Business Process: Thank You for your Referral

[SmilingPatient]

Howdy,

New user here, need some advice please. We are transitioning from Practiceworks to OD. One of the things we do is thank patients who refer other patients with Movie Tickets. How we do business is so much more important than the PMS we use. We just want to make sure we can continue doing business the way we want

Everywhere automatically is highlighted in bold below is not really automatic. Practiceworks allowed me to customize PW to trigger events based on a user action, so checking in or out patients will trigger a variety of actions that we have defined.

Current business process in PW:

• Referral source is entered.
  Patient comes in for appointment.
  Upon Check-Out, Practiceworks automatically triggers to print a "Thank You for referring {patient_name}..." document with the referral source's name, address,etc
  If there's no referral source, Practiceworks automatically triggers a dialog box to pop up that warns that "Hey! There is no referral source. Stop what you're doing and get the referral source information now!!"
  Document gets printed and mailed with movie tickets stuffing

Here's what I have gathered so far, but I am I missing something?
Future business process in OD:

• Referral source is entered.
  Patient comes in for appointment.
  Patient gets checked out.
  Every week, run a (to be defined) user query to find all new patients
  Thank You for referring {patient_name}..." sheetwith the referral source's name, address,etc for each referral
  Document gets printed and mailed with movie tickets stuffing

What am I missing, and what can I do to make it either automatic, more efficient, and most important: not miss any thank yous...

Thanks in advance!

Alex

[jordansparks]

I don't think you're missing anything. The triggers/automation in PW are very handy for something like this. It's a feature we don't have yet.

One thing that I'm thinking about as I mull over how we would include such a trigger is that I'm not sure where exactly the "checkout" trigger would go. There are certain situations where the patient finishes up in the chair and then just heads straight out the front door. But let's take a typical patient. They stop at the front desk to pay their bill and then to schedule their next appointment. But neither entering a payment nor sheduling an appointment is really a "checkout". So I'm just struggling a little with where a trigger like that would go.

[Rickliftig]

For this situation, the only possible place I see where this could be triggered is when procedures are marked complete. There would have to be an option (ie as each procedure is set-up) like a check-off box, in the procedure list (setup)window that triggered events when that procedure was marked complete. (sorry, my description is as clear as mud)

This could segue in with the long-standing request for printing information sheets at the completion of a procedure. Perhaps it could event print a bunch of registration forms as a new patient is entered into the system, too.

So, D0150 would trigger the referral check routine and then the thank you letter; D7140 would trigger the post-op instructions for extraction.

[jordansparks]

Yes.

[SmilingPatient]

One thing that I'm thinking about as I mull over how we would include such a trigger is that I'm not sure where exactly the "checkout" trigger would go. There are certain situations where the patient finishes up in the chair and then just heads straight out the front door. But let's take a typical patient. They stop at the front desk to pay their bill and then to schedule their next appointment. But neither entering a payment nor scheduling an appointment is really a "checkout". So I'm just struggling a little with where a trigger like that would go.

I think the answer is both in the procedure and the appointment completed action.

More importantly, it's useful to get the functionality into the core of OD, to allow for extremely versatile automation and customization. As you implement various features, I know that we have to crawl before we walk... So while you might incorporate limited automation for a specific function (Like check out appoint), you may also wish to keep in mind there's a bigger picture.

Other places where customers will want automation:
Check in
Check out
Payment posted (By specific payment type: IP, mailed check, etc)
Procedure code completed

Further, system should be customizable to allow definition of the specific action that will occur as a result of the action:

For example:
On receipt of mailed payment, if the patient has an email address, email sheet x.
On check in, if patient is insured, print update sheet a
On check in, if patient is NOT insured, print update sheet b
On check in, if patient's birthday is within 20 days, display dialog box with message alerting staff
On check in, if patient has huge outstanding balance, display appropriate message
On opening of chart, if outstanding referral exists (endo, OS, perio, etc), display alert
etc

This is just the dip of the iceberg. If you want a complete list of actions, let me know and I'll grab some screen shots of the list of automateable events. I think that the ability to customize OD this way would open up OD to the world of consultants, business development gurus, and expand your ability to drive. It's great when I can define a business process and have OD help me achieve my business goals.

Right now, if I want to change the way OD works, it's an enhancement requests and wait. If you implement this sort of automation, many of your enhancement requests will be able to be completed by the users, and that would be awesome!!!

[SmilingPatient]

So, D0150 would trigger the referral check routine and then the thank you letter; D7140 would trigger the post-op instructions for extraction.

Almost... Not every new patient that was referred actually gets the D0150 code, and we would still want to thank the referrer.

For post op sheets, definately want to be able to define an action after the completion of a specific procedure.
For checking out patients, it is simply the setting of a patient's first appointment complete, regardless of the procedure to trigger thank you letter.

