Dental College Patient management software is a software system which automates all the clinical and patient activities in the dental college. This system is crucial for successful running of dental practice in a college. It manages all the work flow right from the patient arrival till they leave the dental college. It connects reception, oral medicine & radiology department, all the other specialty departments, investigations, radiology etc. A dental college patient management software helps to eliminate the paper records and brings more efficiency and productivity.
Dental Practice Management Software
Any small, medium or large-sized dental colleges requires a dental practice management software to do the daily activities like patient management, appointments, check in, billing, insurance, inventory management, employee management etc. An integrated Dental EMR along with the practice management software makes it a total solution for dental college
What are the Benefits of Practice Management Software for Dental College
There are many benefits of Dental Practice management software for college. The top two benefits are saving on manpower and Increased revenue. A rough estimate of saving due to dental practice management software for college is around 50 lakhs INR (~$7000) per month. Some of the other benefits are listed below
- Standardization of workflow
- Brand value of totally computerised / eco-friendly campus
- Branding with Patient cards, prescription, SMS, Mails…
- Powerful MIS reports for better management control
- Less manpower for administrative works
- Control on revenue leakages and over heads
- No more missing records / torn papers / unreadable hand writing
- Time and Space saving
- No more malpractices – Highly secured
What are the Features of Dental college Patient management software
A dental college patient management software should have the features like Graphical dental charting, perio charting, graphical appointments, department wise patient transfer system, patient assigning to students, different case records etc. There should have multiple case records for each department. For example for Oral and maxillofacial surgery the software should have case records like department case record, Trauma case record, Orthognathic surgery, Operation theatre, Pathology record etc. By selecting a dental college patient management software like Dentsoftware, the client can enjoy some of the international features like ICD10 coding system, Patient retention mechanism, Re-call system etc.
How to use the dental management software?
The dental management software will have different users like the receptionist, department receptionists, students, faculty members, management staff, cashiers etc. Once any patients reports at the reception the patient will be checked in to the respective department or to the respective doctor. if it’s a new patient, the patient will be checked in to the oral medicine and radiology department.
They can take x-ray or request for investigations like cytology, biopsy or laboratory. If they do not have any in-house radiology section in OMR department they may request for X-Ray to the radiology department through the software. The radiology or oral pathology department can see these different requests on their login. The may to their part and upload the results in the software itself. The paper records can be totally eliminated using this method. Once the OMR has the results, they can fill the case record and create a treatment plan in the dental charting. The patient may be sent to different departments as per the created treatment plan through the dental management software.
The Other department can see the patients assigned to their department. Either the department reception or supervisor may pick the patient and assign it to a relevant student. The student may see the patients assigned in their name and they may continue with the department sheet and Dental charting in the dental management software. In dental chart they can create treatment plans and execute them based on approval from the supervisor. Once the treatments are done, the prescriptions may be generated and sent for billing. The cashier can collect the payment after the treatment or in advance.
Every user will have their own username and password which is controlled by an administrator. The dental management software has features like Roles and Permission.
The best dental practice manament software for dental colleges can be identified with the below points
How to Choose the Best Dental Practice Management Software for dental Colleges?
- Dental software Features
- Experience of the software company
- Customer support
- Technology used in the dental practce management software
- Option for customization and integrations
A true dental practice management software for dental college should have features like graphical dental charting, periodontal charting, department case records, approval system, grading system, Academic management, student management etc .
The functioning of a dental college is different than a normal Hospital, dental clinic or Medical College. It is important that the vendor should have experience so that they can easily understand the requirement and customise the dental practice management software for dental college.
Support is crucial in the running of a dental practice management software for dental college. The entire college data is going to be fed into the software. if the vendor could not provide a proper support, the patient data will be compromised and ultimately it will affect the functioning of the Dental College.
The technology is important in dental practice management software for dental college . Some companies still work on the old technologies like Visual basic. This kind of Technology required installation in each and every system which is not practical in a dental college setup. If the technology is supporting Browser usage, anyone with a browser like Chrome, Safari or Firefox can easily uses software without any installation
Each Dental colleges has got its own set of unique requirements. If the software is not supporting customization the client cannot incorporate their specific requirements.
Which is the most common dental software used in dental Colleges?
There are many companies claim as software for dental colleges. However they are basically software which is tweaked from a hospital management software or a college management software. These software’s will not meet the requirements of a dental college. A good example of best dental college management software is Dent software. Dent software is the most common dental software used in dental colleges. Dent software has got multiple case records for each department. For example the oral and maxillofacial surgery, it has case records like omfs case record ,trauma case record, Orthognathic surgery case record and operation theatre record. Like this all the departments got multiple case records.
Web based vs Cloud based Dental Practice Management Software
The software are coming in two models . On-promise (offline) and cloud (online). In the case of on-premise system the software will be installed in a server within the college. All the other devices can access the software on a LAN or Wi-Fi network within the college. In the cloud model the software can be accessed from anywhere. The software can be web based or cloud based dental practice management software. The details of Web based vs Cloud based dental practice management software is given below.
What is cloud based dental management software
In the case of cloud based dental practice management software the software will be installed on a cloud server. There is no physical installations required in the college servers. The users can access the software from anywhere using their devices. This gives more mobility. The cloud based dental management software requires less investment on the hardware, a person to manage the server, maintenance cost on hardware and software updates etc.
What is web based dental management software
The benefit of on-promise offline web based dental management system is that the software can run without an internet connection. This software can be web based dental management software, means it can work from a browser like Google Chrome or Firefox. The browser will act like a medium to run the software. The benefit of web based dental practice management software is that it can work on any device with a browser like a Windows PC Mac iPad Android tablets etc. There is no installations required. Just open the browser type the link the software will open automatically.
Quick comparison of Web based vs Cloud based Dental Practice Management Software
Advantages of offline dental college management software
- No internet required
- Faster compared to the cloud model
- More secured being in a closed network
- One time purchase model available
Disadvantages of offline dental college management software
- No access or limited access from outside
- Needs on-premise servers and networking
- Needs periodic software and hardware upgradations
- A system administrator required to maintain server and network
Advantages of cloud dental college management software
- Anytime anywhere access
- Scalable and easily up-gradable
- Yearly subscription model. No huge upfront payments required
- No local server and maintenance staff required
Disadvantages of cloud dental college management software
- Needs internet connection always
Conclusion
Selection of dental college practice management software is like a capital investment for the dental college. The decision has to be taken based on the points mentioned above. Selection of the wrong software or a wrong company can lead to issues later all. The college is totally going to rely on the patient management software. Think about the long time gains than the short time gains .