November 2008 | Dental Products Report
Clinician’s Comments: Paperless office
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Photo courtesy of Inti St Clair/Getty Images
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The digital difference
Is your practice ready to adopt practice management software and get rid of paper patient files?
By Dr. Gilbert Parrott
When I first began using software for my general practice in Chicago 15 years ago, I never anticipated a complete end to paper-trailing our patients’ records. In fact, while designing a new office space in 1996, I looked at a variety of ways to conveniently store and access growing active patient treatment folders, submitted insurance claim forms and mounted radiographs in a front desk area with limited space.
Throughout this time, my dental team and I used software at my practice, Belmont Dental Care, but we were unable to eliminate our paper records. I wanted to make a transition for my office—to use a complete digital software system that included both practice management and clinical capabilities.
With a new digital software system in place, I not only hoped to rid paper entries as the primary collection method of patient data, but desired the ability to seamlessly incorporate all of the digital technology available on the market, including the digital photography I had already been using with separate software for several years. After completing extensive research of several digital software systems and receiving recommendations from fellow colleagues, I decided on the software that would improve my entire practice.
Making a Change
I welcomed Patterson EagleSoft practice management and clinical software into my dental “home” in September 2006. The digital technology we were beginning to use in our practice and a desire to have a software system that would also be great on the practice management side of things were the primary reasons for transitioning to new software. My practice needed something that would incorporate digital x-rays, digital and still photography and images from an intraoral camera into one system so we could avoid the work arounds required by using multiple software systems, back-ups and bridge programs.
My entire practice made the change to the new software in just one day. The transition was very smooth, and we immediately found the software to be extremely user-friendly. My practice was now able to do all of our practice management on one side of the software, while easily accessing our images, patient charts and other patient information on the software’s other side.
Staff training
The purchase of the new software included six full days of in-office training from Patterson Technology representatives for me and my staff, but we immediately discovered we didn’t need all six. The initial training focused on navigating through the software system, and as we found the software to be relatively simple and user-friendly, we had a few extra training days for training new staff.
However, I found that even with new hires, we didn’t need to use these remaining days to teach basic operations because new employees found their past experience with computers made it easy to use Patterson EagleSoft. That gave us the luxury to use these extra training days to provide more advanced training to our administrative team.
All of our hygiene team members agreed that the transition was smooth and the software is easy to use. They not only emphasized that the software made their jobs easier on a day-to-day basis, but were impressed with its clinical intuition. Conducting recall exams, doing periodontal charting and setting up new operational tasks are all as simple as the click of the mouse for my staff.
Taking the paperless plunge
As of January 2008, my practice has gone completely chartless in terms of hard, paper copies. While our paper records remain on hand as back-ups to the computerized records we’ve established in EagleSoft, our need to scan portions of the paper records, such as medical history updates, treatment notes, specialist follow-ups and previously developed x-rays will soon be eliminated.
It’s been wonderful to be able access our electronic chart notes so quickly and easily, and any team member on the network can access the comprehensive patient records within the software from any work station. EagleSoft really does integrate the multitude of different technologies we use into one system.
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