Inactivating vs. Archiving a Patient

Lately I’ve seen some questions about inactivating and archiving patients. While there are many opinions on this topic and offices will vary in their policy on this matter, I thought I would share some of my thoughts.

If you’ve attempted to contact a patient who is due for Continuing Care, has outstanding treatment, hasn’t been seen for eighteen months, and they haven’t responded after multiple attempts, I would suggest sending them a letter and changing their status to Inactive in the Family File.

This doesn’t mean the patient can’t return to your office; however, since they haven’t been seen in the last eighteen months, they aren’t considered an active patient in your office.

When your office decides to inactivate a patient, I would recommend changing the status of any outstanding treatment to Rejected so their outstanding treatment doesn’t continue to appear on outstanding treatment plan reports and in the Treatment Manager. I would also suggest clearing the patient’s Continuing Care so that they don’t continue to show up on continuing care reports.

If you schedule an appointment for a patient with an inactive status, Dentrix will give you a pop-up message to inform you of the patient status. I really like this because you can use this pop-up as a reminder for you to verify or update the patient’s information (address, phone number, insurance coverage, and so forth) in Dentrix.  When you schedule their appointment, you can also let the patient know that they will need to arrive early to update their health history.

When it comes to archiving a patient, my first recommendation is that you archive deceased patients. One reason for doing so is that it prevents the deceased patient’s information from inadvertently being seen. For example, if your office uses Route Slips, all family information is displayed on the Route Slip. You may not want a deceased family member’s information to appear on the Route Slip and upset the family. 

I’ve seen many opinions on the topic of inactivating and archiving patients, so I wanted to share some ideas and insight. 

For additional information, read the following:

• Archiving Patients Just Got Easier!
• Should I Inactivate or Archive This Patient?

For more information, or to share your office policies on this topic, email me at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

Charlotte Skaggs, Certified Dentrix Trainer

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for almost 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.  

No More Tricks, Just Treats

 Halloween is quickly approaching, and I think we’ve all had enough tricks in 2020! Let’s talk about some treats you can implement in your office. 

Treats for Your Patients

It’s been a difficult year for everyone, and now is a great time to show your patients how much you appreciate them. You could send out a postcard or email to all of your patients letting them know you’re thinking of them and you’re thankful that they trust your office with their dental care. Another idea, to show appreciation for your patients is to enter them into a raffle or drawing for a prize, like an electric toothbrush. 

Treats for Your Team

Positive reinforcement can be a great motivator for staff. Compliment your team on areas of their job that they do well. Praise for a job well done can motivate your team to continue to work well in that area and also to improve in other aspects of their job. 

Let your team know how much you appreciate them by buying them lunch or bringing them a sweet treat, like cookies or candy. I’ve often been surprised at how a small act like that can make such a big difference to team morale. 

Treats for Your Doctor

Our doctors need a pat on the back too. It’s been a tough year for them as business owners. With the shutdowns in dentistry and the responsibility to still pay the bills and take care of their staff, it’s been very stressful for them. A small gift, a card, or just a big thank you can make their day brighter. 

Reward your patients, your team, and your doctor with some treats this Halloween season, and give them a reason to smile. Happy Halloween! 

Contact me if you have questions at  vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

Charlotte Skaggs, Certified Dentrix Trainer

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for almost 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.  

Contact Patients Now To Schedule Treatment Before the End-of-Year Rush

As the end of the year quickly approaches, the race for patients to complete their outstanding treatment plans in order to use up their insurance maximum begins!

You can help your patients by proactively contacting them to remind them that they have outstanding treatment. This can be done by calling them on the phone, sending them an email message, or sending them a letter. By contacting patients now, you can better manage your schedule instead of having to jam everybody in during the last two weeks of December. 

Contacting Patients By Phone

Although calling patients who have outstanding treatment plans is time consuming, it also gives you the opportunity to schedule their appointment while you have them on the phone. Use the Treatment Manager to generate a report of patients with outstanding treatment plans who have remaining insurance benefits. Contact those patients and make detailed notes in the Office Journal of what was said on the phone call. From the Treatment Manager, you have direct access to the Treatment Planner, so you will be able to easily access treatment plan information if the patient has any questions.

