Going paperless - where to start?

For users or potential users.
Post Reply
JLM
Posts: 128
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:52 pm

Going paperless - where to start?

Post by JLM » Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:00 pm

Getting to the end of my career and I want to convert to paperless before any practice transition.
1) New patients? Have them fill out paper forms and scan them in? Better to do it electronically on an IPad? What about seniors who already take 40 minutes to fill out a paper form? How are they with the electronic?
2) Existing patients? Scan the entire chart in to images? or?
3) Where do the treatment notes go? Appointment notes box, procedure notes box or?
4) Favorite scanner? Signature pad?

OD is designed for a particular workflow. Is there no formal documentation on what that workflow is? I would love to see a webinar that traces a typical new patient appointment from start to finish - from the front desk to the operatory and back out to the front desk. There is a lot of piecemeal documentation but not much 'wholistic' training material.

Jim Margarit

stjames70
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 3:24 am

Re: Going paperless - where to start?

Post by stjames70 » Tue Feb 20, 2018 5:23 pm

Hi Jim,

I am selling my practice to move on to a new location, so we are in the process of going paperless.

We started the process at the beginning of 2018 and my goal is for us to be paperless by March 1 of this year.

To go paperless, yes, you will have to enter your procedures in the chart module and create a large set of auto notes for your favorite procedures.

Secondly, where do you put IDs, insurance cards, and any other loose papers that belong to your new patients. Yes, you could scan them, but that is simply too much work.

Third, how are you going to have your patients sign consent forms, treatment plans, etc.?

We went with a third party vendor which integrates with Open Dental. The platform is Yapi, and it actually works really well.

You will have to enforce its use to all your personnel, but if you can do that, then I believe, you have a great tool to help you go paperless.

Open Dental should have integrated all the functions that Yapi provides into Open Dental, and they did a lot of them, but Yapi is just a lot more polished and sincerely, much more professional.

This is their website:

https://yapiapp.co

Look at it, and see if it works for you. I really love it. It was supposed to help us go paperless, but its recall feature alone is worth the monthly cost for us. It is very good at scouring Open Dental's database and pushing patients to call back for recall visits.

Post Reply