Recall/Recare

[savvy]

I've mentioned this before. However, I was reading my recent copy(June) of Dentistry Today and I see my friend, Dr. Bruce Stephenson, states it very eloquently and concisely:
(pg 124) "These days, we should make those lazy computers send out a series of reminders, either postcards or emails, automatically at 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months overdue. Little or no staff time is necessary, it maintains hygiene production, and helps to ensure better periodontal health for our patients. Once this computer-based recare system is established, it works forever without any further attention from the doctor."

Do I hear a wheel sqeaking?

Cheers!!!

[DavidWolf]

Doesn't OD already do this?

The recall module allows you to enter dates for when the patient was due and print the cards.

I have my front desk due exactly what you mentioned.
Every Wednesday they mail reminder cards for the upcoming recall appointments.
At the end of every month they mail post cards for everyone who was due and still has not been in from the previous month, 3 months ago and 6 months ago.

If they haven't called after 3 post cards....I just leave them alone.

We also manually scan the cards to make sure we are not inviting back any "problems".

[savvy]

To answer your question.......NO.

Your staff might be "set up" do that, but OD is not.

OD WILL give you a report on who is due within a date range.
OD WILL print cards using that list.
OD WILL make an automatic note that a recall card was generated.
OD WILL NOT remove a patient from the list after a card is generated, (similar to pt statements).
OD WILL NOT distinguish between first card message and 3rd card message with in the master list generated.
An 8-12 month prophy recall patient that is two months past due, should not get the same "concerned" printed message that a 3 month perio recall patient that is 2 months past due might receive.....unless of course, you dumb the language down to just, "you are past due for your appointment."
OD has a very weak recall system.
In fact it is NOT a recall system at all. It is only a report that can be printed to postcards.
At the very least, it should work just like generating statements:
One generates a list, one chooses who to send recall cards to, one prints and mails the the recall cards, a notation is automatically made in the Comm Log, the patient will not get another recall card generated until the next month.
Imagine if one sent a batch of statements today, then generated statements the following week and had to manually weed out the patients who had a statement sent last week, and so on.

Alright, enough said.

Cheers!!

[opensource]

Thanks Savvy for highlighting the OD Possible vs Not Possible clearly.

I have been fishing around for even a third party solution which could do the job for me but not much luck. I think it will need to be built into OD to make it real. Quite frankly speaking, the entire framework is already there..it is a matter of getting the necessary scripts put in place.

For Example : The concept of Email template is there. Contact Method is there. The ability to create an automated entry in commlog when an email is sent is already there. All that is needed is...the ability to set the preference of how the reminders should be going out..and which template to use...for first reminder, second reminder..etc. The other component that might be needed (which I think is the bigger one..from a framework perspective) is the ability for a job/service to be running in the background to do the emailing automatically. Even if it is not automated..but if it can have an interface like the "Billing" module...I think it would be a BIG help.

To take the above even further..It would be great feature to automate the emailing of Account Statement. This can use the current framework of the "Billing Module" and the ability to create the PDF version of the Statement. The other component that could be tied to it..is the "Email Template".

All of the above can be done with minimal need for a human touch except for the initial setup.

Dr. Jordan : Do you see the above on the opendental roadmap ?

Cheers,

OpenSource
p.s. I do not think any third party solution can do the job. I know Prompt Alert does offer similar services but they are more into a one time exercise and can develop customize scripts..but I think building it in OD might be easier and more scalable solution.

[savvy]

After updating to 5.7.11 from 5.6.34, I notice the new first item in Setup is Anesthetic Medications Inventory.
What is this and how does it work?

Cheers!

PS> nice addition with the arrows to Auto Notes! Thanks

OOPS!
I "Replied" instead of "New"...oh well.

[jordansparks]

Oh, that should be hidden. Dr. Stark (I think) added that. He still hasn't supplied script to create the necessary tables in the db, so nobody can use that section yet. The interface he has built is quite involved.

[TonyMcManus]

Dental Senders integrates with your OD and provides this free of charge by both email and text message http://www.dentalsenders.com Hope this helps,

Tony