As dental practices open up, it’s time to assess just how efficient yours is. Are there any blind spots that need to be addressed and improved upon? Here are some signs you have room to improve upon your current level of efficiency.
Does Your Dental Practice Embrace Mobile And Tablet Technology?
When it comes to improving your workflow and the patient experience, there are multiple apps for dentists. OrthoPhoto App is a HIPAA compliant orthodontic application created by Dr. Kathy Nguyen for iOS. It allows dentists and orthodontists to take clinical images of their patients’ orthodontic braces progress and automatically saves the records.
Through OrthoPhoto, dentists and orthodontists take pictures of their patients’ dental braces progress throughout their treatment. The application automatically places the images into a templated file, which you can save and export with ease for dental record-keeping. Dentists and orthodontists no longer need to dedicate extra hours after the office is closed to handle a mountain of patient records.
Do Your Patients Wait Longer Than 10 Minutes Before They Are Called In For Their Appointment?
On average, dental and orthodontic patients wait about 8 minutes before they are taken to the chair at which they will be treated. Let’s face it, dentist appointments can be a dread for many, and patients need to go back to school or work after their appointment, so the less time they spend waiting, the better. If your patients have to wait longer than 8-10 minutes, it’s time to make some changes. We recommend gathering as much information about patients as possible before their scheduled appointment. Have your front desk staff ask if any patient information has changed. If it has, then it’s a great idea to only give patients the paperwork that needs updating. If none of their info has changed, then it’s much easier to ensure they get called back in time.
Another method of improvement is to automatically provide patient paperwork through an online portal or via email or text a few days prior to their appointment. Also consider putting a late-patient and/or no-show policy in place.
Is Your Staff Scrambling For Files?
Speaking of providing online paperwork, consider transforming your dental or orthodontic practice into a completely paperless one. There is plenty of practice management software out there on the market that is easy to use, and software is becoming increasingly cloud-based these days. Rather than relying on stuffy filing cabinets or drawers–which also need to be regularly sorted through by hand–spend less time tracking down documents and more time providing exceptional dental treatment.
Going the paperless route will certainly take some time, but making daily progress works wonders. Before you know it, your office will be eco-friendly, digital, and efficient.
Efficiency Can Always Be Improved Upon
There is always room for improvement, so if you realize your practice could benefit from the aforementioned updates and your braces patients can be happier with some updates, now is the perfect time to implement them so you can practice better dentistry and create a better patient experience.
