Open Dental Forum

I'm curious as to how you are utilizing the eservices? I don't want to bombard patients with emails or texting so I'm trying to see what works for you guys before I set up my parameters. Thanks!

Hi Josie - well you really have to know your patients! In our area, some are very tech savvy, and some are not.

• -Reminders of course - we will use the pop-up window to remind us that "Bob doesn't want to be texted; Jake prefers to be called, etc" It's very much an age thing - older patients prefer e-mail and phone message - younger prefer texts.
  -Texting is through Open Dental - highly recommended
  -Secure e-mail: now using Sendinc. Richard Haber has just posted at technique of integrating it with the Open Dental program.
  -Account e-mail: ie) billing, appt issues - gmail. If we really need to get their attention, snail mail - still doesn't work 100% of the time. Try throwing rocks through their windows, maybe that will work.
  -Billing: still mostly done by snail mail - e-mail statements if it is requested, but snail mail is very reliable and we enclose a return envelope so that our wonderful patients can keep us in business. (or not pay us and drive us crazy)
  -New patient: We are flexible on this (e-mail vs snail)and still working it out (IOW, when I get around to it)
  -Checking for Ins coverage: My front desk still likes to speak to the Ins co and have the plan faxed to her. But we also have the request claims info available (we use Change Healthcare)

Also: the commlog is our friend! We have multiple coverage of the front desk and it's easy to see the chain there. Everyone has to get in the habit of adding to it as needed.

Rereading your query: it's hard not to inundate our patients these days. Our patients (and our offices) receive so much data daily, it's easy to miss important notes, etc - so to my first paragraph, you've got to know them and ask. And if you show you are interested in the patient's likes/dislikes,it will hopefully add to their confidence in the office and their patient experience. BTW, after hours queries about problems or voicemails (that we get through Google voice) are always responded to promptly or handled with a return phone call from me.

One thing I have not done is send out an e-mail newsletter - heaven knows, I get enough junk every day in my inbox. same with social media - it's just too much. But I do participate in our local "neighbors and friends" group on facebook - it gets my name around without seeming like I'm advertising. And who needs to see another stock photo of the same smiling models with perfect teeth?

There is no right way to run a practice... and eventually, the practice molds itself to you and is an outgrowth of your personality.

best,

Rick

PS - we are NOT using the patient portal - it is still too cumbersome - especially because Open dental supplies the username and password which has to be transmitted to the patient (securely) and remembered by the patient.

PS - we are NOT using the patient portal - it is still too cumbersome - especially because Open dental supplies the username and password which has to be transmitted to the patient (securely) and remembered by the patient.

There have been some advancements in this area that make this easier for the patient to use. The intended use is that the Patient Portal access would be granted in the office and a slip with the URL, username, and password would be printed off and handed to the patient. The username can now be changed either via the Grant Access window or the first time the patient logs into Patient Portal. Just out of curiosity, what kind of practice flow for granting access would you like to see? We love to hear about these

Hi jason - Thanks for asking! The Sendinc model has been a piece of cake to use. I receive an e-mail that says "there is a sendinc secure message waiting for you", then I set up a simple account with sendinc (password and user name) and retrieve it. Any time I return to sendinc, or get a secure message is waiting message, I can sign in and see a list of the messages. Again, it's mainly the assigning of username and passwords that is really annoying - plus, since the passwords are not simple, there is always the likelihood of typing it incorrectly and haveing to spend x minutes on the phone "type lower case, uppercase, number..........." You get the idea.

Also, adding attachments is a piece of cake. You should check it out.

Best,

Rick

Thanks!
We are in the process of setting up patient preferences right now. People seem to be loving the texting option though.

What we are testing out right now is using eReminders 10 days out (we've tried 14 days already with some success). Some patients email and or text us back to confirm from that contact right away.

Then we would like to eConfirm or eRemind 4 days out (which isn't an option with eReminder) and then call whomever we haven't heard from.

What would be nice is if eReminders would give us the option of adding another future reminder or allowing the "same day" reminder to be set for more than 24 hours out.

The reason: if we mark a patient as confirmed from the first contact (10days out) we want to be able to send only a reminder, not a text / email where they have to press "confirm" again.

