Confirming Recalls 1-2 weeks in advance

[mfdental]

I am a start-up and opened about 5 months ago. I am currently the only provider. I do all the hygiene myself.
We usually pre-book our 6 month recall appointments immediately after the first appointment.

I'm trying to figure out a way to pull up a list of all the upcoming 6 month recall appointments, so that we can give them a 1 week reminder. As of now, I am having my receptionist scan through the appointments manually to do the 1 week 6MR reminders. It isn't too bad right now, because I haven't seen too many patients, but I feel like it will be a bit of a hassle once I get busier.

I know there is a confirmations list button, that searches by HYG. However, we have no hygiene, and all the patients only have DOC as the main provider. Should I just add myself as a hygiene provider, to do this? Or is there an easier way?

Thanks,
Jason

[teamhowey]

Just use the schedule. It sounds like you are trying to make work for someone to do a report for. Simply look at the schedule and have the front office call and remind everyone a week prior to the appointment. Simple.

[jordansparks]

It's feature request #172. Until we add that feature, it does have to be done manually.

[Karrie000]

Hi Jason,
I too, do all my own hygiene. In fact I have NO employees and send all my own reminders. With Open Dental it is so easy. With most of my patients they have provided me an email and/ or text messaging number. I put this number in the email line on the patient screen. I confirm all my appointments including hygiene 1 week prior simply by clicking on the appointment list, then confirmations, select the dates, highlight all the patients and click send email! It's really slick , rarely do I have a no shows! This is one of the best features of open dental!! Hope this helps...who knows maybe you'll be able to get rid of your front desk help too!

[mfdental]

Okay, now I know that its a feature request #172.

teamhowey - I know using the schedule is a method. However, its annoying to have to sort through all the appointments to find out which ones are new patients, 6mr, restorative, crowns, perio, etc. Also, when you can pull up a list, you can use the confirmations list to print up mail labels or postcards to send for the 1 week reminders.

For now, this is what I'm doing:
Provider set-up: I enter my name, TID, License number, NPI number into both DOC and HYG.
Whenever we add a patient, in the patient edit window, we set the primary provider as DOC, and Secondary provider as HYG. (is there a way to have open dental automatically default to HYG as secondary provider every time a new patient is added?)
To get a list of the upcoming hygiene appointments, just click on the appointment list --> confirmations button, and limit the search for HYG. It will pull up only the hygiene appointments, giving you an easy to access list.

Also, if you want to color code your hygiene appointments, then check the "Is Hygiene" box for hygiene appointments.

Jordan, does this method work? Or does adding my name twice, as DOC and HYG mess up the program?

[jordansparks]

Yes, that method should help you filter by provider, and essentially do the same thing.

[Hersheydmd]

If you want a list of e-mail addresses to send out "hold the date" email reminders to patients who have appointments in the future ("x" number of weeks or days ahead)) that were scheduled at least one month ago, try this query. You can then mail merge the result into a GoogleDoc email template and send customized emails and SMS texts. When I have time I'll post detailed instructions.

• SET @FromDate=Date_Add(CurDate(),Interval 15 day), @ToDate=Date_Add(CurDate(),Interval 30 day);
  SELECT p.LName,p.FName, pl.ProcDate, pl.DateTStamp, p.Preferred,p.EMail AS 'Email address,Mobile text address'
  FROM patient p, procedurelog pl
  WHERE pl.PatNum=p.PatNum AND LENGTH(EMail)>3 AND
  (pl.ProcDate BETWEEN @FromDate AND @ToDate) AND
  (pl.DateTStamp < Date_Add(CurDate(),Interval -1 month))
  AND pl.ProcStatus = '1' AND p.PatStatus=0
  GROUP BY LName
  ORDER BY pl.ProcDate

[mfdental]

Thanks so much for the help!

So the system defaults to DOC as the primary provider. However, is there a way to set it up so that it defaults to HYG as secondary provider?

-Jason

[jordansparks]

Nobody has ever asked that before. The answer is no. There is no default hygienist.

[bpcomp]

Would it work for you to have an OP dedicated to hygiene and then set the defaults for that OP to set default hyg. We have this in our office so that when you put anyone in the hyg1 column they are set automatically and same for hyg2. This can be done under "setup/operatories", you can set default hygienist and "is hygiene" for that column.

[jordansparks]

Yes, that's the way to do it. I guess I though fmdental was asking for being able to set the patient's default hygiene provider in the patient edit window.