In the dental business, a missed appointment can mean an instant loss of $250.  Increasingly, however, new technology can provide the critical key to reducing missed patient appointments.

As the leading provider of practice management software for dental practices, the electronic services division of Henry Schein Practice Management Solutions has developed software solutions currently in use in approximately 45,000 dental offices nationwide.

Every one of these dental practices is heavily invested in taking every measure necessary to make sure patients remember their appointments. Dental offices employ a variety of methods including phone calls, e-mails and handwritten postcards to help ensure that patients get to their scheduled appointments at the appropriate time. 

In some cases, providers are working through automated systems to send e-mail reminders to patients, or to generate text messages to the customer’s mobile phone. In the Dentrix system, if a patient responds to an e-mail reminder, the appointment is automatically confirmed.  But if the patient doesn’t have an e-mail address or doesn’t confirm, the Dentrix system works through technology partner Alexander’s Print Advantage (www.alexanders.com) to print a custom card and mail it out on behalf of the practice.

This level of automation frees up the staff time that would otherwise be required to handle follow up calls.  The system interacts with each patient individually, depending on the methods they respond to the best.  If the patient responds to e-mail and cell phone messages; the system sends an email or text message.  If they don’t regularly use these systems, the system will send them a customized post card.

The partnership between Dentrix and Alexander’s represents significant advances over the typical practice of sending out stock reminder cards.  Traditionally, dentists buy stock pre-printed postcards configured four to a page. The colored side is all stock, and the dental staff print the necessary information on the blank side of the card and manually send it out in the mail.

“With Alexander’s both sides of the card are data enabled,” said Steve Roberts, Product Line Manager for the Dentrix Electronic Services Business.  “Through a web interface, the card is remotely generated and automatically mailed. It’s a true technology integration.”

Roberts notes that the image side of the card has the patient’s name and a custom message. On the back is a more detailed message about what the patient is due for and it gives them some more information about how to call and inquire. 

“From our central location, we send Alexander’s a collective file of our customers’ data every couple of hours,” Roberts continued. “They’re the only partner we’ve found who can not only execute this level of unique solution, but can turn it around this quickly.”

“When we looked at automating the creation and sending of postcard reminders, we examined a number of options—but Alexander’s was the only provider who could print in color in real time.”

Roberts notes that a recent study from the American Dental Association (ADA) reports that 60 percent of dentists use their computer systems to generate appointment reminders, which would equate to some 72,000 practicing dentists nationwide.

Dentrix has just recently launched its custom appointment reminder solution, via the services section of www.dentrix.com. Within its first three weeks, hundreds of dentists are already using the program to print and mail 3,000-5,000 custom postcards per day.

For this rapidly growing market, automation is clearly leading the way

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