16 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

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Hersheydmd
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16 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Sun Jun 02, 2013 12:09 pm

Just want to share this with other OD users.
While the Recall module in OD is fairly good, though nothing fancy, Confirmations is terribly inadequate. You can only set up one confirmation message. If you want to send out more than one, you have to manually edit it each time. [Feature req 2197 addresses this]
I recently began using Total Recall Solutions and haven't had a single broken appt in 8 weeks.
I have it set to send out a "hold the date" reminder e-mail & text 3 weeks before an appt. This is ideal for all our hygiene appts which are usually scheduled anywhere from 3 - 9 months in advance. Trying to confirm these just a few days before was insufficient - pt's often had no recollection of making them - and a high percentage of them were cancelled. The "reminder" 3 weeks before is close enough for the patient to know if the time works for them or not, and far enough away that we can easily fill the slot if it doesn't.
Then a first confirmation e-mail & text is sent 5 days before an appt.
A second one is sent two days later to anyone that didn't respond to the first.
The day of the appt a text message "reminder" is sent 2 hours before the appt, saying we are looking forward to seeing them at x:xx?
It is virually impossible for a patient to forget or mix up their appt times.

Here are a few screen shots of how the interface looks. Any identifying info has been blocked out for HIPAA reasons.

E-MAIL:
Image

TEXT:
Image

DASHBOARD:
Image

NEW CONFIRMATIONS:
Image

DAILY SCHEDULE:
Image
Last edited by Hersheydmd on Sat Aug 03, 2013 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-M ... 1471599429

JLM
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by JLM » Sun Jun 02, 2013 3:18 pm

Ballpark costs for the service?

Jim

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Hersheydmd
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Mon Jun 03, 2013 7:01 am

JLM wrote:Ballpark costs for the service?

Jim
30 day free trial, then $249/month
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
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khdilger
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by khdilger » Mon Jun 03, 2013 4:52 pm

I am very cost adverse and anytime I see a service that costs $250-$300 a month I am very skeptical as to whether its worth it or not. Do others who use these services feel spending $3000 a year on such a service is cost effective?

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Hersheydmd
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:35 pm

khdilger wrote:I am very cost adverse and anytime I see a service that costs $250-$300 a month I am very skeptical as to whether its worth it or not. Do others who use these services feel spending $3000 a year on such a service is cost effective?
Just curious, what amount do you think would be worth it?
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-M ... 1471599429

JLM
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by JLM » Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:46 pm

At that cost, it only needs to prevent one restorative no-show a month to pay for itself. If I were them, I would proudly display the cost on the homepage. As a prospective customer visiting their web page, I assumed that their aversion to displaying the cost for the service meant it was grossly overpriced. Not that I've ever felt gouged before *cough*dentrix*cough*.

Heck, I bet the front desk staff would pay the cost out of their own pockets to be relieved of the hassle of confirmation calls and reminder cards every day.
Postage and cards alone for 25 hyg appts a day, 17 days/mo is over $200/month.

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Hersheydmd
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:37 pm

JLM wrote:At that cost, it only needs to prevent one restorative no-show a month to pay for itself. If I were them, I would proudly display the cost on the homepage. As a prospective customer visiting their web page, I assumed that their aversion to displaying the cost for the service meant it was grossly overpriced. Not that I've ever felt gouged before *cough*dentrix*cough*.

Heck, I bet the front desk staff would pay the cost out of their own pockets to be relieved of the hassle of confirmation calls and reminder cards every day.
Postage and cards alone for 25 hyg appts a day, 17 days/mo is over $200/month.
JLM,
You shouldn't be sending postcards and spending money on postage in this day & age, when e-mail, texts & phone calls cost next to nothing.
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
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Hersheydmd
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:38 pm

Hersheydmd wrote:
khdilger wrote:I am very cost adverse and anytime I see a service that costs $250-$300 a month I am very skeptical as to whether its worth it or not. Do others who use these services feel spending $3000 a year on such a service is cost effective?
Just curious, what amount do you think would be worth it?
I know that many OD users are fairly cost conscious and expect high value for their dollars. This is a great service but does significantly increase one's software budget. Wondering what other people would be willing to pay for a service such as this? How much is too much? How much would it be worth to you?
Consider this a survey and chime in.
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
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drtech
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by drtech » Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:17 am

