Why a Dental practice management software is important during Covid19

As all of us aware, COVID-19 is a respiratory illness which transmits through person-to- person contact and through respiratory droplets generated when any infected person coughs or sneezes. We can prevent this transmission by implementing strong disease control protocols like social distancing, wearing masks, using Sanitize/hand wash, etc

But do you know a proper dental practice management software can also assist in implementing these protocols? Especially distancing and avoiding contacts. This blog explains the best strategies to follow . 

It is impractical to avoid the person to person interactions in dental offices however it can be minimized. This can be achieved by implementing a strong integrated dental practice management software like Dentsoftware. Lets see what are the best strategies to avoid the interactions in Dentsoftware. 

Online Booking

Convert all the physical appointment bookings into online appointment bookings. Integrate your dental office website/Clinic Facebook page with the online appointment system of the dental practice management software. This will help the patients to know about your dentist and their specialties on one online appointment page. The online appointment software shows only the free time slots, which helps the clinic to avoid overbooking, well time management and one patient at a time policy. 

This will be beneficial for the dental office reception too. They can clearly see the online appointment and approve the ones which are genuine to avoid bogus bookings. Since the patients are taking appointments by themselves, the chances of spelling mistakes are less. Also this gives a good user experience for the patients too. No more phone calls or visiting dental offices for bookings. They can simply select the specialists and do the booking on their convenient time. Saves a lot of time and effort. 

Self registration

The dental office can advise the patient to complete the registration from home. This self registration can also be linked with the online appointment for the new cases. Though it is possible to do it at dental office using a Kiosk/Tablet, we always recommend doing it from home. This will be convenient for the patient and staff too. The patient can register from home and upload all the necessary documents, Sign the consents, mark their medical history, medical conditions, Allergies etc. This gives an excellent patient experience and easy onboarding. Since the form is filled by the patient, the chances of spelling mistakes are lesser. 

Self check in

A tablet or kiosk can be fixed at the reception. As and when the patient comes, they can simply click on their name and mark their check in. This eliminates the patient reporting at the reception thus avoids a patient to staff interaction. Once the patient knows this facility, then it becomes a routine practice and the workflow can be totally automated. 

Check in alerts and list (for doctors)

For every check in at the reception, the dentist will get a notification in the check in counter of their computer. This avoids a staff to dentist interaction. We find in some practices, the receptionist or staff used to come physically to inform the doctors on the waiting patients. The check counter not only helps in preventing Covid transmission but also gives the dentist a privilege of planning the treatment speed and prioritizing the patients based in different parameters (waiting time, type of patient, age, type of treatment etc), 

TV display

Oftentimes patients become restless when they sit idle at reception. It’s a habit of some patients to come to reception and ask about their turn. TV Display is a great remedy for this problem. The TV display will show the patient’s name against one dental chair. It will show all the waiting patients. If their name comes on the top they can go to the respective operatory without asking anyone. 

 To make the experience better, some patient education video can be played in equal intervals. 

Reception alert

When the treatment is over inside the operatory, the receptionist will get an alert. This will help them to prepare the invoice and make everything ready. We also recommends touchless payments to avoid constants

Feedback

Feedback is unavoidable in any dental practice. It helps the clinic to perform better. Instead of using the paper feedback, use the digital formats. Send a link to patient to rate on various aspects of the clinic. Being its an online link, the patients can make the entries sitting at home. 

Avoid paper file system

If the dental office is using the paper based patient record system, there is a high chance of transmission. The same file is going through different hands and it may be contaminated. So it is very important to use the Electronic dental records for dental practice management.