Continuing care is truly at the core of a healthy and successful dental practice. Without the constant stream of patients coming through the hygiene department, whether it be for prophy or perio, the restorative or operative part of the practice will dwindle.
Even as the number of daily routines increase in a dental practice, the continuing care routine cannot be ignored. Do you know what percentage of your patients are active in continuing care? What is your definition of active? What is your standard operating procedure for tracking the success of your continuing care program?
Dentrix provides several tools to use in the maintenance of continuing care. The Auto Continuing Care feature in the procedure code setup, individual tracking of recommended intervals per patient, and the continuing care lists in the Appointment Book are all tools designed to help you maintain a healthy continuing care program in the office.
A common complaint we hear is, “My continuing care doesn’t work.” Our response to this is, “X plus Y equals Z.” This means that the continuing care portion of the software is predictable. If X is the system setup, and Y is how I use the software in my practice, then Z is a working continuing care program. What we do to X or Y affects what happens to Z.
If your continuing care is not working the way you think it should, then Support is an excellent resource for setting up the system to run correctly. There in-office trainings and web training sessions that address how to correct your continuing care. The Dentrix online resource center has articles about how to set up continuing care to run correctly.
If you are having issues with the continuing care program in your practice, get it fixed! With the resources available, you will be able to find one that meets your needs.
