Reception team focus: Admin and finance tasks

At Dentally we know that your practice needs lots of different roles,  from reception staff booking appointments to dentists performing clinical procedures through to practice managers managing the business of running a dental practice. And we know that each role functions differently and has differing needs. And with Dentally you have the ability for each role to function independently as well as coming together as a whole practice for reporting and management.

This month we are going to look at how Dentally supports our reception teams. 

The first smile

The reception team are the first smile patients see when they come into the practice, and the last smile they see as they leave. Reception teams are so important to your practice and patient journey.  Dentally knows how important your reception team is and has several tools developed with them in mind, making their busy lives simple and easy.

How Dentally helps reception staff

Patient details

All the patient details are on one screen and easy to access from the calendar/appointment book so that reception staff can easily check that they have all the correct details, including contact details. 

With the patient portal, Dentally takes away the burden of data input from reception giving it to the patient, so all the reception team need to do is check the data, saving them time from having to type in details and check spellings all while a patient is in a public reception area. 

Top tip

From the patient details tab as well as having all the relevant details on one screen organised for ease of use, you can call directly from the browser. No more stumbling over phone numbers, let Dentally take care of it for you.

Record details of phone calls

All your interactions with your patients are either recorded automatically by Dentally or are easy to record by staff. For example, record details of incoming phone calls from the correspondence tab so all staff can easily keep track of patient communications. You can see how to do this here.

Admin functions

First impressions last. And it’s at the reception that your patients gain their first impressions of the practice. So how does Dentally support reception with all the admin functions? 

Well,  taking payments is simple and efficient. 

From the patient record, easily accessed from the appointment book, open the account tab to see all the outstanding invoices, quickly take the payment, and offer the patient a paper or email copy of the receipt. Selling sundries is simple. Open an invoice,  add a sundry item and save. For a busy reception team, it couldn’t be easier!

Completing forms online is simple. 

On the iPad app or through the patient portal, Dentally gives the patient responsibility for answering the questions so that all the reception team needs to do is check that it’s been completed and added to the Dentally record. 

Keeping the team informed

Easy-to-use Dentally chat can help keep the team in communication with each other while minimising movement between surgery and reception. Reception can tell surgery about a patient running late, or non-arrival. Surgery can ask reception to add a sundry item or additional appointment booking details not noted on the appointment itself into the appointment without the need to move around the practice, helping keep cleanliness levels high.

Top Tip

Non-clinical notes are a great way of adding a virtual sticky note to a record so that when it’s opened, you can quickly see what’s needed without having to search on multiple screens. 

Managing recalls

Recalls keep your appointment book filled and the reception team has an important part to play in making sure not only that your patients’ oral health is maintained but also that your appointments books are filled.  Automated recalls save receptionists time as they don’t need to send emails or letters or text messages, Dentally does it all for you. That leaves the reception team the job of managing patient bookings and developing patient relationships, ensuring that patients return for their exam appointments.

At Dentally we know how important your reception team is to your practice - speak to a member of our team now at hello@dentally.co to put your reception team strides ahead.