Technology and the Patient Experience: A Guide to Dental Automation

A contributing article by YAPI - a Paperless Dental Software

As dental providers, not only do we want to provide the best care possible and change lives, we want to make lasting impressions on our patients and keep them coming back. We want our patients to refer us to their friends, grow and expand our practices, and continue to provide care for many more years to come.

While we move forward and continue to grow our practices, it’s important to adapt to new changes and procedures and at times, not be afraid to say “goodbye” to the old way of doing things. (Like handing patients paperwork, playing phone tag with past due patients, and filing, scanning, and shredding documents!)

We live in an exciting time. The age of digital technology and automation. It’s a great time to be a Dentist! It’s a time where we can utilize technology in our busy practices, streamline busywork, and get back to our main priority as dental providers, taking care of our patients.

If you are looking to be high tech and high touch, the following pointers will help you to set your practice apart and improve your patient experience.

Establish Texting as a Form of Communication for Your Patients

Text messaging has been proven to be one of the most effective and rapid forms of communication in our time. If you are struggling to reach patients, confirm appointments, and fill last-minute cancellations, now is the time to try reaching out via text!

Investing in a texting platform that can easily integrate with your PMS could be a game-changer for your practice! Sending things like automated appointment reminders and recall reminders could save your front office hundreds of hours of playing phone tag!

Let Your Patients Conveniently Schedule Appointments Online

Recent studies from Fortune 500 company, Accenture, have shown that by the end of 2019, almost 66% of health systems in the United States will adopt a self-scheduling system and roughly 64% of patients will prefer online booking using digital tools.

This makes sense. As our world gets busier and busier, people want convenience. Allowing patients to schedule their dental appointment online is not only convenient, it sets the tone that your practice is modern, convenient, and high tech.

Consider Ditching the Paperwork

Not only is paper costly, it’s time-consuming for both the patient and front office. And, let’s face it, a wall of files and charts makes any practice look dated! You can ditch the paperwork and say goodbye to filing, printing, and scanning, altogether by streamlining patient forms and treatment plans electronically.

Consider a powerful solution that could integrate with your PMS. You could even go a step further and put digital new patient forms online, allowing your new patients to complete their registration before even coming into the office. Again, it’s all about being convenient, and your patients will notice the difference.

Your Action Plan

Have you considered any of the suggestions above but don’t know where to start? At YAPI we can offer you all of these solutions and more with our easy automation software that will integrate with your PMS. If you’re curious to learn more or would like to schedule a demo, you can visit us by clicking here.