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True

Stories
that will change your practice

Over 100 useful tips & tricks from DENTRIX® Certified Trainers
Contents

Introduction 4
Scheduling 6
Charting 28
Insurance Processing 36
Treatment Planning 54
Billing 62
Continuing Care 78
Practice Marketing 90
Reports 94
Staff Communication 106
Patient Communication 112
Productivity 120

[click page numbers to jump to a section]


Introduction

M ore than 200 certified trainers continuously work to provide personal and
custom instruction to doctors and staff that chose DENTRIX to manage their
practice. Most of these trainers are dental professionals who split their time working
their favorite tips, tricks, features, and tools and describe how these insider secrets
can help practices increase efficiencies, boost productivity, and enhance their
professional image. Henry Schein Practice Solutions hopes that the sharing of the
in a dental practice with training responsibilities. The following pages represent ideas and experiences in this book will be valuable to your practice.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Using the ASAP list to Fill Your Schedule Scheduling Production in the Appointment Book
and Create a Professional Image

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do
with this feature?
I teach offices to use the ASAP list to track patients who want to move their
appointments to the earliest available appointment date and time. I also teach I helped an office set up goals
offices to make a note in the appointment notes about the desired time the patient and views for each provider in the
was looking for or any scheduling limitations the patent has. Appointment Book. Then, the office
used the appointment calendar to
be reminded of daily production and
see production vs. goal-to-date.

How did the feature help the office


staff save time, save money, make
money, reduce stress, or enhance
their professional image?
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
This helped the office save time
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
by having the Appointment Book
The ASAP list helps offices make money by providing them with an easily- automatically calculate production. This also helped the office make money by
maintained list of patients hoping for a change in the practice schedule. Utilizing increasing awareness of production and goals on daily basis. The office reduced
appointment notes enables the staff to target the most appropriate patients on the stress because this feature encourages and helps the office plan for more production
ASAP list to call first and filter out the patients that would not regularly be available by acknowledging and seeing the comparison of production vs. goals.
on the day or time of the schedule opening. An office looks incredibly professional
and caring when they call a patient and say, “Mrs. Smith, I remember that you asked
me to call you if I had a change in our schedule for a morning appointment. I have
a change for tomorrow at 10:00 am, and I thought of you!” Even if the patient is
not able to take advantage of the opportunity, they will remember not only how
thoughtful the call was, but also how organized and professional the office is.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Renaming Continuing Care Statuses to Add Using Perfect Day Scheduling for Special Appointment Types
Functionality to the Appointment Book

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do
with this feature?
Since the status of Continuing Care does not change or reset automatically when
a patient schedules, cancels, or completes a Continuing Care appointment, I train I trained a pedodontist’s office that
offices to re-label the status in the Definitions to reflect the interval status that the had a specific hospital appointment
practice encounters (e.g. 6mo, 4mo, 3mo, 2mo, 12mo, and Alt with Perio). The office book. We implemented a “Hospital Block” that encompassed a full day and
can then apply the proper status specified the time needed, so they could see what was available.
as needed.
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
How does the feature help reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
the office staff save time,
Using Perfect Day Scheduling this way, I was able to move the office from a paper
save money, make money,
book with hospital appointments to the computer, so they didn’t have to use a
reduce stress, or enhance their
computer for regular appointments and paper for hospital appointments–they
professional image?
could just use the computer and not have the hassle.
In this way, the Continuing Care
call list in the Appointment Book gains more power and functionality. Also, the staff
can engage in situation-appropriate dialog when communicating with patients. The
scripts used to talk to a patient that is two months past due but healthy is going to be
different than a six-month-interval patient. This surely enhances professional image, is
in the best interest of the patient, and generates revenue by keeping a full schedule.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Using the More Info Button in the Select Patient Using Perfect Day Scheduling to Increase Production and Efficiency
Dialog to View Family Appointment Information

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do
with this feature?
I train offices to use the More Info button in the Select Patient dialog to see at a
glance if any of a patient’s family members have an appointment or recall scheduled. I remember training a particular office
to use Time Blocks. After setting
How does the feature help the them up, I explained how to lengthen,
office staff save time, save money, shorten, and remove them. I also
make money, reduce stress, or explained the difference between
enhance their professional image? doctor time and assistant time.
Every office I have been to has told
me they open the Appointment How did the feature help the office
Book or Family File to find staff save time, save money, make
this information. I teach every money, reduce stress, or enhance
their professional image?
staff member to click the More
Info button during a patient’s Time Blocks helped the office
appointment to make sure every implement and monitor production
family member is scheduled or due for recall so they do not have to call patients to goals and provided time guidelines for office staff to follow. Additionally, since
schedule recall. Keeping hygiene scheduled with all family members while a patient the Schedule Coordinator had less openings, the scheduling was more efficient.
is in the office helps make money. When there were new appointment cancellations, Perfect Day Scheduling helped to
quickly fill the appointment time. It kept the office running smoothly, without over-
stressing the doctor or assistant, and produced better patient flow. Also, patients
were seated on time.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Using Names on Time Blocks with Perfect Day Using Perfect Day to Schedule for Emergencies
Scheduling to Make Scheduling Easier

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do

I train offices to set up Time Blocks with the clinician name, so they can see at the with this feature?

top of the schedule who is working in that operatory. I train offices to block out selected
times each day to accommodate
How does the feature help patients with emergencies. It’s simple
the office staff save time, to set up, and times can be different
save money, make money, on each day. Time Blocks are created
reduce stress, or enhance their
and parked at midnight on a Saturday
professional image?
or Sunday to make them available on
In most dental offices, not a flexible basis everyday.
everyone works the same days
all the time, so naming the How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
operatories doesn’t always work. reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
Using Perfect Day Scheduling Using Perfect Day Scheduling in this way allows an office to designate and block out
allows an office to easily put the a specific/changeable time each day to quickly handle patients with emergencies.
hygienist or doctor’s name at the
top of the schedule.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Using Perfect Day Scheduling to Block Out Premium Using the Time Blocks of Perfect Day Scheduling to
Time for New Patient Hygiene Appointments Increase Production and Make the Day Well-Rounded

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do
with this feature?
For offices that schedule a comprehensive exam and
x-rays for the first visit and a hygiene appointment after, I trained an office to use the Time
I train them to schedule an initial appointment with a Blocks in the Appointment Book to
doctor during ‘prime’ scheduling hours (early morning block time for specific areas such
or evening) and block out several prime hygiene slots as crowns, bridges, and veneers, as
every week using Perfect Day Scheduling. well as new patient appointments.
Using Time Blocks was particularly
How does the feature help the office staff save time, helpful for this office because they
save money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance were having a hard time keeping their
their professional image? schedule and production even; the doctor would work like crazy all day and then

Using this method, the office will always have a look at her production at the end of the day and be shocked at how low it was.

prime spot to offer a new patient for a cleaning, thus


reducing patients’ frustrations because they don’t How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
have to wait a long time or reschedule. Also, these
slots can be released/opened for general scheduling a week or two in advance. If This feature helped boost her production and made the doctor’s day well-rounded.
new patients have not taken advantage of them; they are easy to fill using the She was also able to reserve new patient time in her schedule, so her new patients
ASAP/OPEN list. perceived that she was readily available for them.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Using Perfect Day Scheduling to Schedule by Provider Integrating the Lab Case Manager with the
Appointment Book to Track Cases Efficiently

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I train offices that like to use Appointment Book columns to schedule by I trained a large office to use the Lab Case Manager to track whether cases had
provider (rather than by physical operatories) to not only label the columns of the been received or not because the staff was having a difficult time tracking lab cases
Appointment Book with providers’ names, but also provide a visual cue about and often had to call a patient on the day of their appointment to tell them that the
the providers’ schedules by using a Time Block at the top of each column with a case was not in yet.
provider’s name and color in it.
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? Using the Lab Case Manager, the office had fewer big holes in the schedule, and the
Using Perfect Day staff members were relieved to find such a simple and efficient way to track cases
Scheduling this way was that could also be integrated with the Appointment Book.
particularly helpful for a
large periodontal office
that I trained (5 doctors,
5 hygienists) where the
schedules varied greatly.
Perfect Day Scheduling
enables offices to schedule
faster and with fewer
errors, which streamlines the front office and reduces the stress and embarrassment
of rescheduling when a mistake is discovered.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Utilizing the Appointment Note Field Expanding the Use of Appointment Types

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office
to do with this feature?
I always teach offices to use the Note box in the Appointment Book in the upper-left
corner. I explain the benefits of the “to do” pad, but also how they can document The intended use of the
incoming calls for providers and staff. To reinforce this feature, I ask the office what Appointment Type is for
day I am returning for the next training with them. When they tell me, I teach them Time Blocks/Perfect Day
how to navigate in the Appointment Book to that training date. Then, I have them Scheduling. An office did
type in questions for me. I told them that I will only answer questions at the next not need to utilize the
session that come directly from that box. Appointment Type for their
time blocks, but in their multi-doctor practice, they needed to designate the
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, primary dentist for hygiene appointments. This was so that the doctor could plan
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? when to break from their own schedule to perform hygiene exams on their patients.

