How technology saves your practice time and money

Every practice has goals of increasing revenue and becoming more efficient. While it may seem overwhelming at first, trying to balance these items and finding the best way to increase your practice’s business while also saving time and money doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, there are plenty of solutions out there.

I believe the No. 1 way to accomplish these goals, and many others your practice may have, is to integrate technology into your practice and, specifically, use your practice management system to its full capacity.

Money Savings:

• Practice management systems are not only time-savers; they are also a great too  to find where your practice can save money. Some practice management systems, such as Eaglesoft by Patterson Dental, have money-finding features built in. These features allow dental practices to find patients who have previously not accepted proposed treatments or who have hygiene recalls.

More on saving money: 3 ways ignoring patient complaints is costing you money

Increased Efficiency:

• Practice management systems allow all information to be stored in one place on one platform. The front and back of the dental office are able to look up patients' dental history, their medications and insurance benefits from different stations, meaning all team members, no matter where they are in the office, have access to the same information at the same time. This is a huge time saver for a practice; instead of getting up to leave the patient’s side to look up their insurance benefits or schedule a follow-up appointment, it can all be done chairside, right then and there.

• Practice management systems are also a great tool for the scheduling team. When patients call, they are able to pull up their information within seconds, whereas with paper records, it would take minutes to sift through. Eliminating paper charts through the use of a practice management system in turn means less valuable time is wasted.

• Eaglesoft also offers an instant messaging service for the front and back office to be able to communicate virtually and instantly. Information from one end of the dental office to the other is relayed in a much more timely manner and helps to keep everyone on the team in the loop.

There is a lot to be said about being completely paperless. If your practice is still using paper records, take the above points into consideration. The switch from paper to can be a seamless transition. With the support and training from your practice management system’s software team, going paperless can be a stress-free process.

Talk with colleagues and other individuals in the industry and conduct research to find what system is right for your office. Also, use people like myself, who have had the opportunity to work with many different practices and in many different scenarios, as a resource. From years of experience, I can say no matter the scenario, the result is alway the same–if a practice management system is implemented and utilized correctly, it will increase the efficiency and save on your practice’s overhead costs. Do the right thing for your practice and go paperless!

More on going paperless: How to successfully transition to a paperless dental practice