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Permanent Help for Temporary Employees: The right practice management software makes a difference by Darlene Dockens Taylor

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Header: Making Friends {with} Benefits
by Darlene Dockens Taylor


From pegboards to completely paperless—that's how long I've been working in the dental industry.

Having the opportunity to work through many major transitions since I began 25 years ago has been exciting and at times, challenging—particularly when it comes to the way we organize and streamline processes in the front office.

The use of practice management systems has been a major time-saver. As a practice administrator, I always look for opportunities to make dental practices run more efficiently in terms of record keeping, educating staff and patients, and training new and temporary employees.

Implementing practice management software
Because I've worked with many practice management systems, I've learned that the more robust systems offer the best services while remaining easy to use.

My first major practice, which consisted of three doctors and four hygienists, transitioned from keeping paper records to going completely paperless. As the dental practice grew, we knew we needed to switch to a practice management system that would allow us to work more efficiently.

How to implement: In my experience, once a practice decides to go paperless, it's better to do it all at once. This practice converted both clinical and digital files at the same time over a single weekend.

When to implement: We began the transition on a Friday, worked through Saturday, took Sunday off and went live on Monday. This wouldn't have been possible without the trainers who came in to help with the implementation process.

Why implement: While the initial implementation took effort from many different team members, the staff couldn't have been happier with the transition. The new system helped increase the practice's efficiency and allowed the staff to have all the information they needed at their fingertips. The first time we went searching for a paper chart after implementation and realized we didn't need one was the best day in the office!

Easing the transition for temporary employees
After going chartless, this practice occasionally hired temporary employees. Some temporary employees came from practices that had utilized a different practice management system—or even just paper records.

It was my responsibility as a practice administrator to train new employees, and I know that certain systems are easier to understand than others. This is important to remember when looking at practice management systems: Easier-to-understand software allows temporary workers the ability to operate on their own much more quickly, giving trainers the opportunity to get back to their assigned duties.

Start with training. The practice brought in a temporary hygienist who had no previous experience with a practice management system. I knew that training her would take more time than our team had, but fortunately we had a training program in place—something I recommend for all practices, because I believe it's vital to have consistent training. This helps with establishing standardized office policies and patient care for temporary employees. Because of this training program, we were able to have an office assistant immediately start training the temporary employee and show her the software basics from both the clinical and scheduling points of view.

Watch the results. I had the opportunity to chat with the temporary employee over lunch. When I sat down to discuss how her first day was going and asked her about her experience using this practice management system, she told me she loved the software and had been working on her own for the past two hours! By lunchtime she was charting, taking X-rays and working with patients by herself, and entering information correctly into the system.

Implementing a robust yet easy-to-understand practice management system allowed the dental staff to be well versed on both the clinical and office management aspects of the software.

Learning a new system does not have to be scary, challenging or time-consuming. With the right attitude and support team, integration can be a smooth process that everyone—even someone who joined your staff yesterday—can understand.

Darlene Dockens Taylor Darlene Dockens Taylor began her career in dentistry in 1989 when she completed the American Red Cross Dental Assisting Program at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. She then worked for a private practice in Fairbanks that specialized in hospital dental care. In 1991 Taylor moved to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and joined a general dental office where she worked in both clinical and practice management positions. In 2008, she joined Patterson Dental as a technology advisor, helping dental practices integrate technology.




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April 2024
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