This keeps the office organized for The Appointment View was changed to place the Appointment Type on one of the

situations when they have two lines visible lines of the hygiene appointments.

on hold, a patient in front of them,


How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
etc. This is a fantastic place to take
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
that patient’s name and number to
return their call in a few minutes, This saved time and improved patient flow by having this information readily
versus keeping them on hold or available and eliminated a task that the front office had previously done—
using paper notes. highlighting/labeling a printed schedule during the morning huddle.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Customizing an Appointment Status to Show Setting Complete from the Appointment Book to Save Time
if Clinical Notes Are Complete

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office
to do with this feature?
I train some offices to give the Appointment Status of CK OUT a gray color. For
offices that post procedures from the Chart, the front desk employee can change I went into an office that would change
the appointment status to CH OUT when the patient has been processed out and the appointment status from the
they are finished. The status bar will be gray to indicate that charges are entered, Appointment Information dialog to
and the patient has checked out. complete the appointment, then go into
the Ledger and/or patient Chart to put in
How does the feature help the office the completed treatment. After that, they
staff save time, save money, make would make the next appointment.
money, reduce stress, or enhance
their professional image? How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
The advantage to this, rather than reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
turning the entire appointment gray, They were amazed at how much quicker they could complete the task (with half the
is that the appointment stays colored clicks) by setting an appointment complete from the Appointment Book, and it would
by provider until the provider completes the entry of the Clinical Notes. Once lead them right into scheduling the patient’s next Continuing Care appointment.
the notes are complete, the doctor or clinician can “complete” the appointment,
turning the entire appointment gray. This patient is now “totally” complete, and
there is a very easy visual that indicates the notes have been entered and signed. At
the end of the day, appointments that are not gray are not done.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Customizing the Appointment Reason to Save Time Tracking Production with the Appointment Book

What do you train the office to What did you train the office to do
do with this feature? with this feature?

I train offices to customize I trained an office with two doctors


the Appointment Reasons in and four hygienists. The doctors
Definitions to fit their needs. wanted to be able to look at the
For some practices this Appointment Book at a glance and
means streamlining hygiene see which of their patients were in
procedures and products hygiene. They also wanted to be
used in their office. For others it could mean putting “post op” in the Appointment able to track hygiene production
Reason field because their doctor sees 15 a week. by doctor, as the hygiene salaries
were based on the percentage
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, of the hygiene patients that were
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? their production. The doctors were

This cuts down on clicks, saving time and stress. DDS1 and DDS2, and the hygienist
were EM1, JM1, SB1, and JS1. I had
them add EM2, JM2, SB2 and JS2
(e.g. EM1 for Doctor 1’s patients, EM2 for Doctor 2’s patients). The original provider
colors remained the same, and I gave each of the new providers a lighter shade (e.g.
EM1 was dark purple, EM2 was light purple).

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

It worked like a charm. Practice Analysis reports could be generated for DDS1, EM1,
JM1, SB1 and JS1. The same was done for DDS2. Accountants could calculate the
doctors’ portion of hygiene payroll by the percentage of their patients seen. Also,
doctors could glance at the schedule and tell, by color, which patients each needed
to check.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Using Wait/Will Call for New Patient Appointments Scheduling to Meet Goals

What did you train the office to do What did you train the office to do with this feature?
with this feature?
I trained an office where the hygienist refused to let the front
It is possible to put a new patient desk schedule an appointment that had been cancelled that
appointment on the Wait/Will Call day. The hygienist didn’t want holes filled, and the doctor
list, rather than breaking it. If the asked if I could address this issue. I introduced the office to
office sends the appointment to setting goals (with numbers prearranged by the Dr.). The
the Pin Board by clicking Pin Board hygienist got so excited about this and then wanted to fill
inside the appointment, not by dragging the appointment to the Pin Board. The every hole. The Dr. was obviously thrilled.
appointment will be on the Unscheduled List as Will Call when they refresh the
Appointment Book. How did the feature help the office staff save time, save
money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance their
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, professional image?
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
This increased office production and created
Being able to distinguish broken and wait/will call for new patient appointments is unity in the office.
just as important as it is for established patients.

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Scheduling Scheduling
Using the Flip Tab Feature to Create a Quick Call List Using the Unscheduled Appointment List to Your Advantage

What do you train the office to do with What did you train the office to do with this feature?
this feature?
I trained an office that had a huge Unscheduled List full of appointments that were
I train offices to set up a Flip Tab with a left on there by mistake and needed to be cleaned up. The office hadn’t been
quick call list if they ask me, “How can taking advantage of
we keep a quick call list for patients it, because it was a
without an appointment?” Utilizing the mess. They were not
Flip Tab feature, they can customize a aware of how to use
tab for Absolute and select a day IN it properly. I showed
THE PAST that the office did not see them how to clean it
patients (e.g. New Years Day). Title this up and then prevent
tab Quick Call (or something relevant). appointments from
They can use this tab for any patients that say, “Call me when something comes being left on there in
up,” for appointments to seat crowns after the crown comes in, etc. A quick click the future.
on the tab opens to this list of appointments. They do not need to be longer than
one or two time units because the office can place the specified time needed in the How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
Appointment Notes field and have access to that. Also, they should use this field for reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
information regarding how and when appointments were offered and not used. It is Using the Unscheduled List properly allowed them to increase productivity and also
important that all workstations use the same date for the quick call list. communicate with their patients in a professional manner that allowed them to show
the patient how important their dental care is.
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

This feature is a great paper saver. It also puts all the appointments, regardless of
provider, in one space. Also, they have all DENTRIX features available, and they can
use the Pin Board to reschedule the appointments. The patients are not aware they
have an appointment (because they use a date in the past). Offices have found that
this is a valuable time saver, a way to sort for appointments, and a great quick way
to fill the Appointment Book.

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Charting Charting
Customizing Procedure Buttons in the Chart Using Clinical Notes to Save Time

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I have offices run a Production Summary report every year to get a list of common I trained a pedodondist office that saw lots of Medicaid patients and needed a quicker
procedures they have posted. Then, the office can create procedure buttons for the way to get through the children. We set up detailed, customized clinical notes.
procedures or multi-codes they often perform.

How does the feature help the office


staff save time, save money, make
money, reduce stress, or enhance
their professional image?

This is a huge time and stress


reduction! By doing this every year, I
never use the procedure codes panel
and rarely miss procedures to be
included in the treatment plan. How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

The office clicked right through the clinical notes and moved on to the next patient.
The doctors were able to finish the charts with the patient still in the chair, instead of
at night or over the weekend. Also, claims got filled quicker.

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Charting Charting
Customizing the Chart to Enhance Workflow Using the View by Selected Teeth Button to View Tooth History

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do
with this feature?
I help offices personalize/customize the DENTRIX chart to increase functionality and
workflow in the practice. I train offices to use the View by
Selected Teeth button in the Patient
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, Chart to find all history pertaining to
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? one tooth or several teeth.

Setting up the Chart saves


How does the feature help the office
time because they can create
staff save time, save money, make
a workable chart that fits their
money, reduce stress, or enhance
preferences. This reduces stress
their professional image?
because the customized chart
is personalized and involves the Offices I have been to in the past

staff in using what they created. that had a paper chart would spend

It enhances their professional valuable time trying to find the history

image by enhancing patients’ for a certain tooth by flipping through the paper chart or, if they had DENTRIX,

experiences with educational by scrolling up and down looking for history in the Progress Notes. The View by

graphics and presentation. Selected Teeth button saves office staff time by allowing them to see an entire tooth

Also, the office can make money history with one click.

because the customized Chart and the flexibility it creates allows the office to input
more information and get more information in reports.

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Charting Charting
Customizing Procedure Buttons in the Patient Chart Charting and Appointing Patients Correctly to Become Paperless

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train
the office to do with
I train offices to customize, customize, customize and to be creative with the
this feature?
Procedure Buttons and design them however they like them best.
Many of the offices
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, I train are ready to
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? be “chartless,” but
are not charting in
Creating custom Procedure Buttons saves
DENTRIX correctly.
a lot of time when charting and definitely
I begin by helping
reduces the stress of searching for those
with designing how
procedure codes! Clinical staff members
the exam can be
love this function.
entered, starting
with the “Existing
Other” procedures, then moving into “Tx” procedures. Next, the doctor puts the
plan into priority order. Once in priority order, the front desk knows what to appoint
the patient for, and the patient understands how many appointments it will take as
well as the total out-of-pocket cost.

