Manage your data with the Patients Report to reduce wasted time and money

We conclude our mini series of blogs exploring how the Patients Report can support your business, with a look at the importance of managing your data.

Are you looking at your patient communication workflows and wondering at your delivery or bounce rate? Are you looking at your recalls and looking at the number of undelivered messages?  Are your patients having difficulty logging in via the Patient Portal? And when you investigate these issues, are you finding that the main cause is that you have incorrect data in any of the patient details fields?

Would you like to be able to locate all the incorrect or missing patient data so that you can make it better? Well, you can with the Patients Report. It is such a powerful report, it can be tailored so that you can maximise the use of your patient-related data. 

Ideas to cleanse patient-related data using the Patients Report

Try these filters to identify gaps in your data

Patients not receiving emails

If your patients are not receiving emails, but their contact preference is set to email, one easy check is to see if they have an email address in their patient details. 

Set your filters:

• Active - set to Is active
• Email address - set to Is unknown
• Receive Email - set to Is true

Set your Patients Report view so that  you can see phone numbers and email addresses. 

Once you save your segment you can message these patients via letter or SMS if these fields are complete. 

You can also go into each patient’s record and change their preference to match the contact data that you do have.

Patients not receiving SMS messages

If your patients are not receiving emails, but their contact preference is set to email, one easy check is to see if they have an email address in their patient details. 

Set your filters:

• Active - set to Is active
• Mobile number - set to Is unknown
• Receive SMS - set to Is true

Ensure that you set your Patients Report view so that  you can see phone numbers easily on the screen.

Once you save your segment you can message these patients by letter or email if these fields are complete. 

You can also add a note to each record where you have no contact details, SMS or email, to remind your busy staff to ask for additional information on the patient’s next visit to the surgery.

Missing Recalls data 

If a patient does not have the recall interval set recalls will fail. Check this using 2 sets of criteria.

• Patients with no Dentist recall interval set 
• Patients with no Hygienist recall interval set

To find those without a Dentist recall interval, set your filters thus:

• Active - set to Is active
• Dentist Recall Interval - set to Is unknown

Or, if you wish to check the Hygienist recall interval

• Active - set to Is active
• Hygienist Recall Interval - set to Is unknown

Save the segment as a Custom Report. 

Now you have identified the patients, you can amend their records and enter an appropriate recall interval.

We have a number of helpful support docs on recalls including how to troubleshoot why recalls may not be working well for you here 

Clean data means less wasted time, fewer undeliverable emails, fewer cancelled recalls, less wasted money on postage stamps and letters and data cleansing is just one of the ways to help you manage and maintain your data.  

The Patients Report helps you in so many ways to manage your practice, whether it is cleaning patient data, measuring marketing effectiveness, maintaining control of practice finances, or communicating immediately with segments of your patients easily. 

For more information about what you can do with the Patients Report, take a look at our collection of support documents here.