[drtech]

yes, this line of thinking sounds great...we have been looking for some way to setup a trigger or cascade of checks to make sure tasks are completed after certain procedures and this sounds like just what we are looking for.

business side, the referral routine is great...I am thinking of a customizable list of items for before and after appointments
eg.
New pt at checkout
___financial agreement done, __referal in computer, ___thank you sent to referral ___follow up thank you call to pt completed ___
existing pts coming in for a large case
__ models ready/wax up, ____custom tray ready, ___temp matrix ready, ___$ squared away, ____ins verified

somehow this list would need to be viewable as a group for future appointments and then afterwards for followup up items (like thank you calls to new pts or care calls for existing pts)

[Rickliftig]

New pt at checkout
___financial agreement done, __referal in computer, ___thank you sent to referral ___follow up thank you call to pt completed ___
existing pts coming in for a large case
__ models ready/wax up, ____custom tray ready, ___temp matrix ready, ___$ squared away, ____ins verified

somehow this list would need to be viewable as a group for future appointments and then afterwards for followup up items (like thank you calls to new pts or care calls for existing pts)

David - I like this idea a lot. But the two almost would have to be treated as separate entities. So the first instance could be triggered with a "set complete" flag; but I am trying to think of what could trigger the to-do list to pop-up.

Personally, I love the 'roll-overs', they really get your attention and then they easily disappear... but how do you keep them from cluttering up the charting module screen (ie. a roll-over on every procedure)? They'd almost have to be something like a time-limited pop-up. So for example, a patient comes in for a crown at 10:00 am - at fifteen minutes into the appointment the check off list pops up awaiting action. Sounds complex.

Of course, if we had a bigger screen, you could have a static box with a to-do list for every appointment.

Maybe our knocking this around can create a better solution. Or take away what little sleep that Jordan is already not getting <VBG>.

(program design by committee - hah!)

[Rickliftig]

Other places where customers will want automation:
Check in
Check out
Payment posted (By specific payment type: IP, mailed check, etc)
Procedure code completed

Further, system should be customizable to allow definition of the specific action that will occur as a result of the action:

For example:
On receipt of mailed payment, if the patient has an email address, email sheet x.
On check in, if patient is insured, print update sheet a
On check in, if patient is NOT insured, print update sheet b
On check in, if patient's birthday is within 20 days, display dialog box with message alerting staff
On check in, if patient has huge outstanding balance, display appropriate message
On opening of chart, if outstanding referral exists (endo, OS, perio, etc), display alert
etc

Interesting thoughts Alex. I'm beginning to see a lot of possibilities here that could make our day to day interactions more consistent and faster.

[SmilingPatient]

The only thing I want to add is that I run my office differently than other dentists. For this reason, I may not wish to have the same process as another dentist during the checkout process. There is no right or wrong, just different ways to check out the same patient.

I would like the _ability_ to customize the software in a way that makes sense to me. The things I add may not be appropriate, desired, or in anyway useful to other offices. On the other hand, some of the customizations are like a secret weapon, and I wouldn't share what we do with the world. Either way, I would prefer to be able to implement

I think the discussion above is a great start... if Jordan's team was able to implement this scenario above in a flexible, open, meaningful way, OD will gain flexibility in other areas that are important to customize.

BTW, implementing the specific automation process above is no easy task. I'm in no way rushing or threatening or suggesting dropping what the OD team is doing to implement this... I just want to get the dialog to see if other users would be interested in this type of functionality and to see if OD is open to the idea at some point...

Thanks!

[B.Thomas]

I agree that automation of processes is great. This is the main advantage computers have over people; they don't make mistakes and they work more efficiently. From a programmers point of view it would be difficult to satisfy everyone's specific customizations, but most offices have the same general needs.

If we look at the steps the patients go through for a typical appointment I can see where Opendental could be better optimized to automate the "Check In" and "CheckOut" processes. It's hard to say if this should be a a top priority for feature additions, however in a slumping economy I do think more priority should be given to features like this that strengthens an offices ability to provide Excellent Customer Service.

[Rickliftig]

Continuing this thread on automating - we already have the availability of a questionnaire to be used for new patients. Unfortunately, the button to activate it is in the weirdest place - on the lower right of the account screen.

I came up with a nice screening form or two for new patient calls, but the feature is not obvious or easily accessed, so I've never implemented it.

Also, once the questionnaire is created, it is entered into the comm log, but as far as I can tell, not the chart module.

Maybe this would be an easy feature to enhance?

[jordansparks]

The questionnaire feature is old and not very useful. It won't be useful until it is merged into the sheets framework. That's why no further effort has been made on it. I think it actually does show in the Chart module in recent versions. However, I don't think you will find it easy enough to start using yet.