Therowshow

How wide open is the back door of your practice?

How wide open is the back door to your practice? I asked this question to a doctor during one of our training sessions because he was so convinced that his patients did not leave his practice. He knew that his patients were scheduling their next visit and loyal to his practice. This practice was very successful and had very good production and collection numbers … but they were totally in the dark about what their patient retention number was.

I opened their eyes with the click of a button . . . okay, maybe three clicks.

When we opened the Practice Advisor Report during the training session, our entire agenda went out the window and we started down a completely different path. Patients were pre-scheduling their next visit at a rate of 54% and the patient retention was at 66%. I thought the doctor was going to fall off his chair.

Numbers tell a story and monitoring your key performance indicators is a must when running a small business. Remember, your dental practice is a small business. Dentrix and a group of dental practice management consultants put their heads together many years ago and developed the Practice Advisor Report to help you monitor these KPIs. One of the most important numbers comes on page 3 of the report.

From the Office Manager, click on Analysis > Practice Advisor Report. Click on Practice Advisor Report and it will open up a new window. Here are my recommendations when you are ready to look at the numbers for your patient retention.

Select the last day of the previous month in the Generate Report as of:
Select Procedure Date for more accurate numbers
Highlight your active providers
In the Continuing Care section, select only your recare continuing care types (Prophy, Perio, Recare, etc). Do not select X-rays or anything that doesn’t relate to recare.
Click Preview and it will launch the report

The Patient Retention is located on the third page titled Continuing Care. You can see the image below to get a visual of what it looks like. For more information on this topic, CLICK HERE to be directed.

Now if you have never set up this report before, I can send you an info sheet that outlines my recommendations or we can setup an online training session. Email me directly for either option. You can also check out other blogs about the Practice Advisor within this blog.

Your Own Personal Practice Management Consultant

The 5 Stats Every Office Should Monitor

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Don't get caught with FOMO

I remember when I attended my very first Business of Dentistry conference in 2006. It was the first year I was a certified Dentrix trainer and I was super excited because my doctor agreed to tag along with me because it happened to be held at his favorite ski resort (so he could bail out if he got bored). I remember Dr. Gordon Christensen was the keynote speaker that year and my doctor was so impressed with the entire event he never made it to the slopes (at least during class time).

Since 2006 I have never missed a Business of Dentistry Conference (I would have serious FOMO) and this year will be no different. This year I am teaching six courses over two days and I am super excited to be such a big part of this amazing event.

CLICK HERE to learn more

Use my promo code when you register

BDC2017JOHNSON

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Protect yourself from an insurance audit with proper documentation

Have any of you been noticing your X-rays being denied more frequently than usual or have you been subject to an insurance audit on excessive X-rays? It is

happening and if you have not seen it yet, you will soon. I want you to be as prepared as possible when the insurance companies come knocking on your door.

When I work with dental teams, I often see the practice using the Continuing Care system in Dentrix as a way of tracking when a patient is due for his or her next series of X-rays. Your recare system is the most powerful system in your practice and it is the lifeblood of your practice. If you let patients fall through the cracks, you are letting thousands of dollars walk out the back door and your patients may suffer from unscheduled treatment. I do not doubt that your team has the best patient care at heart when you use the Continuing Care system in Dentrix as a way of staying focused on staying current on your diagnostics for your patients. However, taking X-rays is not based on the insurance frequency nor your “office policy” on BWX frequency.

Diagnostics is the reason for taking X-rays, not frequency. With this being said, your clinical documentation needs to reflect this in order to defend yourself in the case of an insurance denial or insurance company audit. I recently attended a study club meeting presented by my good friend and colleague, Teresa Duncan. She stressed two main points in your clinical documentation.

Since I help dental practices all the time with their custom clinical note templates, there are two things you need to include in your template. This can easily added to your clinical note template with a checkbox prompt so you can choose the variable answer for each patient.

