insurance company, checking if a patient made a scheduled payment, or doing a staff member’s performance review?
I had this problem and I found that the best solution was to become more organized. To-do lists and reminders help keep me on track throughout the day.
During the day, I always have Dentrix open, so it makes sense to have my to-do lists and reminders in Dentrix where they are easily accessible. There are two places that I recommend for reminders. The first is in the Dentrix Appointment Book. This reminder can be viewed by everyone in the office. This would be a great place to put a note like, “Today is Suzie, the hygienist’s, birthday.”
In the upper left corner of the Appointment Book, you will see “Note.” Click it to open the Appointment Book Day Note. It will be yellow if there is a note on that day and gray if there’s not.
The other place for reminders is the Dentrix Office Journal. The Office Journal is where we make notes regarding correspondence with patients. But did you know, as a staff member, you also have an Office Journal?
From the Dentrix Office Manager, open the Office Journal. If you are logged into the computer and you have passwords enabled in your office, your office journal will open. If you don’t have passwords enabled, the Office Journal will prompt you to choose a provider or staff member from a list.
Using your personal office journal, you can make reminders for yourself or other staff members.
From your office journal, click Edit, then click Add.
Select Reminder and choose a date for your reminder. Give your journal entry a brief description and type more detailed information in the Note box.
Try making reminders for yourself. Open your personal office journal in the morning and keep it open so you can refer to it throughout the day.
You can even set your office journal to open automatically when you open Dentrix in the morning. From the Dentrix Office Manager, click Maintenance > Practice Set Up > Preferences. In the bottom left corner, check the Automatically Launch Office Journal box.
I find that being more organized really helps me manage my time better and ensures that all my tasks are completed at the end of the day. When you use Dentrix to track your to-do lists and reminders, it really helps to you on track.
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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 [email protected].
