How to simplify practice management with DentiMax

August 24, 2017

Terri Lively

Article

How practice management software can streamline your day-to-day through integration and interoperability for excellent patient care.

Unless you live "off the grid," you know that technology is an excellent tool. In a dental practice, technology has eliminated many daily manual tasks for everyone from the front office to the clinical team, particularly when you consider the features of practice management software.

Many practice management software products employ features that improve efficiency and productivity. They can systematize time-consuming administrative tasks for your front-office staff, freeing your staff up for tasks that can add value to the practice.

DentiMax practice management software is integrated with their open platform digital imaging software, allowing information to be compiled into one, easy-to-navigate patient record. Best of all, these features function automatically and are hassle-free.

Brittney Weinholtz is the office manager at Fulmer Dentistry. With 13 years in the dental industry and managing two locations in Wisconsin, Weinholtz knows what it means to manage the moving parts of a practice-and how practice management software that integrates well with other technology can help. “Ideally for any practice, having as much in your dental software program as you can makes it easier for the whole office,” Weinholtz says.

Weinholtz speaks from experience. Dr. Fulmer’s practice-where she works-evolved from one location in Paddock Lake to a second location in Kenosha a few years later. The computer systems and imaging systems at each location were different and incompatible, resulting in the staff flip-flopping between the systems.

“When you have to click out of something in order to access something else, that’s just more time,” Weinholtz explains. “You also have to enter those patients into each practice management software that you have, meaning they would be on my software for the schedule, but if my imaging is something completely separate, not only am I having to enter a new patient in our scheduling system, but also in the imaging system. And that’s super time-consuming and frankly just a waste of time.”

Another pain point for Weinholtz was the old system’s backup exercise. Using physical backup disks, she captured the system’s data at the end of the day and took the disks home every night in case there was a catastrophic event at the practice. “And that information can sometimes take a long time to back up, especially if we’ve had a long day,” she says.

Weinholtz also spent a lot of time verifying patient insurance benefits, distributing bulk insurance payments to various patient accounts, and manually entering processed credit card payments from the separate credit processing software. All of these tasks added up to a lot of time-consuming detail work.

“And, you know, mistakes can easily be made if you process a credit card and the phone rings and you forget to go ahead and put that payment on the patient’s ledger,” Weinholtz explains.

Next: the power of technology integration

The power of technology integration

Dr. Craig Rosenthal, DDS, practices in Garwood, New Jersey. After 40 years of practicing dentistry, he understands it is essential that your technology works with your practice flow. He decided about five years ago that he wasn’t happy with his existing systems, so he decided to integrate DentiMax’s Dream Sensors and open platform imaging software with his existing practice management software.

“The integration and the support was great. We had very few problems, if any,” he says.

The DentiMax imaging and practice management software paired with the DentiMax Dream Sensors is an example of integration and interoperability. All of the patient’s images are captured and stored in the imaging software. Integration between the systems allows clinicians to see all of the images in the patient’s chart in the practice management software. With one click, they can view them during treatment planning.

Because Weinholtz uses DentiMax imaging software and Dream Sensors in combination with DentiMax’s practice management software, it streamlines the process of accessing patient data.

“Before we had to flip-flop back and forth between scheduling and imaging software and now we don’t have to do that anymore. Now, we’re already in the patient’s chart, and we just click on the icon in order to take the X-rays. Everything is right there,” Weinholtz says.

Not only is the system integrated, but Weinholtz worked with DentiMax’s head of imaging, Jim Ramey, to dial in the settings for all the X-ray machines the clinical team uses. “I don’t think in the 13 years I’ve been in dentistry that I have seen a digital X-ray that has come out as clear and perfect as with this center that we have. And also that’s because Jim helped us dial those numbers in,” she says.

Weinholtz also appreciates all the ways her cloud-based system solves some of her past headaches. Her back-ups happen automatically and are stored safely in the cloud. It also has a built-in insurance verification feature and credit card processing that automatically deducts payments from the patient’s ledger balance. She can also view the schedule for both offices in one system, meaning no more flip-flopping between two systems. Bulk payments from the insurance company for multiple patients are easy to process with her DentiMax practice management software.

“In a lot of the systems, you have to go into each specific account and enter that patient’s portion of the bulk payment,” Weinholtz says. “Through DentiMax, I can enter that number in as a whole and then start clicking on patients.”

Dr. Rosenthal thinks that one important consideration for a practice combining different systems for integration is the quality of the supplier’s support team. He had few issues using the Dream Sensors with his existing practice management software, but when he did, Dr. Rosenthal appreciated the immediate and personal support he received.

“When you call, you always get somebody on the phone who is very knowledgeable and helps you out right away,” he says.

Weinholtz agrees that a real connection with the company you work with is crucial. For her part, she feels that she has formed genuine friendships with the people on the other end of the phone. “I know that I can rely on them and that’s super important to us,” she says. “It’s super important to the future of this practice, knowing that if I have an issue, I can call them and they’re right there to help me fix whatever mistake I’ve made or walk me through something that maybe I haven’t learned about the system.”

Few technologies impact your practice in a day-to-day way more than your practice management software. Perhaps most importantly, practice management software allows you and your staff to get away from mundane and time-consuming tasks. The integration between DentiMax practice management software, DentiMax Dream Sensors and DentiMax imaging software frees up the team to focus on the most important aspect-patient care