How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

This relieves the frustration on the part of the front desk, as they understand what
appointment to set when the patient calls to schedule, and they do not have to
run and get the patient chart, as it is right in front of them in DENTRIX. The daily
production is more accurate, checking patients out and appointing them is much
easier, and the office is more efficient, as the Unscheduled Treatment Plan report
can keep patients current with treatment. The office is finally able to utilize DENTRIX
to work for them, and they are maximizing their DENTRIX experience.

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Charting Charting
Using Clinical Note Templates to Eliminate Written Treatment Notes Changing the Date on a Clinical Note

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this feature?

When working with an office in Florida last year, I trained them on the new Clinical I train offices to change the date and time if a Clinical Note needs to reference a
Notes templates. The doctor was excited about this feature, as they have always had previous day.
a hard time getting staff/providers in the practice to keep accurate and thorough
notes on treatment. They were still handwriting a majority of the information. I
ended up being hired for a short time to set up the templates for them: creating
intensive and thorough exam templates for hygienists, administrative forms, etc.
This helped them get the detailed notes the
doctor really wanted in the chart without
sacrificing time and effort on the part of his
staff. I interviewed each hygienist and staff
member needing assistance to see what
their exact needs were in making accurate
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
records and developed templates based on reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
their job responsibilities.
Many other software systems do not allow a Clinical Note to be entered after the
date has passed. This can be very frustrating for practices, and I have found that
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
doctors and staff members really like DENTRIX’s ability to create a note and set
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
the accurate date. No need for the doctor to “burn the midnight oil” and get those
After putting the templates into practice, everyone was thrilled with the speed
notes in before midnight.
in which they could get their notes entered into the chart through the use of
templates. No more spelling errors, no more writing, and no more patient records
left unfinished due to the lack of time! With a good backup system in place,
there was also no more risk of paper records being lost in a flood/fire/hurricane. I
explained the importance of having these records from a legal standpoint, as well,
and this was also an important selling point in helping them to understand the
importance of Clinical Notes and keeping accurate records.

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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Scanning Insurance Cards into the Document Center Entering Insurance Notes

What do you train the office to do What do you train the office to do with this feature?
with this feature?
I train offices to enter insurance
I recommend that offices scan notes (e.g. deductible was
insurance cards into the Document taken out or frequency/max
Center. It is a simple, paperless way to out) every time they enter an
store patient information. insurance payment for which
the insurance doesn’t pay the
How does the feature help the office full amount of the estimate.
staff save time, save money, make
money, reduce stress, or enhance How did the feature help the
their professional image? office staff save time, save
So many paper charts have numerous paper copies of insurance cards with no money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
documentation as to how current they are. By using Document Center, the most By adding insurance notes, staff members can look up the information when a
current card is dated, making it easy to see the most recent information. This saves patient calls to see why insurance did not pay. Entering insurance notes saves staff
time and money in submitting claims with accurate information. members time because they do not have to find the EOBs or have another staff
member return a call to the patient.

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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Split Insurance Claims Using the Split Primary Claim Feature

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I recommend to offices that they I showed the Split Claims feature to an office and they were very excited. The ability
use the Split Primary Claims to split the claim so that the unpaid portion will continue to be traced is awesome.
feature after receiving insurance
payments/EOBs with procedures How did the feature help the
that have not been paid. The Split office staff save time, save
Primary Claim feature allows the money, make money, reduce
office to move unpaid procedures stress, or enhance their
professional image?
to a separate claim form.
The office was using sticky
How does the feature help notes or written lists to track
the office staff save time, save partial payments. The Split
money, make money, reduce Claim feature saves them time
stress, or enhance their professional image? and paper.
The Split Claim feature saves time by ensuring procedures are accurately tracked
as outstanding with insurance. This will also reduce stress, time, and post-it notes
because offices don’t have to manually track unpaid procedures.

38 T r a i n e r | K e l ly M c G r aw T r a i n e r | D e ni s e C i a r d e l l o
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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Using the Batch Insurance Payment Feature Using eCentral’s Insurance Eligibility Feature
to Get Payments from Claims Quicker

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I show the Batch Insurance Payment feature to most offices I go into and get “oohs I train offices to have eCentral automatically check insurance eligibility of patients
and ahs.” This feature allows offices to post bulk payments without any accounting coming in the next few days. When the information is checked, the office can flag
per entry errors. patients who aren’t eligible for coverage.

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

This helps the staff update


insurance information before
treatment is completed. It also
saves time in resubmitting
claims, and offices can get
their money faster.

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

It makes processing insurance bulk checks faster and more efficient.

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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Using eClaims to Get Paid Faster Using eCentral to Check Insurance Eligibility
and Send Appointment Reminders

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this feature?

I am an avid believer in eClaims and really push offices to send claims electronically. I show offices how to use eCentral to check insurance eligibility and send
I encourage offices to send all claims electronically, not just the ones that accept appointment reminder emails and text messages.
eClaims. I explain the costs involved in sending claims by mail.
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
How does the feature help the office reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
staff save time, save money, make Using eCentral saves the office time because staff members don’t have to call
money, reduce stress, or enhance
insurance companies to check eligibility and don’t have to call patients to remind
their professional image?
them of their appointments. eCentral text message and email reminders help keep
eClaims are paid faster than paper the schedule full by reminding
claims. Fewer attachments are patients of their appointments
required, and faster transmissions so they are less likely to miss
mean money enters doctors’ account appointments.
sooner. I have been sending eClaims
for over 15 years and love it.

42 T r a i n e r | M i l l i e A s h T r a i n e r | D on a v i e C r aw f o r d
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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Using eCentral to Check Eligibility, Send Appointment Using the Claim Status Notes to Record Important Claim Information
Reminders, and Allow Online Payments

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this feature?

I trained one office on the eCentral features I train offices to use the Claim Status Notes area of an insurance claim to keep
and showed them how they could save a log of any information or communication concerning an individual claim. This
time and money using eCentral to check information will print on the Dentrix Insurance Aging report (if Print Status Notes is
patient eligibility, send email and postcard checked when running the report).
reminders, and allow patients to register on
the web site to view account information and How does the feature help the office
pay balances. The office sent a newsletter staff save time, save money, make
to everyone in the practice with an email money, reduce stress, or enhance their
address in the Family File, inviting them professional image?
to visit the site and learn more about new When an office uses the Claim Status
products and services. Notes area and then runs the Insurance
Aging report to call carriers to
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, follow up on overdue claims,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? the staff will have all the claim
Sending the email reminders and checking patient eligibility with DxWeb saved an history right in front of them and
immense amount of time for the office manager won’t have to go looking all over
in this practice—no more long hours on the for the desired information.
phone or at the printer. The office advertised
a “Mother’s Day Zoom whitening special” on
their web site, which increased their business
for subsequent months. After sending the
newsletter, the traffic to the site increased
greatly and patients started registering to view
account balances and upcoming appointments,
which cut down on phone calls. This was proof to the office that the site was
effective and a great way to communicate news to patients.

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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Closing Claims Quickly and Increasing the Accuracy Resolving Duplicate Insurance Carrier Problems to Lower A/R
of A/R Reports for “Fee For Service” Offices

What do you train the office to do What did you train


with this feature? the office to do with
this feature?
If a “fee for service” office submits
electronic claims as a courtesy Duplicate insurance
for patients, sometimes it can be companies with the
difficult to remember to close those same employers and/
claims because the money is being or group numbers
paid to the patient, and the office can cause problems
doesn’t track those claims. I provide when the staff
these offices with a procedure to close these claims quickly. I train offices that for updates benefits for a
each outstanding claim, go to the Batch Insurance Payment Entry dialog, enter “.01” duplicate insurance company to ensure estimates are more accurate, then, without
for the Amount, enter “paid pt” for the Check #, select the Insurance Carrier Name, realizing it, they attach the outdated insurance company to a new patient. I showed
and pay off any outstanding balance at $0. the office how to indicate which insurance plans to use and which could be deleted.

How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

This allows the office to keep amounts from outstanding claims from appearing on To prevent the problem of attaching the wrong insurance, I instructed the office
A/R reports without spending a lot of time closing claims. to add “(use this plan)” to the name of any insurance company that is updated and
then check the option to not print the group plan on claim forms. As a result of
implementing this procedure, the A/R decreased, less time was needed to collect
balances from patients, and there were fewer complaints from patients regarding
inaccurate estimates.