X-rays were reviewed by . . .
X-rays are needed because of . . .

One office I know has made a new office policy that the doctor comes into the exam before the hygienist or dental assistant starts to take the X-rays so they can be properly diagnosed. I have another office that has changed up its recare appointments so that the X-rays are diagnosed at the current appointment and then scheduled with the next recare visit so they cover all their bases.

Now, I am not suggesting that you stop using the Dentrix Continuing Care system for tracking X-rays. However, I am suggesting that you add the risk assessment and diagnosis in your clinical note to substantiate the taking of the X-rays.

If you would like the full report developed by the ADA and the FDA on this topic, please email me directly and I will send it to you.

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Transform the way you follow up with over due recare patients

I learned the coolest thing today! Actually, I am rethinking the way I run the Continuing Care report. I know, right? If you have been reading my blog over the years, I talk a lot about the four reports to keepyour schedule full — ASAP List, Unscheduled List, Continuing Care List and Treatment Manager Report. Today, while I was working with a team on their hygiene workflow, we discovered something together that could completely transform the conversations you have with your hygiene patients when you are making follow-up calls.

As oral health clinicians, it is our fiduciary responsibility to inform patients of oral disease or infection so they can make educated decisions about their health and schedule them for their preventative maintenance visit. This education and communication with the patient is a full team responsibility, not just the clinical team. The front office team becomes part of the equation whenever patients are balking at scheduling their next visit or if they are following up with overdue patients.

The front office team does not need to know every clinical detail about the hygiene visit. However, having one little nugget of information to reiterate the value for the patient to schedule the recare visit can be critical. In previous versions of Dentrix, I would teach my front office teams to read through the clinical note from the hygienist and find something in there that would build value for the patient like “watching pocket #3,” “needs to floss more in lower anterior,” or “check margins on crown #30.” What happens a lot of the time is the front office team either doesn’t like going into the patient chart or these notes are still being written in a paper chart.

So where can the front office team build their own arsenal of “value added notes” so when they call the overdue hygiene patient, they can say something like, “You know, Sally really needed to see you in four months so she can check how the bleeding has improved in the upper right area” and the patient will say, “Oh yeah. That’s right. She did want to check that.” The motivational note in the patient’s continuing care is a perfect spot . . . and now it shows up on an awesome report.

If you are on Dentrix G6, you have a new amazing feature called List Manager. It’s like doing a Patient Reports by Filter … only on steroids. This List Manager will also allow you to put your Perio and Prophy patients on the same list . . . Whoo Hoo!

Watch the video below and see how to create a new kind of list.

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Recare is the lifeblood of your practice

If you are a general practice or pediatric dental practice, your recare system is the lifeblood of your practice. Your doctor’s schedule feeds off the hygiene patients so it is critical that you have a seamless system. But are your hygiene systems working as well as you think they are? You may have patients falling through the cracks or not receiving the reminders that you think they are.

The most important component of your recare system is the setup and making sure your team understands the details. I want to take some time today to walk you through proper setup, checking your individual patients continuing care, and which report to manage.

First, the setup is key. I wrote a blog post on May 23, 2012, called “KISS your Continuing Care Types,” but obviously not everyone read it so I am going to take some of those tips and re-apply them today. Many offices, understandably, try and create a system for 3-month Perio, 4-month Prophy, etc., by setting up new Continuing Care types but trust me . . . IT DOESN’T WORK! Remember that you can only attach one Continuing Care type to the procedure code. To

understand what I am talking about, go to the Office Manager > Maintenance > Practice Setup > Procedure Code Setup, then highlight the D1110 and click edit. You will notice in the middle of the window there is a >> Auto Continuing Care where you can attach one Continuing Care Type to this code. This means you cannot link up a 4-month Prophy and 6-month Prophy to the same code.

Your options are Prophy and Perio or Recare. You can link the Prophy to the D1110 and the D1120 and the Perio to the D4910, or link the Recare to all three.