I would say $50-$100/month is all I am willing to put towards something like that...of course I think the most attractive thing would be like a 3 month trial, then if we thought it really worked well, we might find that $150 or more could be well worth it. Skeptical that it would work for our practice, I think that is the biggest hesitation with a high monthly pricetag like that...but I always love trying new things!
David Fuchs
Dentist - Springfield, MO
Smile Dental http://www.887-smile.com

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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by bpcomp » Wed Jun 12, 2013 8:24 am

I always hesitate over a monthly cost thing. I think there is a danger in saying it only needs to do X to pay for itself. I think it's better stated that it only needs to do X to break even. If you string together enough of those services then you might end up with a LOT of X to break even before you start pushing any potential profit. And when you are trying new things it can be hard to discern how many patients showed up because of extra reminders and how many were turned off by the new system and how many were just going on vacation because it's summer. So unless the improvement is drastic enough to be obvious then it's hard to say if you got the extra X that month to cover the additional cost and if you are short this month then you need even more in the coming months to break even.

I think it's better to say "I need to see a definitive improvement above my current operation to say this service is worth getting."

enamelrod
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by enamelrod » Wed Jun 12, 2013 1:34 pm

to dr tech and bcomp what are you using now to confirm appointments? Im all about cutting cost.

and bcomp break even? that's exactly what the statement means you need to do x to pay for itself? not sure what you are saying. We all want it for free but seriously 250 per month amounts to $2.60 per hour on a 12 day work week at 8 hrs per day. How long does it take your staff to do confirmation calls about an hour? almost a 1/3 of minimum wage?

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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by bpcomp » Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:19 pm

Well the staff is here during those hours if we have an external reminder system or not, so having them do the recall does not really cost any extra. (I anticipate that one might counter that we reduce the cost of post cards and I would counter with the fact that we've done a survey and we have about a 50/50 split with our patient base and one half of them would never receive the reminder if it is only txt and email. The other half would benefit from sms.) This does leave room for having an external recall system in addition to what we already do and it is definitely something we've considered but have not yet gone through with.

The point I was trying to make previously is that it can be hard to accurately judge if you recovered the cost of the new system (for anything with a monthly cost) unless you see a big enough difference. So I am hesitant to say you need only X to cover the cost. I think you need < X. That's just my 2 cents since Dr Hersh asked us to chime in.

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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:24 pm

enamelrod wrote:to dr tech and bcomp what are you using now to confirm appointments? Im all about cutting cost.

and bcomp break even? that's exactly what the statement means you need to do x to pay for itself? not sure what you are saying. We all want it for free but seriously 250 per month amounts to $2.60 per hour on a 12 day work week at 8 hrs per day. How long does it take your staff to do confirmation calls about an hour? almost a 1/3 of minimum wage?
I think you meant 12 day month not week.
I have a problem breaking things down to hourly or daily costs. Sure it sounds like very little, but all the little costs add up.
I tend to look at the long term picture. $250/month amounts to $30,000 over the next ten years. That's a hell of a lot of chump change and I can think of a lot of things to do with it, starting with a couple of nice vacations.

Calculating a break even point is very nebulous. I remember when I purchased Dexis, they tried to make a selling point of how much money you will save in chemicals & film and assistant time developing x-rays, and time waiting for film to be processed. It's absurd, because all those savings are eaten up by the cost of the hardware and the annual maintenance. You don't convert from film to digital to save money. You do it because of the convenience it offers and because it's better for your patients with less radiation exposure and better diagnostic capabilities.
Same thing here. Unless you measure every single metric in your practice, you can't possibly know exactly how many more patients showed up than would have if you didn't use it. And calculating the staff cost savings is meaningless unless you are able to eliminate a staff position because of it, or your staff is so busy that they end up neglecting to confirm in the first place. The reason to get a program such as TRS is the convenience it offers in being able to reach the vast majority of your patients without much effort, at times that are convenient to them, and in ways that increase the effectiveness of your efforts, and because of the neat way it organizes your communications with your patients, such as with true two-way texting.
How many times has your staff called a patient on their cell phone and confirmed an appt only to have them still not show up? Do you know where the patient is or what they are doing when you call them? Are they in their car, out shopping, at another appt? Do you think they stop everything to write themselves a reminder that they have an appt next Tuesday with the dentist? By the time they get home they have forgotten all about it. When you call them on Tuesday to ask where are you, you get an "oh, yeah, I forgot all about it, sorry."
When they get an email or a text msg it is in writing. It stays there and when they are sitting at their desk and see it in black & white they can put it in their calendar. When they get a confirmation request the week before they are more likely to let you know if they can't keep it, giving you time to schedule another patient. If they don't reply they will get another request 2 or 3 days later, and then a text reminder the day of the appt. You would have to be brain dead to forget your appt. And if someone were not sure of the day or time of their appt they can always look in their Inbox to check it.