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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Using Patient Names When Entering Bulk Insurance Payments Using the Insurance Maintenance Feature to Manage Unpaid Claims
to Save Time Troubleshooting Errors on the Deposit Slip

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I train offices that when entering bulk payment for insurance checks, instead of Using Insurance Maintenance, I trained an office to correctly enter employers first,
typing the same check number in that field, they can type the patient’s last name. then insurance companies, join insurance companies, pay insurance claims correctly
They can put the check number in the bank/branch field. (so claims got closed), and manage the unpaid claims.

How does the feature help How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
the office staff save time, save reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
money, make money, reduce
This office had not closed out an insurance claim for four years. We ran the Aging
stress, or enhance their
Report and discovered that there were 387 pages of claims. By closing out the
professional image?
claims, we were able to save the office time and money with a current report, and
At the end of the day, when they were able to manage their unpaid claims more efficiently.
matching totals from the
Deposit Slip to the actual
cash in hand, the Deposit
Slip separates the bulk check
because it’s not giving a total based on the same check number. This saves staff
time and salary when trying to find an error.

48 T r a i n e r | J a mi e Ya n e z T r a i n e r | M i l l i e A s h
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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Utilizing the DX2007F Claim Form/Fee Schedule Hierarchy Entering Adjustments with PPO Insurance

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do
with this feature?
I trained an office whose fee schedules were attached both in the patient
information field and in the insurance window. If done correctly, this is not an An office needed to do all of their
issue, but what I found was that they were different fee schedules. (e.g. Medicaid PPO insurance adjustments at the
in the Patient Info and Aetna attached to Insurance Data). This occurred from a time the service was performed
period of high staff turnover rather than waiting for the
with no DENTRIX training, insurance payment. We were able
which resulted in insurance to automate this by setting up the
and patients being billed automatic insurance adjustments
radically different fees from to subtract the PPO fee from the
what was appropriate. The UCR fee at the time the procedures
old staff seemed to sense that were set complete so that the adjustment was immediately posted to the Ledger.
something was wrong, so the
problem was compounded by How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
the fact that patient billing statements hadn’t been sent out for at least 18 months. reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
I presented the DX2007F and CAMED2F claim formats to the office as part of the This feature saved the office countless hours in manually figuring these adjustments
immediate solution to the issue, which would put the UCR fee on the claim forms, while satisfying their need to report on these adjustments in real-time.
and the rest can be corrected as patients were seen in their schedule.

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

Undoubtedly, this revolution caused considerable stress, but the addition of the new
claim format added a much needed safety net to the office during this staff transition.

50 T r a i n e r | C h r i s t in e Dav i s - G e a r y T r a i n e r | C h r i s t in e Dav i s - G e a r y
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Insurance Processing Insurance Processing


Creating a Separate Insurance Carrier for Orthodontics Saving EOBs in Document Center

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I train offices to create a separate insurance company for orthodontic benefits. I train offices to use the Document Center to scan in EOBs and file them, making it
Usually orthodontics have a lifetime maximum, and benefits shouldn’t be taken easy to attach, review, and print any EOB.
away from the annual amount.
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
The Document Center helps
Using this method saves time because the staff doesn’t have to add up amounts offices avoid searching through
in the Ledger. files for EOBs. If there is any
question of repayment, EOBs
are easily accessible. This
feature provides offices with an
organized, clean, and fast way
to store EOBs.

52 T r a i n e r | Day n a J o h n s on T r a i n e r | M a r y R a nd a l l
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favo r i t e
F d e
D E n
N t
TRI
r i x
X f
F e at u r e : Fav o r i t e D E N TRI X F e at u r e :

Treatment Planning Treatment Planning


Printing a Walkout Statement Accessing Rejected Treatment Plans with One Click

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this
feature?
I train offices how and why to use a Walkout Statement. A Walkout Statement
displays the treatment the patient had done that day, the charges, and patient/ I inform offices that they can always have
family balances, allowing the office to review that information with the patients, so information about rejected treatment plans
they can see what they are being charged for. available with one click.

How does the feature help the How does the feature help the office staff save
office staff save time, save money, time, save money, make money, reduce stress,
make money, reduce stress, or or enhance their professional image?
enhance their professional image?
Offices used to have to scan rejected treatment
One of the best features of the plans or delete them. Now, they can always have
Walkout Statement is that it this information available if the patient comes
displays all of the family’s future back five years later and asks why a different
appointment dates. With large treatment wasn’t recommended, the dentist has it
families or someone who has documented and it is only one click away, instead of having to access the Treatment
many appointments scheduled, it Plan Manager to view the rejected treatment plan.
saves time and money not having
to write all that information on
separate appointment cards.
And, having all the appointments
together reduces confusion because the appointments are printed in chronological
order. The Walkout Statement is also beneficial because it makes the office staff
accountable for all payments received from patients.

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Treatment Planning Treatment Planning


Using the Treatment Planner to Inform Patients, Viewing Case Status History in the Treatment Planner
Increase Case Acceptance, and Save Time

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do
with this feature?
I teach offices not to be afraid of the Treatment Planner. I train them to utilize it by
making folders to put treatment in by priority. I give them examples of financial I train offices to use the Case Status
arrangement guidelines they can use and make into a template in the case note History to track the progress of a
section to always have printed out with all their treatment plans. treatment plan case from diagnosis to
completion.
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? How does the feature help the office
staff save time, save money, make
With the Treatment
money, reduce stress, or enhance
Planner folders laid out
their professional image?
and patient-friendly
descriptions, patients The information logged in the Case
know which treatment has Status History is available to all team
first priority, the cost of members on an immediate basis;
treatments, and his/her there is no need to find the chart and read someone’s handwritten notes. Anyone
financial responsibility. can check the status at any time!
They can better relate
to the colored tooth
chart with the proposed
treatment displayed in full color. It saves time, case acceptance improves, and the
patient can leave the office better informed of their treatment needs.

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Treatment Planning Treatment Planning


Setting Up Multiple Report Options for Treatment Finding Unscheduled Treatments with the Treatment Manager
Plan Cases to Save Time When Printing Cases

What do you train the office to do What do you train the office to
with this feature? do with this feature?

When I train offices on treatment I train offices to generate


planning, I always help them Treatment Manager reports to
set up multiple report options, see exactly how many crowns they
so they don’t have to check the had treatment-planned during a
appropriate boxes every time they six-month period and, of those,
print a treatment case. how many were not scheduled.

How does the feature help How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
the office staff save time, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
save money, make money,
Using the Treatment Manager, offices can see which patients have outstanding
reduce stress, or enhance their
treatment and, if the patients have appointments, enough insurance (if they had
professional image?
any), and their phone numbers. With this information, the office staff can call
Doing treatment planning this patients and then log conversation with those patients or schedule appointments.
way saves a lot of time if offices are printing outpatient treatment case estimates
because they don’t have to check the boxes every time. It enhances the office’s
professional image because they can customize the layout, so it is tailored
to the patient.

58 T r a i n e r | Day n a J o h n s on T r a i n e r | K im T h o r n t on
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Treatment Planning Treatment Planning


Using the Treatment Manager to Increase Revenue Using the Treatment Manager to Increase Production
and Meet Scheduled Production Goals

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I train offices how to use all the icons, dial, letters etc. in the Treatment Manager. I I trained a practice to use the Treatment Manager to quickly book a new doctor’s
also instruct them how to get and record information in the Office Journal and send schedule to increase production for that doctor (as well as for the entire office) to
out the letters with copies of the patient’s treatment plan. meet their goals for bonuses.

How does the feature help How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
the office staff save time, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
save money, make money,
Scheduling appointments straight from this list generated by the Treatment Manager
reduce stress, or enhance
saved the office time because they
their professional image?
did not have to print their list, or
The patients that show in pull charts to view unscheduled
the Treatment Manager treatment plans. Also, using this
are a practice’s gold mine. method, the office staff met
They just need someone their production goals and were
to contact them and convince them to schedule treatment. Calling patients from even consistent about keeping a
the Treatment Manager, in conjunction with saying the best things on the phone bonus plan for three months. They
and sending letters to convince patients to schedule can provide a practice with averaged $20K past their goals!
increased revenue.

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Billing Billing
Using the Collections Manager and Office Journal Using QuickBill to Save Time and Enhance Your Professional Image
to Help with Collections Management

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this feature?

I teach offices to use the Collections Manager to view patients with past due I teach offices how to utilize
balances. I also show them how to make Office Journal entries to track when the QuickBill. Sorting and sending
patient has been contacted about the past due balance so that contact is visible in billing statements can be a long
the Collections Manager. process that takes time. With
QuickBill, I show offices that all
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, they have to do to send billing
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? statements is create custom
I trained a “thin” billing types for their office,
office to check past generate billing statements
due amounts in the based on types, preview
Collections Manager, statements, and select the
and then use the statements they want to send.
Office Journal to view And, with QuickBill, offices have
the billing statements the option to send a newsletter
and collection letters with their statements, which is a
that had been sent favorite feature of mine.
to patients, which
helped the office tremendously with collections. I taught the office to use Auto Dial How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
to record phone calls, then track the calls in the Office Journal to see which of the reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

patients that had been called had paid their past-due balance. A cost analysis I saw revealed that offices would save money and time by utilizing
QuickBill because they no longer need to print, fold, stuff, and stamp each
statement. With QuickBill, billing statements only take a fraction of the time, thus
reducing stress. And, QuickBill enhances the office’s professional image because
with QuickBill the statements are printed in color.