After you have this setup corrected, when you schedule your patient for a cleaning, it will link up to the appointment correctly. When you set complete, it will update your patient’s due date.

But what if your patient is a 3-month Perio or 4-month Prophy? How do you get it up update the due date correctly? You can update the patient’s frequency on his or her Family File in the Continuing Care window. Once you change the patient’s recare frequency, then your reports will be accurate. When you schedule the patient for his or her next visit, the system will know when he or she is due.

After you get this setup fixed and the patient’s frequency updated on the Family File, then you can feel confident that your Continuing Care Report is accurate. If you are using the Dentrix eCentral communication manager, you will know that your patients are receiving reminders when they are due. For a full article on the Continuing Care report, CLICK HERE.

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Remind and Confirm the entire family with one message

Do you have a practice where you have several patients from the same family come in together on the same day for their dental visits? If so, this blog post is for you.

I am a huge fan of automation in your continuing care and appointment reminder system.

Automating these systems not only helps your front office team be more efficient, but also helps make sure patients don’t fall through the cracks. We not only want these systems efficient for the dental team, but also for the patients. This is why eCentral has added . . . . drum roll please!!!

Family Reminders

The new family reminders are available for email, text, and postcards so your practice can choose which method you want to setup. The email and postcard will show all family members and the start time of each appointment where the text message will show all family members and the earliest start time. When the appointment reminder is replied with a confirmation, it will confirm for every family member with one reply.

Update your software now to take advantages of these amazing eCentral features and stop the confusion of multiple appointment reminders. If you want these features in your office, call the Dentrix sales department today at 800-336-8749.

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Your hygiene department is the lifeblood of your practice

Do you sometimes feel a little out of touch with your recare patients? Do you think sometimes there are patients you haven’t seen for a while and you wonder where they are? Are you ready to take your hygiene department to the next level?

Your hygiene department is the lifeblood of the practice. If you don’t have a reliable system for managing when your patients are due for their regular checkups, then your office could be spinning its wheels when it comes to working from accurate lists. If set up properly, the Dentrix Continuing Care system will run like a well-oiled machine. Let’s look at the features that will help you generate accurate lists, give you some custom filter options, and streamline the process.

First, decide what continuing care types you want to track and make sure they are linked to the correct procedure code. Remember, you can only have one continuing care type per procedure code. Some examples might be:

PROPHY linked to D1110 and D1120
PERIO linked to D4910 and D4341
RECARE linked to D4910, D1110, and D1120

CLICK HERE for more information on linking up your continuing care types to procedure codes.

The next piece you want to think about is how you might filter your lists and what kind of customization you can do within the Dentrix Continuing Care system. You are dealing with different biological systems and personalities, so Sally might need to come in every 3 months for her prophy and want to be scheduled only with HYG1 and Michael might need to come in every 6 months for his prophy but want to see HYG4. How do you keep track of all these personalized settings? Its super easy!

On the Family File, double click on the Continuing Care box > highlight the Prophy and click edit. This will open a new window. Here you can edit the patient interval and select a specific hygienist of choice.

After you have customized the patient’s Continuing Care screen, you and your team can now generate customized lists with the push of a button. You can create a list for HYG1 patients and a different list for HGY4 patients. This can help your hygienists and front office team fill openings faster and feel confident your lists are accurate and up to date. CLICK HEREfor more information on keeping your hygiene schedule full (make sure to read all three articles).

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Business of Dentistry . . . why it's my favorite conference of the year

It’s that time of year. It’s time to get your doctor and your team registered for the Business of Dentistry Conference. As you have heard me talk about before, I have never missed a conference and I am going to give you 5 reasons you and your team should not miss it either. This year's conference is being held Oct 7th - 10th in sunny Florida.

