Go digital with X-rays
For a real productivity boost, combine your practice management software with a digital X-ray system. Using these two systems together lets you view digital X-rays while treatment planning — at the same time. The advantages of digital X-rays over traditional film are well documented.
With a digital X-ray system you save time by not waiting for film to develop, use less radiation on your patients, send your X-rays electronically for faster payment, use software tools to educate patients, and eliminate your film and chemical developing solutions.
If you haven’t already gone digital, now is a good time to shop. Like everything else electronic, prices have come down and the technology has gotten better. Companies such as DentiMax, DEXIS, Kodak, and Schick offer high-end digital sensors that take incredibly clear X-rays. You might want to check out their latest product offerings.
Adopt digital document software
If your front desk is cluttered and overrun with paper, it may be time to add document software. Digital document software helps your office organize, capture, and store patient insurance cards, driver’s licenses, signatures on your financial/privacy release forms, and printed documents. The beauty is that once your patients’ paperwork is entered into the computer, it’s always in the computer, making it easily accessible from any of your computer workstations.
Many practice management systems now offer this kind of software. You may even find out that you already own document software but just haven’t used it.
Throwing your paper and manual systems out the window one day and switching “cold turkey” the next to a completely paperless system is a bit too much for any office.
Fortunately, going paperless is not an all-or-nothing proposition. From using your software’s existing treatment plan to digital X-rays and digital documents, you can go paperless one step at a time, at your own pace. So what are you waiting for?
Ryan Brown, DDS, practices pediatric dentistry in Prescott, Ariz. Dr. Brown has integrated technology from several companies in order to make his dental practice paperless. You may reach him at [email protected].
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