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Billing Billing
Using QuickBill to Save Time Generating Billing Statements Using QuickBill to Save Time Generating Billing Statements

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

As I was training an office, I walked the office manager through the functions of I trained an office that manually created and mailed 200+ billing statements per
QuickBill, the eServices program that assists offices in preparing and distributing month. This office initially did not want to use QuickBill because they thought
monthly billing statements. they could not preview the statements. I trained the office on how to preview the
statements before sending them and also how to make notes on the statement
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, using the Guarantor Note.
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

The office manager told me it used to How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
take her two to three hours to process
billing statements from review, to This office spent a full day per month printing, stuffing, and stamping statements.
printing, and then stuffing them into After the training they were able to cut the process to less than an hour (this time
envelopes. Now, using QuickBill, she included making notes on statements). The office was able to use the time they
said she can process billing statements saved to work on other things to improve the practice.
in 30 minutes or less.

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Billing Billing
PowerPay Using QuickBill to Allow Staff to Be More Productive

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this feature?

I encourage offices to use PowerPay to process payments because PowerPay makes I always suggest QuickBill, although most offices don’t see the cost savings. If an
collecting payment simple. office uses QuickBill, the cost of a stamp, 2 envelopes, printer cartridges, paper, and
labor add up to about the same as doing the statements automatically.
How does the feature help
the office staff save time, How does the feature help
save money, make money, the office staff save time,
reduce stress, or enhance save money, make money,
their professional image? reduce stress, or enhance their
professional image?
I teach offices to set up
one-time payments so that QuickBill frees the staff up to
they can charge the account do other things. The office will
if insurance does not pay. I also know that all the patients
also teach offices to set up are getting billed and some
recurring payments, which statements are not being held
reduces stress by keeping for further investigation.
the Accounts Receivable
numbers low.

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Billing Billing
Using the Verify to Send Option for Billing Statements Using Billing Statement Notes to Explain Balances to Patients
in an Effort to Reduce the Number of Calls to Offices

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office
to do with this feature?
The Verify Billing Statements to Send option in the Preferences is not just for
QuickBill. It teach offices that are processing their own statements to use the Verify I teach offices to enter
Billing Statements to Send option to weed out any statements they do not want to information from EOBs as
send prior to printing. Billing Statement Notes to
help explain outstanding
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, balances to patients on
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? their statements.

Instead of generating statements and immediately printing them, using the Verify
How does the feature help
Billing Statements to Send option
the office staff save time,
allows offices to prevent certain
save money, make money,
statements from printing. This
reduce stress, or enhance
feature saves paper, toner, and
their professional image?
time. Also,
Offices that accept
records won’t
assignment of benefits are
be inaccurate
often deluged with calls from
because the Last
patients who do not understand why they have a balance due. A Billing Statement
Statement Date
Note that explains why they have the balance after insurance has paid (e.g. “your
(the date the last
carrier has assessed a $50 deductible to this claim”) can cut down on the number of
statement is sent
calls an office needs to handle.
or printed) will
be correct.

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Billing Billing
Using the Collections Manager to Save Using the Collections Manager to Reduce Account Aging
Time Allocating Credit Balances

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do
with this feature?
I train offices that have never credited payments to the correct providers and would
now like to pay the providers on a collection versus production basis to use the If an office has never used the
Collections Manager instead of having to run a report of provider credits. Collections Manager, I train the staff
to use this feature to implement an
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, effective system for A/R collections.
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

I recommend that
offices in this situation
open the Collections
Manager and sort
the window by the
balances. I have the
staff work with the
patient accounts with
zero balances first
since those credits can
be allocated the quickest. For each patient with a balance of zero or less, the staff How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
opens the Ledger and allocates the credits. Using this method can save the office
time when allocating credit balances. There are so many offices that don’t use this feature because they don’t know about
it. However, I’ve found that by using the Collections Manager in conjunction with
Quick Letters and Office Journal entries, an office can improve collections and
possibly even see an immediate reduction in the number of accounts that age to
over 90 days.

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Billing Billing
Customizing Definitions – Billing Type Balancing the Family Ledger to Get Accurate Numbers

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I have suggested to offices to set the #1 billing type to “Not Assigned.” Then, when I taught an office to split payments and to post them to the current patient in the
a new patient or family is entered, the office knows that they have not yet been Ledger. This office wanted to keep each patient’s balance to the penny.
assigned a billing type.
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
By cleaning up their balances, the office was relieved of extreme stress. This office
Using this technique allows offices to avoid running reports to find billing types that was then able to use DENTRIX and trust the numbers.
have been incorrectly assigned. It is much easier to manage patient accounts by using
the “Not Assigned” billing
type and changing the
account to correct billing
type prior to sending
statements. This cuts down
on phone calls from patients
assigned to the wrong
billing type category.

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Billing Billing
Using Payment Types for Payments that Have Using the Auto Fee Schedule Changes Feature to Save Time
Been Mailed In to Be More Effective

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do
with this feature?
I trained an office to create a payment type for check and credit card payments by mail.
By entering all fees into the
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, computer, offices are able to
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? treatment plan with patients more

This assisted the office accurately. I train offices to use the

with keeping track of Auto Fee Schedule feature to create

the effectiveness of fee schedules.

their patient balances


through statements and How does the feature help the
office staff save time, save money,
collection calls.
make money, reduce stress, or
enhance their professional image?

Using the Auto Fee Schedule reduces


the time to put in a fee schedule—no
more huge insurance adjustments or
copying UCRs to new fee schedules.
They can enter fees and services not covered by insurance, which have the UCR fee,
automatically. By the time insurance pays the claim and staff have calculated how
much to write off, they are able to just post the payments and move on to the next
one. By using the Auto Fee Schedule, the office doesn’t have to save after each edited
fee, so there are fewer key strokes, which frees up time to do other tasks.

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Billing Billing
Verify Billing Statements to Save Time Fee Schedule Names/Descriptions/Auto Update Fees

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do
with this feature?
I trained a large office (3 Doctors and 5 hygienists) where the office manager ran
statements once a month and printed about 450 statements each time. I showed I train offices to change the fee
her how to separate the alphabet into sections and verify the bills before printing. schedule name to “date” to assist
when updating office fees (e.g. if
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, fees were updated 1/1/07, change
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? the name of FEE 1 to 1/07. When

She informed me that she now only prints about 25–40 statements twice a month! the doctor is ready to update fees,
take an open fee name and name
it 3%. Next, open fee name 5% and
continue as needed. Update the
current fee schedule using the Auto
Update feature by the percentages
that correspond to the fee
schedules. After updating, attach
the new fees to the provider(s) in
the practice resource setup. Do not
delete the old fee schedule.

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

This allows offices to have time to decide on the appropriate new fees prior to
implementing them, and to compare when and how much the fees were increased
over the years, resulting in consistent fee increases.

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Continuing Care Continuing Care


Using Continuing Care Cards to Save Time Using Continuing Care
and Improve Professional Image

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the
office to do with this
I helped an office use the DENTRIX Letter Merge to create Continuing Care
feature?
postcards to send to patients with and without appointments scheduled.
I trained an office on
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, Continuing Care and
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? showed them how

I had an office that was complaining about the time they were spending going fast and accurate it is.

through patients’ records and appointments and handwriting appointment I also showed them

reminder postcards. Unfortunately, some patients received postcards indicating how, when it is used

they didn’t have correctly, patients

appointments when they don’t fall through

really did. This caused a the cracks.

lot of stress for the office


How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
staff. So, I showed the
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
office how to generate
appointment reminder I told the office that if they followed my instructions, they could do Continuing Care
cards for patients with and in about 10–15 minutes per month. The Doctor stopped me in the middle of my
without appointments for explanation and said, “So I don’t need so many staff members?” The light turned
Prophy and Perio. The office on for him and he realized how cost effective and easy Continuing Care can be.
personnel were ecstatic.
They spent less time sending
out appointment reminders,
the cards were accurate, and
the professional image of the
practice was improved.

