Planned Tracker

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savvy
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Planned Tracker

Post by savvy » Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:37 am

What's the deal?............
This is absolutely driving my staff and me crazy.......
I treatment plan a single procedure for a patient ( DO comp #3).
Some time in the future, my front desk pulls a report for Planned Treatment, the above TX plan is not listed.
She remembers that the above pt should have something done.
She asks why it is not on the Planned list.
Of course, I forgot to physically put it there.
So I put it there.
Pt comes in in the future to have the #3 DO comp done....Completed.
In the future, my front desk runs the Planned report again......
The above patient is still on the list.
Why?
Because we did not physically delete it from the Planned Tracker list.

TELL ME AGAIN WHY THIS IS CONSIDERED EFFICIENT?

Why is it that all treatment planned procedures do not automatically become added to a Planned Treatment list?
AND
Why completed procedures are not automatically removed from this list?

Would that not be MORE EFFICIENT?
Candy is dandy, but sex won't rot your teeth.

Cheers!!!
Go Bears!!!!!
Savvy

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jordansparks
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by jordansparks » Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:59 am

Once upon a time, that feature was very useful in my office where my staff were trained to always with no exceptions either set a planned appt or mark the patient complete. And the front desk was trained to always schedule from the planned appointment. Those errors would have easily been caught in my office because that's just how we did things.

But now we have many different offices trying to use this feature. The personalities and preferences of the people in each office are different. So the tool is not as elegant as it was in my office.

What you are asking for is feature request #1040.
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com

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savvy
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by savvy » Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:19 pm

As I have stated many times before.......
What I REALLY liked about my previous pms, Intellident, was that it was easy for any 3rd grader (New Hampshire, Mississippi, California, etc).
You clearly have a higher standard.
I was unaware that Oregon had so many MacArthur Award candidates that were in the dental field.

It would seem to me, that having an efficient Recall and Treatment Needed system would be ranked closer on the "Things to Get Right in OD List" to Urgent Care/Code Blue than elective Hair Removal.

I'm not sure 1040 is what I'm asking for.
What I'm asking for is closer to the fuel that makes it go.......not just a grade of fuel.

Recall/Planned Treatment are the life blood of a general dental practice.
Candy is dandy, but sex won't rot your teeth.

Cheers!!!
Go Bears!!!!!
Savvy

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jordansparks
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by jordansparks » Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:56 pm

Really? Request 1040 would give you a fast way to search for treatment that needs to be done. Wasn't the whole problem that the patient was not showing on the report properly?
Why is it that all treatment planned procedures do not automatically become added to a Planned Treatment list?
AND
Why completed procedures are not automatically removed from this list?
They are added to the list in the sense that they have a status of TP. All we need is an interactive report that is elegant enough to show us a list of TP procedures.
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com

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savvy
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by savvy » Fri Apr 16, 2010 2:06 pm

I really don't know what #1040 means.....
" Overhaul and combine the two existing reports and possibly the planned appt tracker."

What two existing reports?
And
Why only, "possibly the planned appt tracker"?
Candy is dandy, but sex won't rot your teeth.

Cheers!!!
Go Bears!!!!!
Savvy

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jordansparks
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by jordansparks » Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:45 pm

There are two reports that you can access from the reports window: Treatment Finder and Treatment Plan Manager. The Treatment Plan Manager was not written by us and I have almost removed it a few times due to slowness and other problems. But enough people find it useful that it is still there for now. I would like to remove both of those reports and replace them with something better. In your case, that would be enough because you could just ignore the planned appt tracker as a feature that is not useful to you so no need to see a report on it. But there may be a way to elegantly roll it all together and improve it as we go. So all three could be combined if done right. We'll have to wait and see.

The reason the existing two reports are not good enough for what you want right now is that they are not interactive. You can't double click on a patient to go to their TP. You can't change the sort order or the filters (on one report).
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com

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drtech
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by drtech » Sat Apr 17, 2010 1:11 pm

I agree with Savvy in that the Recall/Planned Treatment Tracking/Scheduling are the most important parts of the Dental practice software and still a major flaw in OD. (I love it, but this really could be better)

The program needs to be more "intelligent" in a number of ways in tracking these things.
Here are a few of my ideas (could be applied to more than one or different applications throughout the program)

1) The status of appt scheduled should be part of every list (recall/planned tracker/etc) in that if a pt already has an appt scheduled (even if not for the item currently looking at) the list should indicate the next appt time or "NO APPTS"
2) We need to be able to track planned appts/treatment planned items in the same place and have it fully interactive and NOT related to if the pt has a specific planned appt made and or scheduled (and also include item #1) ( I think this might relate to the request mentioned)
-no matter how many times we train the staff, sometimes they don't schedule the planned appt and make a new one...then the function of tracking the appt is gone...the program needs to know if the specific procedure is scheduled and/or done even if not "attached" to a planned appt.
3) We need to be able to quickly adjust when we want a pt to appear again on whatever list we are using manually. And also include the "automatic" selection of a new date for you that is already there, but record that as a field with the pt. (i.e. next follow up contact)
4) We need to be able to see at a glance in the chart when they will appear next in a tracking system (recall or planned tx) and on what list/method (related to #3)
David Fuchs
Dentist - Springfield, MO
Smile Dental http://www.887-smile.com

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jordansparks
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by jordansparks » Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:12 pm

#2 was just covered in the discussion above. That's the one I consider the current biggest weakness.

If there's one take-home lesson I'm getting from your post, it's to make the next reminder date in the recall list an actual editable field instead of dynamically calculated.
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com

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drtech
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by drtech » Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:15 am

Yes, I think having an edible (edit: editable) field would be great. That way we can use it to show in the chart or something like I have always wanted. And I can edit the date as as necessary...
Last edited by drtech on Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
David Fuchs
Dentist - Springfield, MO
Smile Dental http://www.887-smile.com

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Rickliftig
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by Rickliftig » Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:11 pm

hmmm -- edible fields for those of us who eat, sleep and drink dentistry? (couldn't resist exploiting your typo, Dave) <G>
Another Happy Open Dental User!

Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net

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drtech
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Re: Planned Tracker

Post by drtech » Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:40 pm

ha...nice...I guess that is a fitting typo for a dentist! :p
David Fuchs
Dentist - Springfield, MO
Smile Dental http://www.887-smile.com

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