There is no doubt that there is a convenience and advantage to this software. Unless and until Jordan builds something as comprehensive directly into OpenDental there is a great benefit to be had with TRS.
My impression is that OD users are generally more discriminating and more cautious about overspending, so, I'll ask again. At what price would you not hesitate and say "For that price, I can't pass up the convenience."

drtech already chimed in at $50-100/month.
I would think that $100/month (on par with OD itself) would be a no-brainer that no one should be able to pass up.
Anyone else? What would you be willing to pay?
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
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Jay
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Jay » Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:51 pm

@hersheydmd. did you compare with other services that do similar stuff? we use lighthouse. wonder if the two are more or less the same.

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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by enamelrod » Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:19 am

100-150 is a fair price. But i still want to know what they are using to confirm patients. I had my confirmation system down for 2 weeks and I noticed a huge difference in broken appointments

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Hersheydmd
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Thu Jun 20, 2013 10:37 pm

Jay wrote:@hersheydmd. did you compare with other services that do similar stuff? we use lighthouse. wonder if the two are more or less the same.
Jay, didn't do a detailed comparison. Came across TRS by accident, did a demo and liked what I saw. Which features of Lighthouse are you using?
I was mostly interested in
  • appointment reminders & confirmations
    two way texting
    attractive recall messages, with multiple templates & options
    pts scheduling their own appts online (works great for hygiene)
There are other features that I haven't used yet for marketing. Maybe one day...
I am paperless and don't send out postcards or letters. Very few patients can't receive an e-mail or sms text, and the program will let us know and we will call them by phone.
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:07 pm

enamelrod wrote:100-150 is a fair price. But i still want to know what they are using to confirm patients. I had my confirmation system down for 2 weeks and I noticed a huge difference in broken appointments
I am not sure what you are asking. Aren't you using Lighthouse? How did it go down for two weeks?

With TRS confirmation e-mails go out from their server with your office e-mail address as the reply-to address. If they click the "Confirm" button it appears in your TRS dashboard. If they actually type a reply it shows up in your regular e-mail box as well.
They set you up with a new Google acct for texting, but you never see it. The texts - in & out - appear on your TRS dashboard.
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
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enamelrod
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by enamelrod » Sat Jun 22, 2013 12:15 pm

it went down when it was out of sync.

The reviews to rate a dentist have helped and I dont think trs has a review web site...If it does mier didnt say anything about it. I also have an interest in the smart pay feature, but he has not sent me any information about it. I have another scheduled meeting with him so ill bring it up again.

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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Tue Jun 25, 2013 11:56 pm

enamelrod wrote:it went down when it was out of sync.

The reviews to rate a dentist have helped and I dont think trs has a review web site...If it does mier didnt say anything about it. I also have an interest in the smart pay feature, but he has not sent me any information about it. I have another scheduled meeting with him so ill bring it up again.
I don't spend much time on web site reviews. I think they have a place, if not overdone. When a patient compliments my work I may ask them to post a comment on my Facebook page or on Google+. But I think sending out requests for a review every time a patient is seen is a bit too much. I think we are overdoing it and the result will simply be that patients tune out and stop paying attention. Think about your reaction every time you make a purchase and receive a request to write a review. How often do you comply and how often do you ignore it?

