the coupon mailer that cost you $ 15,000 to send out ? Your marketing dollars depend on where patients are being referred from so you should know where to continue spending money and where to stop . When a patient refers a new patient , do you give him or her a thank-you gift ? Would you like to track if you gave the referral source a gift card the last time or be able to track a referral source ’ s gratuity history ? Tracking referrals and gratuities in Dentrix is super easy and gives the doctor a lot of good information about where to spend marketing dollars . Sadly , I find that most offices never use this useful Dentrix tool .
For more information , see “ Building relationships one referral at a time ” ( February 27 , 2013 ) and “ Keep tight reins on your referred patients ” ( August 23 , 2013 ).
Figure 3 Use this feature to search for all procedures that have been posted and not sent to insurance .
# 5 Sending to the Dentrix Document Center This Dentrix feature will save your team a ton of unnecessary scanning , unnecessary wasted paper , and unnecessary hard drive storage space . When you scan a document into the Document Center , it takes many more steps , and the file size of a scanned document is many times larger than that of a file sent electronically through the Dentrix Document Center printer driver . Anything you want to print can be virtually printed to the Document Center for file storage . This is such an amazing yet underused feature .
For more information , see “ A little known secret ” ( September 4 , 2012 ).
# 6 Perfect Day Scheduling Close your eyes for a moment and imagine that you could see your patients on time , complete 80 percent of your production goal before lunch , get out for lunch on time , and finish your day without pulling the roller skates out of the closet . This can be a reality if you create it . Take control of your Appointment Book with Perfect Day Scheduling . When you use Perfect Day Scheduling , your team knows exactly how to schedule because you have mapped it out for them . There is no room for error .
For more information , see “ What if every day could be a perfect day ” ( March 19 , 2013 ) and “ The new patient experience ... scheduling the appointment ” ( July 27 , 2011 ).
# 7 Goal Tracking Every dental practice has production and collection goals they need to meet in order to keep the financial state of the business healthy . I always encourage doctors to share these goals with the team and be transparent with the key performance numbers . There are several places in Dentrix to watch and monitor your practice goals so the team can strategize and work together on exceeding the goals . You can monitor your goals on the monthly calendar and the Daily Huddle Report .
For more information , see “ Let ’ s do some goal setting ” ( December 2 , 2014 ).
# 8 More Information Button Have you ever been on the phone with a mom who wants to know when her kids and husband are scheduled for their next appointments ? Try the More Information button on the toolbar . You will fall in love with this super quick reference tool . You can find the More Information button on the toolbar of most Dentrix modules ( Figure 1 ). When you select a patient anywhere in Dentrix , you will also see the More Information button in the lower left corner of the dialog box ( Figure 2 ).
# 9 Create Batch of Primary Dental Claims Are you sure you have batched and sent off all your insurance claims from last week ? How about last month ? You can use the Create Batch Primary Dental Insurance Claims button on the Office Manager toolbar to open a dialog box where you can search for all procedures that have been posted and not sent to insurance ( Figure 3 ). This Dentrix feature is like a second pair of eyes to double check and make sure all your claims have been sent out . Not only will this give you peace of mind , it will also help keep your accounts receivable out of the 90-day past due column .
For more information , see “ Are all your insurance claims going out ?” ( March 31 , 2015 ).
# 10 Patient-Friendly Descriptions Do your patients often ask what a “ resin 2surf , post ” or a “ Crownporc fused noble metal ” is ? Or is your practice in an area where English is not the primary language for many of your patients ? If you would like to create a treatment plan that your patients would more easily understand and helps them understand what each procedure is , then start using patient-friendly descriptions . As of Dentrix G6.1 , it is even easier to use because you can edit these descriptions in the procedure code editor .
For more information , see “ No speak English , no worries ” ( July 22 , 2013 ).
Have fun experimenting with these Dentrix features and increasing your office efficiency and customer service . If you have questions , drop me a line at dayna @ raedentalmanagement . com . I ’ m happy to help .
LEARN MORE Dayna Johnson , founder and principal consultant of Rae Dental Management , helps dental offices improve patient care , increase collections , and reduce staff headaches by implementing efficient management systems . With 20 years of experience in the business and technical side of dental offices , Dayna ’ s passion for efficient systems is grounded in both personal understanding and professional expertise . Dayna can be reached at dayna @ raedentalmanagement . com or visit her website at www . raedentalmanagement . com .
DAYNA JOHNSON Certified Dentrix Trainer