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Continuing Care Continuing Care


Creating Custom Continuing Care Status Creating Custom Continuing Care Types

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do
with this feature?
I trained the office to create continuing care statuses called “morning,” “afternoon,”
and “evening.” The office assigned these statuses to patients that prefer that time I trained an office to create a new
of the day for their cleaning appointments. As people cancel, calls can be made to Continuing Care type called “Pending
people who prefer an appointment at that time. Tx” to attach to patients that did not
schedule at the time of the treatment
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, presentation. The type is set up initially
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? with a two-week interval, so, after two

The biggest benefit for the office is that they saved time. If the office only had an weeks, the patient shows up on the

hour to make calls, they could use that time wisely by calling people that would be Continuing Care list to be called for

interested in that specific appointment availability. a follow-up. If at that time the patient
says to call back in a month, then the
office can change the interval to a
month and call back accordingly.

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

This helped the office save time and reduce stress because they could manage the
calls they made per day, make record of them, and keep track of the patient better.

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Continuing Care Continuing Care


Creating Custom Continuing Care Continuing Care/Merge Features

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office
to do with this feature?
I showed an office how to create a Continuing Care type for things like a Sonicare
toothbrush head or a whitening touch-up. I combined the training of
continuing care with the merge
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, features of DENTRIX. I showed
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? an office how to generate

Now, the office can easily recommend a replacement of the Sonicare toothbrush recall cards for patients

heads, or recommend a due next month (without an

touch-up on whitening. appointment), patients due

Patients really responded 2 months ago, patient due 6

well and sales of the refills months ago, and patients that

greatly increased when the were due 12 months ago in a systematic method that only takes about 30 minutes

staff member reminded the each month (after the initial setup). In addition, I demonstrated how to manage

patient that it was time to the status of each patient, which ultimately becomes a great value if the doctor is

replace their toothbrush having his or her practice appraised, as the number of active patients is crucial to

head or time to touch-up the appraisal value.

their white smile.


How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

Offices who commit to calling every patient (to inform them they are due) quite
often never get the job done because of the time that it takes to make all the calls.
This approach saves the staff countless hours of making phone calls to patients.
If the doctor feels an obligation to notify patients when they are due or overdue
for continuing care, this is the most efficient method. Post Cards that have cute
or professional images on the front can reflect the personality of the office. Many
offices send one card and forget about the follow-up. By sending the follow-up
cards many patients will respond and make an appointment, which obviously keeps
the production up!

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Continuing Care Continuing Care


Attaching Continuing Care to Appointments Using Continuing Care Statuses for Custom Scheduling
to Keep the Appointment Book Full

What did you train the office to do What did you train the
with this feature? office to do with this
feature?
I trained an office how to attach continuing
care to appointments. This office had been I trained an office that
on DENTRIX for years and had never attached was having difficulty
continuing care to appointments. Also, I taught scheduling college
the hygienists how to set appointments complete so that the office was setting up students. I showed
the next continuing care appointment. them how to use the
Continuing Care Status
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, to pinpoint college
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? students. I created a Continuing Care view for patients that are overdue for hygiene

Having continuing care appointments set up helped the office to keep up with recall and showed in the status column which patients are college students. Then,

their appointments. Using continuing care helps keep the appointment book full, the office could contact the college students during the off-seasons of school for

therefore, making the office money. It reduces stress on the front office, and it hygiene appointments.

makes the office look very efficient.


How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

The Continuing Care Status column is a great resource for filling the schedule at the
times of the year that college students are out of school.

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Continuing Care Continuing Care


Using the Continuing Care List to Boost Hygiene Attaching Continuing Care to Appointments to
Improve Scheduling and Production

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the
office to do with this
I trained an office that had a very large patient base but only one hygienist working
feature?
3 days a week. I knew, based on how many active patients they had, that they
should have at least another day of hygiene. I showed them the continuing care I showed a community

list, which they had never used. They were amazed at the number of patients that health center how they

were overdue. Immediately, could prevent not getting

they started using the paid by patients who came

list to contact patients in for their cleanings too

conjunction with the office early as well as increase

journal. After a month, production on taking recall

the doctor decided to x-rays in a timely manner.

add another day of This was done by attaching

hygiene because they Continuing Care to

became so busy. appointments.

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

Using the continuing care list, the office was able to boost their hygiene schedule. When the staff makes appointments, they can see when patients are due and tell
them the appropriate dates to schedule the next appointment. Plus, they know
how and when to take x-rays. This reduced the loss of payments for cleanings and
increased production by 20%.

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Continuing Care Continuing Care


Using Letter Merge for Continuing Care Cards Changing the Continuing Care Setup for Perio to
Reinforce Professional Monitoring and Care

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office
to do with this feature?
I had an office that was addressing paper cards by hand and filing them away. I
trained them to use letter merge to create continuing care for currently due patients I have trained offices to
as well as overdue patients. attach Continuing Care to
not only prophy and perio
maintenance but also to
scaling and root planing
and osseous surgery so
that, if a periodontal patient
didn’t complete the initial
therapy and have periodontal
maintenance, they would stay
in the Continuing Care system. By attaching Continuing Care to D4341 and other
similar codes, even if the default interval was never customized, that patient would
stay in the Continuing Care system.

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? This Continuing Care concept enhances an office’s professional image by

By using letter merge, the office is saving hundreds of dollars on time paid to reinforcing the importance of professional monitoring and care. After providing

employees to fill out cards, and also creating much more production and higher the proper dental education to have the patient proceed with periodontal therapy,

retention rates by mailing cards to patients who are overdue! the patient was maintained in the Continuing Care system and contacted after a
reasonable interval to return for Continuing Care.

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Practice Marketing Practice Marketing


Creating Fake Procedure Codes to Track Patients Tracking Gratuities Sent to Referring Patients

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do
with this feature?
I trained an office to create fake procedure codes for special services that the office
offers, such as Invisalign or implants. As patients showed interest in the special I show offices how to get to the
procedures, this code would be posted to the patient’s Ledger. When the office analysis section of the referral section.
held seminars devoted to that particular service, the office could run a “patient
report by filters” letter to get a list of the people interested in the procedure. How did the feature help the office
staff save time, save money, make
How did the feature money, reduce stress, or enhance
help the office staff their professional image?
save time, save money, It’s awesome for offices to send gifts
make money, reduce to their referring patients, but it’s
stress, or enhance their
even better for them to track what
professional image?
and when they sent them something.
This helped the office
make money by sending
invitations or letters to
patients interested in the
additional service, which
led to case acceptance.

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Practice Marketing Practice Marketing


Using Referral Analysis to Track Advertising Using DENTRIX Letters to Help Patients Take
Advantage of Remaining Insurance Benefits

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the
office to do with this
I trained an office that was using
feature?
several different forms of advertising
and spending thousands of dollars. I I train offices to

showed them how to use the referral generate and mail

analysis to track total production and letters to patients with

also date ranges for certain referrals, unscheduled treatment

patients, and doctors/other. plans and who have


a certain amount of
How did the feature help the office insurance benefits
staff save time, save money, make remaining for the year.
money, reduce stress, or enhance
their professional image? How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
I was able to show them how to view
the production of certain advertisers These “Unscheduled Treatment Plan” letters provide patients with valuable
and they were able to save hundreds insurance information, help patients take full advantage of their benefits and serve
of dollars by focusing their money as reminders for patients to get treatment-planned work done before their annual
on the advertisers that were working deductibles and benefits renew. Consequently, the office benefits when patients
well and producing. respond to these letters and schedule treatment; these fairly inexpensive letters can
help fill up the Appointment Book and increase revenue.

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Reports Reports
Unscheduled Treatment Plan Report/Mail Merge Using the Analysis Summary Report to Track Monthly Totals

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this feature?

A current DENTRIX office called me and asked me to evaluate their utilization I show offices how to run the Analysis Summary report to monitor production and
of DENTRIX. They had been using DENTRIX for five years and using it very well, collection, write-offs, and many other totals that are tracked monthly.
but, when I ran their
Unscheduled Treatment How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
Plan report, I found over reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
$500,000 of treatment plans I find that most dentists love this report—it’s easy to read and understand. Plus, it
that were created which the lists everything the office needs to give to accountants, so the office saves time by
patients did not following only having to run one report for accounting.
through with. The office
was unaware of this report.
I also showed them how to
use the mail merge and use
the treatment plan letter
template for easier and
improved communications
with their patients.

How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

Before this training, the office was manually, by patient, looking for this information.
The staff was not being consistent doing this. They were able to run this report on a
consistent basis to help them provide better service to their patients as well as keep
their schedule and bank account full! I checked in with this office one month later,
and they had appointed over $30,000 worth of procedures that would otherwise
have fallen through the cracks.