I don't know anything about the SmartPay feature, though it looks interesting and I am going to take a look at it. Up until now, I have been setting up payment schedules in OD and recurring payments in Quickbooks (through Quickbooks Merchant Services) that are automatically charged each month to a credit or debit card. Since going paperless, we stopped sending out monthly statements and now require patients leave a credit or debit card on file before we will accept their insurance assignments. We'll wait up to 90 days for insurance payments (most are settled within a few days or weeks when filed online), then we will charge the credit or debit card on file for any balances remaining. I am amazed at how few patients object to leaving a card on file. Those that object pay on the day of treatment and have insurance payments go to them rather than us.
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
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irfan
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by irfan » Wed Jun 26, 2013 5:53 am

so this does not automatically change the appt to "confiremed" in OD? thats the thing I love about lighthouse, no extra steps of checking the roster and updating OD appts for confirmed ones

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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by peterskuben » Wed Jun 26, 2013 1:46 pm

Where do I find TRS? What is their website?


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Hersheydmd
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Re: 8 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Thu Jun 27, 2013 11:38 pm

irfan wrote:so this does not automatically change the appt to "confiremed" in OD? thats the thing I love about lighthouse, no extra steps of checking the roster and updating OD appts for confirmed ones
No, but I actually prefer it this way. I like being able to see the confirmations as they come in. Although rare, there are a few patients who have such bad track records that I can't count on them remembering an appt they confirmed 5 days ago. So we don't pass the first confirmation to OD, we let them get the second confirmation 2 days before and then confirm it.
The way it is set up it takes virtually no effort (one click) to pass the entire list of confirmations to OD. Also, sometimes a patient types a message along with their confirmation that needs a response and you won't see that in Lighthouse. Example, someone confirms their two-hour appt, but with a note that says they can't stay the full amount of time because they have to pick their kids up from school, or whatever. Or, they confirm their appt and add a note asking if they need to take antibiotic prophylaxis. We see these messages in the list of confirmations and can respond to them individually by e-mail or sms, saving a phone call.
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-M ... 1471599429

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Hersheydmd
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Re: 16 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Sat Aug 03, 2013 6:38 pm

An example of a birthday email that goes out automatically and a pt's response.
Excellent internal marketing.
Image
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
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dentalba
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Re: 16 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by dentalba » Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:11 am

This is the first time I have heard of TRS. I have looked at lighthouse 360 and smile reminder. It looks like there are a few users of some of those solutions. Can anyone compare\contrast the different options and tell me why are with one over the other? I am also curious how well they "integrate" with OD. I know they are all third party but is their any advantage to one over another as a OD user?

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Re: 16 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Sun Aug 04, 2013 3:56 pm

dentalba wrote:This is the first time I have heard of TRS. I have looked at lighthouse 360 and smile reminder. It looks like there are a few users of some of those solutions. Can anyone compare\contrast the different options and tell me why are with one over the other? I am also curious how well they "integrate" with OD. I know they are all third party but is their any advantage to one over another as a OD user?
Not having used Lighthouse or Smile Reminder, I can't comment on them. I can only say that I am thrilled with TRS. Someone who uses the other programs will have to comment on them. You should have the different programs give you live demos and then if you have any questions post them here.
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-M ... 1471599429

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Hersheydmd
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Re: 16 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by Hersheydmd » Sun Aug 04, 2013 4:20 pm

Here's another patient response to a birthday greeting, this one an sms text.

Image
Robert M Hersh DMD, FAGD
Univ. of Penn 1982
Brooklyn, NY 11234
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-M ... 1471599429

stjames70
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Re: 16 weeks using TRS, not a single broken appt

Post by stjames70 » Thu Sep 05, 2013 2:33 pm

Hi Robert,

Thanks for sharing that informations with us. At a cost of $250/month, that cost is negligible to our practice if we can rescue at least one patient that needs dental work and missed their appointment. Our average production/patient is around $2k and with an overhead of 40-45% monthly, that translates to $1100 to $1200 profit. So, yeah, definitely worth it in our practice.

As far as your comment on Dexis, you are right insofar as that the cost savings is practice dependent. Our analysis on cost of film, solution and repairs to the stupid processors saved us an average of $1000.00 month. So in our case, it was not just because it was better for the patient and better for our diagnostics (which it is of course), but it was a clear case of cost savings over the long term that pushed us into digital radiographs. We like Dexis, and I am aware that systems such as XDR are cheaper, but we have really had good service and good results with the OD/Dexis combo.

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