Using Dolphin as a Management Tool You must have an excellent foundation for Dolphin to work as a management tool. Charlene White BY: CHARLENE WHITE After many years of working with the Dolphin software, I have found that many users are not using it as a management tool. The Appointment Types and the Patient Statuses are essential to the success of the management report. It is important to simplify your procedure codes and set up your automatic status changes. Once this foundational element is well planned, there are multiple reports available to the practice. I hope the following handout will facilitate better utilization of your software in the future. Simplify your Appointment Types look at your Average Monthly Count Report. Go to Reports Print Report Schedule Average Monthly Appointment Type Count Status changes should be automatic. If your status codes are not correct, the program will not function as a management tool. Set up your automatic status changes in Appointment Types. Go to Edit Scheduling Appointment Types Patient Status tab to link Status changes to Appointment Types. You can link single or multiple status changes to an Appointment Type. Charges Setup routine Charges under Edit Financial Charges. Link Charges to Appointment Types. Go to Edit Scheduling Appointment Types Charges. Letters Setup template letters and link to the appropriate Appointment Types. Go to Edit Scheduling Appointment Types Letters 1
A couple suggestions in tracking Track Treatment Coordinator results. o Assign patients to specific Treatment Coordinators on the Patient (more) tab in Patient Information. Create a DIRT report as needed. o Add an Appointment Type code for each Treatment Coordinator. For example, Patty s pendings = Ppend Kelly s pendings = Kpend o Make sure to mark Include on the Practice Analysis. Post these codes during a Visit Entry in Treatment Card and track via the Practice Analysis Routine letters should be attached to Lookup Items in Treatment, i.e. poor hygiene letters can be linked to your code for Poor Hygiene. Go to Edit Treatment Card Setup select the appropriate fields. Many letters can be posted at the chair in the clinic if you have terminals at the chair. Letters to be done should not pile up on the doctor s desk. All letters should be done while the patient is in the chair. It literally takes seconds to post. This includes extraction letters. PREDEFINED COMMENTS THESE ARE USED ON THE TREATMENT CARD To create your predefined comments have your clinical team review a stack of charts. Create a list of the most frequently charted comments that are noted on the clinical records daily. Setting up your predefined comments saves time and makes data entry easy and consistent. They cannot be tracked through a report. 2
Organize your list so the assistants can go quickly to the comment. For example, changed upper and lower arch wire, changed power chain. Go to Edit Treatment Treatment Card Layout Select your Notes Field Edit Enter Notes on the Lookup Items Tab When you are in treatment card, you can go to your Notes column, and make notes and select from the lookup list. APPOINTMENT CLASSES AND TYPES NPC NPA A1, A2, A3 OBS CONS B1, B2, B3 DEL REC DBF, DBP RET BB8 IMP, INS REP Appointment Classes are used for setting up your scheduling template. Appointment Types can be listed under the various Appointment Classes. Keep your Appointment Classes simple. For example an A2 may indicate a 20 minute adjustment. A 20 minute adjustment may be a change ties, change arch wire, take an impression, etc. There may be several Appointment Types attached to an A2 Appointment Class. Know your Stats! From the Scheduling screen, Click on the [Statistics] button. You can look at Schedule Statistics by the day, week, quarter, etc. Run the statistics for the same time in 2 different years to compare how you are doing. Go to Reports Reports / Searches Schedule Tab Open Reservations to see the open Reservations in the future. Go to Reports Reports / Searches Schedule Tab and you re your Schedule report for the future to see what appointments are scheduled in 3
the future. It is essential to use the Searches to schedule appointments if you want to follow the template. Analysis Tools Run the Complete Practice Analysis to see detailed overview of the current health of the practice. Data included include: o Production o Treatment Fees o Charges o Receipts o Deposits o Adjustment that affect Account Balance o Adjustments that don t affect Account Balance o Patient Status Counts o Patient Active Status Counts o Status Starts o Procedures o Accounts Receivable o Run the report for the same time frame the previous year so you can compare the progress of the practice. The doctor should receive this weekly or at least monthly. Also, run other Views, like Production Charges, Receipts and Adjustments. For Appointment Types you want to count in the Practice Analysis, go to Edit Appointment Types Lookup the Appointment Type and check Include on the Practice Analysis. Appointment Types are tracked when scheduled or entered during Visit entries in Treatment Card. If you change Appointment Types, make adjustments to update the Include on the Practice Analysis appropriately. All items, except the Accounts Receivable Module, can be run for dates in the past. 4