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Reports Reports
Using the Procedures Not Attached to Insurance Report Refreshing DENTRIX Reports for Real-Time Information
to Find Procedures Not Billed to Insurance

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I teach offices to check the Procedures Not Attached to Insurance report every day I teach offices that report data is “live” in DENTRIX (with the exception of some
(or at least weekly). information about insurance claims). They can generate a report at 8:00 am and,
using the Refresh Batch feature, they can see the same report with updated, current
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, information at 12:00 pm or 5:00 pm. This is a particularly nice feature when used
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? with the Day Sheet (which lists charges and receipts) and the Deposit Slip.
In the past 11 years of training, I have never found the Procedures Not Attached
to Insurance report blank. There has always been a patient claim that was never How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
filed. This report is definitely a money-maker because offices cannot get paid reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

unless claims are filed. If an office manager generates the Day Sheet and Deposit Slip reports in the
And, the report helps morning, I teach him/her to print or display them at any time throughout the day to
Medicaid offices find get a head start in the evening reconciliation and save time at the end of the day.
missing claims quickly
so that they don’t
miss the submission
deadline and lose
that production. This
reduces stress because
offices don’t have to
worry that something
was missed.

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Reports Reports
Using Provider AR Report to Quickly Making a Practice Analysis Read like a Book
Calculate Collections for a Provider

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the
office to do with
I train offices how to quickly calculate collections for a provider that is being paid a
this feature?
percentage of collections (i.e. commissioned hygienists and associates) using the
Provider A/R report. I instruct offices to customize the report to a show a collection Doctors often get
subtotal for each provider, with selected adjustments included in the total. confused when they
read the Practice
How does the feature Analysis. I found that
help the office staff by setting up the
save time, save money, analysis to read month
make money, reduce by month for the first
stress, or enhance their 6 months or so of
professional image?
the practice, doctors will see that when they started their practices, they were at
If an office has an 0 in the beginning balance section. Then, we read through the first column, which
agreement with a shows charges, payments and adjustments. We finish up by looking at the ending
provider to pay that balance. Once they see that the ending balance carries over to the next month as
provider based on the beginning balance, it all starts making sense to them.
collections, they
can set up the A/R How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
report to show the reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
provider’s collections Using the Practice Analysis this way makes the doctor feel more in control of his/
with offsetting her practice, rather than relying on information from team members. I hear front
adjustments that apply office staff say that they produced 100,000, but they don’t mention the write-offs
to the compensation to the doctor, so the production looks inflated. Doctors feel empowered when they
agreements for that provider. understand the numbers.

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Reports Reports
Running the Procedures Not Attached to Insurance Claims Report Using the Insurance Aging Report to Quickly
Gather Insurance Information

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I trained an office to view the Procedures Not Attached to Insurance Claims report I showed an office the
once a week to make sure all claims were being processed and all procedures that benefits of using the
could be billed to insurance were included on the claims. Insurance Aging report.
The office manager was
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, keeping paper copies
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? and filing them. He was

This particular office very resistant to give up

had just replaced his paper. I went over

their previous office this report and showed

manager, and it to him, but he wasn’t

wanted to view the interested. However,

status of their billing later on, he spent about 10 minutes trying to find an insurance form because he

and get things in needed to call the insurance company. I showed him how I could find that form

order. I generated in 10 seconds.

the Procedures
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
Not Attached to
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
Insurance report,
which turned out The office manager conceded there was a benefit to the Insurance Aging report
to be 25 pages of because of how easy and fast it was to get the information!
procedures that could have been billed to insurance but were somehow skipped.
The doctor was shocked but relieved that we were able to catch the mistake before
it was too late. Over the next several months, the office received a much larger sum
of money from insurance due to this report. The doctor was grateful!

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Reports Reports
Using the Patient Report (by filters) of the DENTRIX Customizing the DENTRIX Management
Letter Merge to Find Just About Anything Reports Filters to Be More Efficient

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do with this feature?

I train office to use the DENTRIX Letter Merge Patient Report (by filters), so they can When I train offices, I help them view and customize the Management reports
pull up pretty much anything in DENTRIX. I remember one particular office wanted to options to suit each office’s preference.
know for which patients they had written “loves Sacramento Kings” because the doctor
had tickets for the game and couldn’t go, but wanted to give them to a patient. How did the feature help
the office staff save time,
How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? reduce stress, or enhance
their professional image?
Using the Patient Report (by filters) to quickly find the needed information made
it easy for the dentist to call the patient and say, “I remember that you love the Setting up the

Kings…I have two tickets….want them?” Management reports


options saves time for the
office because they don’t
have to recreate report
filters each time. This
reduces stress because
there is need to recreate customized reports; it is a one time initial setup. Their
professional image is enhanced because the reports are utilized more often if they
are easy to create. Also, they can make more money because using consistent
report filters helps them to evaluate changes or consistency.

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Reports Reports
Running the Production Summary Report by Procedure Using the Patient Report (by filters) Letter
Code to Verify Routine X-rays Are Being Done Merge to Find Inactive Patients

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What did you train the office to do
with this feature?
I train offices to track routine x-rays, based on the doctor’s clinical recommendation,
using the Production Summary Report in the Practice Analysis. On the report, it is I trained an office to run the Patient
possible to track the office’s performance with regards to these x-rays. If they add Report (by filters) to generate a
up the number of D1110s, list of inactive patients so those
D4910s, D1120s, D0272s, and patients could
D0274s for a given time period, be archived. The
the number of routine x-rays doctor wanted
should be approximately one to get an idea
half of the number of cleanings of how many of
if the doctor recommends his patients were
bitewings once per year. active because
he was thinking
How does the feature help about moving into a larger practice. His office manager was going to go through all
the office staff save time, save the patient records individually to look at the Last Visit Date and then archive the
money, make money, reduce patients that had not been seen at the office for a year. But, this office had been
stress, or enhance their using DENTRIX for many years and had over 10,000 patients in their database!
professional image?

If an office is tracking this How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
over a period of time, it is reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
possible to ascertain if needed I showed the office manager how to create a report, using the Letter Merge feature of
x-rays are being effectively promoted. Routine x-rays are important for a practice’s DENTRIX, to find the patients with a Last Visit Date one year prior to the current date,
financial health as well as their patient’s well being. If the x-rays are being skipped, it paste that list into Microsoft Excel, and save the spreadsheet on her Desktop so that
is important to know. she could work on the project of archiving patients in her spare time There were over
5,000 names on the list. The hours of work that were saved are immeasurable.

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Using Office Journal Tracking for the Micro-Managing Dentist Using Patient Alerts for Instant Messaging

What did you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to
do with this feature?
I work with several clients who like to know the status of patients when they are in
the office, and who like to track the amount of phone calls and follow-ups the staff I train offices to use Patient
do with the patients. One doctor in particular wanted to keep a close watch on the Alerts as an in-office instant
operations of the office. So, I trained the entire staff on using the Office Journal, messaging system.
making sure they put their user ID on each entry, so that they would get proper
credit for the phone call. At the end of the day, each staff member prints out their How does the feature help
Office Journal log of calls, so the doctor can see what they did all day and the the office staff save time,
success of the call. save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their
professional image?
How did the feature help the office
staff save time, save money, make The alerts save time for the
money, reduce stress, or enhance their hygienist, doctor, or assistant by
professional image? not having to wait on the receptionist to answer them. It allows the providers to see
This dramatically reduced the stress their other patients and not have to make this known to the receptionist. And, the
of the doctor, as she now had a way to note would disappear at the end of the day if it is attached just for that day.
monitor how many calls were made. She
did suggest that staff members could just
put in random office journal entries to
“APPEAR” as if they were busy all day, to
which I answered, “If your schedule is full
and your collections are at 98%, chances
are your team is doing what you pay them
to do. She replied, “True, but I’m going to check their Office Journal log against my
phone bill each month.” She agreed to do it for two weeks just to feel comfortable,
but I’ve talked with her since then, and she is loving the feature and only rarely
checks the phone bill.

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Using Patient Alerts for Patients that Require Pre-Medication Using a Webcam with Patient Picture

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to
do with this feature?
I train offices to add Patient Alerts to patients with a pre-medication requirement.
I have them add the medication name and pharmacy number and set it to pop up I train offices to use an
only when a new appointment is being created. When they try to access that patient inexpensive webcam rather
in the Appointment Book, the first thing they see is the alert, and they can call in the than a digital camera to snap
prescription from there. pictures of patients in the
Patient Picture. A webcam
How did the feature help the office works great at check in;
staff save time, save money, make a few clicks and the photo
money, reduce stress, or enhance is captured.
their professional image?

When a patient calls that needs to be How did the feature help the
pre-medicated, the office staff don’t office staff save time, save money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance their
professional image?
have to pull a chart or look up the
pharmacy number in the phone book; The Patient Picture feature allows patients to protect their identity and allows
it’s all right there in the Patient Alert. staff to see the face of the patient. Patient pictures cut down on confusion in the
office and increases the quality of patient care. This personalizes patient and staff
relations. The Patient Picture also reduces charting and appointment mistakes when
the office has more than one patient with the same name.