Is there a way to do this?

Open Dental allows you to create your own confirmation text and color code
Each dentist can create their own confirmation system.

We do Email and text confirmation for the last few years and it works GREAT.
- When a patient make an appointment 2 weeks or more in advance, the appointment confirmation color is white
- 2 weeks before the appointment , we still mail confirmation postcards. (confirmation color = Yellow)
- 1 week before the appointment , we send an email confirmation (confirmation color = Light Blue) or text confirmation (confirmation color =Purple) - (it takes less than 60 seconds)
- and 2-3 days before the appointment we text or email a " looking forward to seeing you on your appointment date - reply YES" - (it takes less than 60 seconds)

In general, texting works better than email.

The message we send:
[NameF], Confirming your dental appointment on [date] at [time]. reply "CONFIRM" or if you need to reschedule go to our 24/7 online scheduling webpage http://www.drjohndoe.com/online.htm or call us at (123) 456-7890
When we speak to the patient, or when the patient reply "confirm", WE DISCONTINUE all other communications and the appointment is CONFIRMED and the confirmation color is (Green)

My receptionist does that on Tuesdays and Fridays. It became a routine now.
Confirmations are color coded on the schedule, so it is easy for me and the staff to track the confirmations by just checking the confirmation colors
the target is to have the color green for all patients, any other color should be followed up with , (phone call)

The reason: if we mark a patient as confirmed from the first contact (10days out) we want to be able to send only a reminder, not a text / email where they have to press "confirm" again.

Is there a way to do this?

If you're using eConfirmations (the automated confirmation system we provide) then you can definitely set up your confirmation statuses to work this way. If you navigate to "Setup > Definitions > Appt Confirmed" you will see your list of confirmation statuses. Double clicking on these will show some preferences - two of which are tied to eConfirmations: "Exclude when sending" and "Exclude when confirming". If it's not already set, you'll want to make sure that whichever status you use for "Appointment Confirmed" has both of these boxes checked. This will prevent previously confirmed appointments (via phone, text, email, etc.) from sending eConfirmations. This will not prevent eReminders from sending though.

For additional information on eConfirmations, you can visit the web page: http://www.opendental.com/manual/ereminderssetup.html or give us a call. We always enjoy hearing from our customers!

JasonL wrote:

The reason: if we mark a patient as confirmed from the first contact (10days out) we want to be able to send only a reminder, not a text / email where they have to press "confirm" again.

Is there a way to do this?

If you're using eConfirmations (the automated confirmation system we provide) then you can definitely set up your confirmation statuses to work this way. If you navigate to "Setup > Definitions > Appt Confirmed" you will see your list of confirmation statuses. Double clicking on these will show some preferences - two of which are tied to eConfirmations: "Exclude when sending" and "Exclude when confirming". If it's not already set, you'll want to make sure that whichever status you use for "Appointment Confirmed" has both of these boxes checked. This will prevent previously confirmed appointments (via phone, text, email, etc.) from sending eConfirmations. This will not prevent eReminders from sending though.

For additional information on eConfirmations, you can visit the web page: http://www.opendental.com/manual/ereminderssetup.html or give us a call. We always enjoy hearing from our customers!

Ok, that might work for us. Let me test that out. Thanks.

Rickliftig wrote:Hi jason - Thanks for asking! The Sendinc model has been a piece of cake to use. I receive an e-mail that says "there is a sendinc secure message waiting for you", then I set up a simple account with sendinc (password and user name) and retrieve it. Any time I return to sendinc, or get a secure message is waiting message, I can sign in and see a list of the messages. Again, it's mainly the assigning of username and passwords that is really annoying - plus, since the passwords are not simple, there is always the likelihood of typing it incorrectly and haveing to spend x minutes on the phone "type lower case, uppercase, number..........." You get the idea.

Also, adding attachments is a piece of cake. You should check it out.

Best,

Rick

I personally like that idea quite a lot. I looked into it and there is a feature request with 200 votes on it at the moment (FR 5085). I would recommend throwing some votes on that one and possibly add in some additional detail if you would like to see different functionality. It's definitely an area that has room for improvement! Thanks for the suggestion!