STATUSES To review your statuses and how many are in each group run the Patients in Patient Status View in the Practice Analysis. This View will show a breakdown of each Patient Status. Double Click to view the detail! Keep your status list simple. It is not advantageous to have six statuses for active patients. Go to Edit General Patient Status to Add / Edit Patient Statuses. To merge or clean-up your Patient Statuses, go to Tools Utilities Convert Patient Statuses Automatic Patient Status changes are set up on the Appointment Type set up screen. Go to Edit Scheduling Appointment Types Status Tab to configure. For example if you have an Appointment Type for a Child Exam, they may check out as Records, Observation, Pending, or Inactive status. These can configure on the Child Exam Appointment Type. When you go to check out an exam, those options will pop up. One will be selected. This will put the patient in the correct status. REFERRAL SOURCES Enter the dentist of record and the referral source when you enter the new patient information. The Treatment Coordinator should check and update this information when the patient comes in for the exam. Doctor friend mail-out, skating party, must be detailed to evaluate your ROI and plan your marketing strategy. You can run the Referral Analysis to show referrals by all Referral Types, including doctor, patient, billing party and other. The doctor report can be run by number of referrals and production from that referral. You can also run the reports: Doctor Referral Report, Non Doctor Referrals by Time Period and Other Referrals by Time Period. Go to Reports Reports / Searches Other tab 5
LETTERS How to use auto post off of Appointment Types You can use the Dolphin Interactive Report Tool to help search for a group of patients. For example if you want to send a letter or card to recall patients who have slipped through the cracks. Enter into treatment card. TREATMENT PROTOCOLS/PLANS Set up basic protocols B & B, U & L is not enough. Enter treatment plan into the patient s record prior to the start appointment. This enables the assistant to be proactive and help the doctor move the treatment plan forward. You should setup Global Treatment plans which can be used as starting points when configured Treatment Plans for patients. Go to Edit Treatment Treatment Plans to setup Global Treatment. Easily share Treatments Plans with others via the Export / Import feature Dolphin Is For Tracking Go to Reports/Patient tracking to set up a variety of reports that can be saved and run on a monthly basis. Once you are in patient tracking, click on New Report. Name the report. I recommend the following: Results of Exams. Create a View in the Practice Analysis with the modules Procedure Counts and Treatment Card Procedures. The Procedure Counts view looks at the Schedule data and Treatment Card Procedures looks at Treatment Card. Mark all of your Exam Appointment Types Include on the Practice Analysis. Run this View for the appropriate date range for review. 6
Recalls with no appointment or recall: Create a DIRT Search with the fields Patient Name, Current Status, Patient has No Future Appointment, Patient has no Future Recall and filter your Recall Statuses with no future appointment or recall. Go to Reports Reports / Searches New Search to create this Search. Actives with no appointments: Run the report Patients with no Future Appointment to find patients with no future appointment. Go to Reports Reports / Searches Scheduling Patients with no Future Appointment. When running the report, enter only your Active Statuses to search to see a list of Active patients who do not have an appointment. Your statuses must be accurate for patient tracking to work as a management tool. TRACKING ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE TOTALS Past due insurance should be 3% or less of the total insurance accounts receivable due to the practice. You can run the Accounts Receivable View in the Practice Analysis to view your Past due insurance percentage. Past due patient accounts should be no more than 3% of the total accounts receivable due to the practice. You can run the Accounts Receivable View in the Practice Analysis to view your Past due patient percentage. Total Accounts Receivable due is also displayed on the Accounts Receivable View in the Practice Analysis. Totals for Patient and Insurance and Total Accounts Receivable is printed on the Daily and Monthly Balancing Worksheet. 7
DAY TO DAY OPERATIONS Use Send Message to send messages to each other that will pop up immediately. This is an effective way for the team to communicate with each other during the day. Use the Alerts / Tasks to assign Alerts or Tasks for patients or staff members. Patient Sign In - finger print Sign In is available. Run the GPS Analysis or GPS Detail Report daily to review on time performance and length of procedures. Scheduling patients use the Search option in order to stay within the template. Signature pads are now available. The goal is to get rid of the paper. E-statements via Emdeon are available. Integration with OrthoBanc and Vanco is available for automatic payment drafts Electronic filing of Insurance is available via Emdeon Imaging and morphing should be used to communicate in the exam. Estimated completion dates should be entered when Treatments are started. The Patients Past Complete Date should be run monthly. Go to Reports Reports / Searches Patient Patients Past Completion Date. Posting letters immediately in the exam, at the chair in the clinic and business office. Letters should be processed and signed throughout the day. Set up templates for staff letters. For example the assistant can send the patient a letter of encouragement that day. 8
Review your reports daily, weekly and monthly at your staff meetings. ADDDITIONAL COMMENTS Hire a technical support company, who specializes in Dolphin, we recommend HiX, Inc. at www.hix.biz. Make sure your have outstanding back-up. Appoint a coordinator on your team to be responsible for Dolphin updates and new functions of the software. They should also attend the user meeting each year. CALL CHARLENE WHITE OR E-MAIL HER AT CHARLENENW@AOL.COM TO DISCUSS HOW SHE CAN HELP YOU AND YOUR TEAM REACH YOUR GOALS! 9