Contacting Patients By Email 

Sending patients an email message is an easy and convenient way to communicate. With Patient Engage, you can create an email message in the Campaign Studio to remind patients that most insurance plans renew January 1st, and any unused benefits will be lost. Encourage them to contact your office to schedule an appointment. If you’re using Dentrix Communication Manager, you can create a similar email campaign reminding patients to schedule an appointment to use their benefits.

Contacting Patients By Letter

In the Dentrix Office Manager, under Letters & Custom Lists there’s an option for Misc. letters. Here you’ll find the Treatment Plan Reminder letter. This is a great letter to use to contact patients because it has a merge field that informs the patient how much of their dental insurance maximum is remaining. When creating the letter, use filters to find specific patients to send this letter to, such as patients who have been seen this calendar year, with remaining insurance benefits between $200 and $2000, who have an outstanding treatment plan. If you decide to send letters, I would suggest including a copy of the patient’s treatment plan to remind them exactly what needs to be scheduled. 

By contacting patients with outstanding treatment plans and remaining insurance benefits, you can encourage them to schedule an appointment to maximize their insurance plans. Scheduling their appointments now will help you to control your schedule instead of everyone calling at once in December to try to get an appointment. 

Contact me if you have questions at  vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

Charlotte Skaggs, Certified Dentrix Trainer

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for almost 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

Planning for 2021

Now that we’ve entered the fourth quarter of 2020, it’s time to start planning for 2021! Here are some things you can do now in your office to plan for the upcoming year.

Close the Office for 2021 Holidays

Set up your office schedule for the coming year by closing the office for holidays in 2021. For example, if your office plans to take time off for the 4th of July, Labor Day, and/or between Christmas and New Year, it’s a good idea to set the office schedule before entering practice production goals, because practice production goals are generally set up based on the days the office will be seeing patients. It’s important to note when setting your office schedule, if you set a yearly holiday, it is based on a specific date. So, while this feature will work for a holiday like Christmas Day, it won’t work for a holiday that the date changes every year, like Memorial Day. 

For additional information, see the following:

• Setting Yearly Holiday Closures
• Closing the Office for a Day

Set Your Office Goals for 2021

Take some time to meet with your doctor and discuss the practice production goals for 2021. In Dentrix, goals are entered by provider. To calculate the monthly goal, take the provider’s daily production goal and multiply it by the number of days that provider will work that month. For example, if your hygienist’s daily production goal is $1000, and she’ll be working twenty days in January, then her January production goal will be $20,000. 

Enter a monthly goal for each hygienist and doctor in your practice. Goals and scheduled production can be viewed in the Dentrix Appointment Book by clicking on the calendar icon and then clicking Scheduled Production. You can set up views in the Appointment Book to view one provider at a time, or multiple providers. Scheduling production goals for your office can help the office stay on track to meet goals. It is also helpful to have production goals when scheduling so that your team can schedule higher production cases in order to meet your practice goals. 

For additional information see the following:

• Viewing Scheduled Amounts by Provider
• Viewing Scheduled Production Amounts
• Viewing Production Value of Individual Appointments
• Appointment Book Views and Scheduled Production

Evaluate Your Office Fees

Do you plan to increase your fees for 2021? Whether you plan to increase your fees or not, it’s a good idea to evaluate them on an annual basis to ensure your practice fees are competitive for your area. Your Henry Schein rep can help you by generating a report which will show you how your office fees compare to others in your area. If you decide to increase your office fees, it can be done by a percentage or by a dollar amount in the fee schedule set up in the Dentrix Office Manager. 

For additional information, see the following:

• Preparing to Update Your Fee Schedules
• Updating Office Fees using the Automatic Fee Schedule Changes Utility
• A More Useful Fee Schedule Report

Taking some time now to prepare your office for 2021 can help to set your practice up for success! 

Email me with questions at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.

Charlotte Skaggs, Certified Dentrix Trainer

Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for almost 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.