You will be repeating the words “I didn’t know Dentrix could do that! I can’t believe how we are under-utilizing our practice management software.” Even if you have been using Dentrix for over 10 years, I can guarantee you will learn things that you didn’t know existed. Last year, I taught the advanced Billing and Collections class and my class was filled with doctors excited to learn how the software could help their practices meet production goals. It was eye-opening.
There is something to learn for every member of your team. Especially the dentist! This year the Business of Dentistry is offering more clinical technique and technology courses than ever before. The Dentrix courses have a skill level from entry level to advanced so the attendees can choose the level that best fits their knowledge of the software. This conference attracts some of the most sought-after consultants and they tailor their presentations to fit into the Dentrix agenda so you not only get amazing practice management educational material but you also get tips on how to implement it into your practice management software. Check out the course listing by CLICKING HERE.
Don’t miss the Learning Lab. This is my favorite part of the Business of Dentistry Conference. This is where you get to bring your questions and sit down with a knowledgeable support tech and get one-on-one help. If you are having issues with Dentrix, eServices, Easy Dental, or Enterprise, bring it to the Learning Lab. Here’s a tip: Take screen shots and print them out so you can show the team your issue (make sure you black out any patient information).
Learn aboutthird-party software that integrates with your Dentrix software. The vendors pour out into the hallways just waiting to tell you how their product, along with your Dentrix software, can help your practice more profitable, secure, or productive. Since Dentrix G5 opened up the Marketplace, there are many third-party companies that enhance your software in so many ways. I will have a booth at this year's conference so come by say Hi and check out what I have to offer you and your team.
Finally . . . have some fun and enjoy spending time with your team! This year’s conference is being held at the amazing Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in sunny Kissimmee, Florida. Henry Schein always brings the fun to this conference. I can remember bowling parties and dance parties that were off the charts. I can’t wait to see what this year has to offer.

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Inactive, Archived, Non-Patient . . . . what do I choose?

I wrote an article titled “At some point we need to let thepatient go,” but does this mean the patient is inactive or should we archive him or her? What is the difference between a Non-Patient, Inactive, and Archived patient? Does your practice have its own definition or do you choose to just ignore it?

These questions come up a lot when I am working with dental practices on cleaning up their systems and putting effective systems in place for managing their active patient base. It is important to know what your active patient base is so you are not reaching out to patients who have either left the practice or died. Having reports and patient lists is important when you start following up with unscheduled treatment and overdue recare.

I would like to share with you not only the definitions of each patient status, but what my recommendation is for each.

· Non-Patient – This is a person who is either an insurance holder or a guarantor on a family account. This is not a person who comes to your office for dental care. Now this person could also have a patient account if he or she is only an insurance holder for another patient in your practice. For example, if mom is a patient with her two children and dad is the insurance subscriber, then mom would be the guarantor and dad would be a non-patient on the account.

· Inactive – This is where there it gets a little “gray.” If you mark a patient as inactive, he or she will still show up in all search results and you can still send out letters and generate reports. My opinion is that if you have exhausted all your resources by calling, sending letters, and emailing patients and they are not responding to you, then you should mark them as inactive. What inactive will do is at least remove them from the Continuing Care lists and you can unselect them from other management reports.

· Archived – If you archive a patient, then he or she is removed from all search results, removed from all Continuing Care, it erases all insurance information, and deletes any future appointments in the schedule. My opinion is that if patients have told you they are leaving or died, then archive them. If the patient who has left the practice decides to return, you can bring the account back to active status and re-enter the insurance and continuing care information.

Having a clean, accurate system helps with many things like patient count, unscheduled treatment numbers, and setting goals. I hope you will take some time and clean up your patient status and create systems in your practice using the definition of each status.

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Challenge yourself to become a Dentrix Master and get recognized on the Wall of Fame

This is your year to become the best you can be in your career. Challenge yourself to become a Dentrix master. Join me on the Wall of Fame as I post up your accomplishments on my blog all throughout 2015. CLICK HERE to start your success.

Watch my video to hear all the details . . .