When you want to review the contacts you’ve had with a patient, you can see this information from the Office Journal display window. However, this information will only be as accurate as the records you keep in your office. As a general rule, you should document every phone conversation you have in the Office Journal, even if you are just leaving a voicemail message.
This information is especially useful when handling billing disputes. For example, if a patient claims they were never notified they had an overdue balance before their account was sent to collections, you can review their Office Journal to identify the contacts you’ve had with them regarding their balance.
To view Office Journal entries for a patient or family, from any Dentrix module, click the Office Journal button.
The Office Journal will launch with the current patient selected. Information is displayed in the following ways:
A) Journal List – The Journal List displays a comprehensive list of contact made between your office and your patients. The list can be viewed by patient, family, or for a specific provider or staff member.
B) Info Panel – Toggle this panel on and off with the Info button. When the Show Info panel is turned on, you can see more detail on a selected journal entry.
Office Journal entries are sorted chronologically. When the Office Journal is opened, any entry with today’s date is highlighted. Entries with a date before today are shown below today’s entry.
A plus (+) next to a date in the Journal List means there is more than one contact entry for that date. Click the plus button to expand the list and show all the contacts for that date. You can also expand the list by double-clicking the date.
Select an individual contact entry and click the Show Info button to see the details of the contact.
You can limit the kinds of contacts shown in the Office Journal (calls, billing statements, letters, etc.) by clicking View from the toolbar menu and then Filters. Select the Journal Entry Types you want to include and then click OK.
For information on using the Office Journal to document patient contact, see the Adding Office Journal Entries Manually topic in Dentrix Help.