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Using the Office Journal for Staff Reminders Using Office Journal for Intra-Office Communication

What do you train the office to What did you train the office to do with this feature?
do with this feature?
I went into an office that had been using DENTRIX for years and wanted to go
I teach offices that they can paperless. I introduced them to Office Journal and showed them how to record
use the staff Office Journal to calls and use the reminders to
log staff reminders so that they communicate electronically
don’t have to use sticky notes. with each other.
As staff members, they can post
reminders to themselves or to How did the feature help the office
other staff members. And, they staff save time, save money, make
can designate a date by which the money, reduce stress, or enhance
task needs to be accomplished. their professional image?

The doctor was about to


How did the feature help the purchase a system for intra-office
office staff save time, save communication and now doesn’t
money, make money, reduce
need to. The staff was thrilled to not
stress, or enhance their
have to learn another system and to
professional image?
be able to utilize more of DENTRIX.
If you walk into any dental office in this country, you will find sticky notes all over the
place. Staff members use them to remind themselves and each other of things they
need to do. I teach my offices to use the staff Office Journal for reminders. Not only
can they keep their personal to-do lists this way, but they can post a reminder to
other staff members, eliminating the need to write notes by hand.

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Using the Office Journal to Make Notes Using Auto Dial and the Office Journal to
about Patient Correspondence Track Correspondence with Patients

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to
do with this feature?
I demonstrate to offices how to use the Office Journal to make notes about
patients and families and view appointments for a whole family at once. The Office I like to show offices the
Journal lists all of the patient benefits of using the Auto Dial
phone numbers, so office staff feature when calling patients
can contact patients and log all so that they can log the call
patient communication in regards in the Office Journal. Offices
to continuing care, billing, and can access the Auto Dial
appointments without opening feature from several places
other DENTRIX modules. within DENTRIX, and Auto Dial
displays all of the patient’s contact numbers in one place. When offices use the
How does the feature help the Office Journal with the Auto Dial feature, they can view past phone calls and filter
office staff save time, save money, phone calls before calling the patient again.
make money, reduce stress, or
enhance their professional image? How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
I teach offices to save time by reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

going to one area of the program By training an entire office to use Auto Dial and the Office Journal, the office was
to make notes relating to a family able to stop writing call information in a paper chart and stop calling patients that
instead of making separate notes in other places in the software. While I was had already been called. Plus, by filtering the calls from Office Journal, the office
teaching one office about the Office Journal, we noticed that a patient had been could easily view all calls that had been made to a patient or family and, most
sent two billing statements, so I showed the office how to view the patient’s contact importantly, show the doctor all the patients they had contacted.
numbers without having to open the Family File and how to create a note about the
conversation in the Office Journal.

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Using the Office Journal to Save Time when Using the Office Journal Reminder Types to Follow up on Accounts
Calling Continuing Care Patients

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do
with this feature?
I train offices to use the Office Journal to document all phone calls with patients so
that they can have a record of contacts and don’t repeat phone calls. I also show the I teach offices to set up their
office how to use the Office Journal to look up more information about the patient preferences to launch the Office
before calling them when using Journal automatically. Then, I teach
continuing care, the Unscheduled them to set reminder types for
List, the Collections Manager, or the accounts that have balances where
Treatment Manager. the patient has indicated that he/she
will make a payment by a specific
How does the feature help the date. And, I teach the office how to
office staff save time, save money, check staff members’ Office Journals
make money, reduce stress, or every day to see what reminders
enhance their professional image? they need to work on.
The Office Journal helps an office
save many of hours of time. They How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
don’t have to pull charts to view reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
previous phone calls, or waste time Using the Office Journal reminder types helps the office staff stay on top of AR
calling patients who have previously reports and follow up quickly on accounts that are overdue, which increases the
been called. The office staff is able staff’s collection percentages.
to be more efficient in their time
management and, when calling past due continuing care patients, they are able to
reach more patients in a shorter amount of time.

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Using Patient Alerts to Communicate Patient Translating a Patient Friendly Description
Information to Staff Members

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this feature?

I teach offices to use Patient Alerts to communicate to all staff members that the I train in the Miami area, which has
patient has an alert (e.g. bad debt, premed warning, etc.). a high concentration of Spanish
speaking patients. So, in order to be
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money, able to help them, I enter Spanish
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image? descriptions in the Patient Friendly
Using Patient Alerts helps offices Description area of the Treatment
prevent wasted time and save Planner and the Patient Chart.
money. Assigning a bad debt alert
to a patient prevents staff members How did the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
from scheduling the patient until reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

his/her account is clear. Assigning a Most of the staff has been able to communicate with the patients that speak
pre-medication patient alert reminds Spanish, but were unable to send something written home with them that they
office staff to tell patients not to could understand. Now, they can print off the treatment plan in their native tongue.
forget to take premeds, so that The patients really appreciate it.
patients don’t have to reschedule
their appointments. Assigning an
alert that patients will only see a
specific provider prevents office staff from scheduling the patient with the wrong
provider and having to reschedule the appointment when the patient cancels.

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Using the Walkout Statement to Reduce the Using the Auto Dial Feature
Number of Failed Appointments.

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to
do with this feature?
I train offices to use the Walkout Statement as an appointment reference even if
the patient did not have an appointment that same day. When the office is on the Even if an office does not have
phone with a patient making several appointments (some patients frequently make a line connected to the Auto
changes), the Walkout Statement Dial feature, they can use it
can easily be generated and to easily access telephone
mailed to the patient, so they numbers and automatically
can confirm and compare what create an office journal entry
appointments are scheduled. for calls.

How do the feature help the How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
office staff save time, save reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
money, make money, reduce
This is a time saver and provides a great trail for calls made (even if the phone line is
stress, or enhance their
not connected to this feature). This feature is great for tracking when confirmation
professional image?
calls were made!
The Walkout Statement
reduces the number of failed
appointments and/or no show
appointments. It works well if
there are several appointments
and/or family members.

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Productivity Productivity
Using Dxnewpat.doc to Save Time Using Multi-Codes to Enhance Professional Image

What did you train the office to What do you train the office to do with this feature?
do with this feature?
I train offices to create a Multi-Code for new patient exams and include even the
For an office, I created a procedures that are done that don’t have a fee (e.g. Perio charting, oral cancer
shortcut on the Desktop for screening, TMJ eval, airway eval, nutritional counseling, oral hygiene instructions,
the front office staff. I then told and diagnostic photos). Some of these
them to print the dxnewpat.com codes are already in the ADA book and
form and mail it to new patients some can be made up codes.
with a short welcome letter
when they make appointments. How does the feature help the office
staff save time, save money, make
How did the feature help the money, reduce stress, or enhance their
office staff save time, save money, make money, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
professional image?
I think this greatly improves the
This saves valuable chair time because the patients come in with the paperwork professional image of the office when
already completed. It also saves money for the office by not having to print a the patient notices, “Wow, I didn’t know
medical history/consent form off-site. they checked all these things.”

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Attaching Multi Codes to a Procedure Button Creating Procedure Codes for Posterior
Composites to Save Time and Money

What do you train the office to do with this feature? What do you train the office to do with this feature?

In dentistry, one procedure often leads to another. Because of this, the use of I train offices to create procedure codes for posterior composites on primary teeth.
multi-codes is very important. I recommend that offices attach the multi-code to a Some offices will charge a different fee for a filling on a primary tooth, so I help
procedure button. An office can them create procedure codes to do this that are still accepted on the insurance
treatment plan a root canal and claim form.
post and crown in a few clicks.
How does the feature help the
How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money,
office staff save time, save money, make money, reduce stress, or
make money, reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?
enhance their professional image? Having these codes helps the
Procedure Buttons streamline the office bill out the correct fee at the
posting procedures. This will save beginning without having to go to
time and stress. the Ledger and remember to change
the fee. It saves time and money.

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Productivity
Organizing the Prescription Module

What do you train the office to do


with this feature?

I train offices that, when setting up


Prescriptions, they should create
categories for the prescriptions
to easily find and reference the
medications. When creating the
descriptions for the prescriptions,
begin all antibiotics with ABX-, all
pain medications with PAIN-, all
premedications with PREMED-, all Perio medications with PERIO-, etc.

How does the feature help the office staff save time, save money, make money,
reduce stress, or enhance their professional image?

This method will pull all ABS together, all PREMEDS together, and so on. When creating
a prescription for a patient, it is quick and easy to find the desired medication.

PRACTICE SOLUTIONS

©2008 All rights reserved. DENTRIX, Henry Schein and the ‘S’ logo are registered trademarks of Henry
Schein, Inc. Not responsible for typographical errors.

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