Why the cloud is making pen and paper practices computerise

In the last couple of years at Dentally, we have seen a significant amount of pen and paper practices move to becoming fully computerised. One of the key factors relating to this is undoubtedly the cloud and the many benefits it brings.

So what are some of the benefits of operating a cloud-based dental practice management system, and how are they affecting dentists? Let me explain..

Hardware can be expensive

There is no need at all to buy an expensive server when you choose Dentally as your dental software provider. As a cloud-based dental software solution, no data is stored on the machines themselves, so you get the pleasure of avoiding the cost of a dedicated server. You access Dentally through any machine an internet connection and Google Chrome (or your preferred browser, we work on any of them!), so the hardware requirements are minimal.

This means that you can save a LOT of of money on the other PC's in the practice, too. This doesn't just apply to making the initial purchase, but you can save long-term in maintenance costs as well. And you also get more control over what operating system you run on those machines. Windows 7 - 10 is fine, or you will get the same user experience with your Mac as well.

Access to your records anywhere, any time

The word ‘freedom’ is used quite a lot when it comes to comparing Dentally to being pen-and-paper based. You always can gain access to your records, wherever you are for a start. Imagine being able to log in to Dentally on a Sunday evening in your armchair, to establish what time your first appointment is on the Monday.

Never misplace an appointment card again and a more flexible appointment book

Need to amend an appointment time? No problem. You can also send a reminder or confirmation SMS. Or an automated letter or email if you’d wish!

Charting and proposing treatment at a few clicks of a button

Set and save your favourite / most common treatment items, select and click the tooth or tooth surfaces and you are done. This means that complex treatment plans can be drawn up with minimal effort. It is so quick that you can propose fully in-depth alternative plans with pricing and appointment numbers, and the patient can select their favourite. This leads me to the next logical benefit.

Automated estimate and invoice generation

Dentally is purposefully designed to save you time and make your life easier. Once you have proposed your treatment, we have made life really easy and provided you with a big button to automatically generate an official treatment estimate on letterhead paper with the patients personal details on there. Once provided it will remain in the patient’s correspondence section for future reference. Automatically updating invoices will reflect when payment was received, so you can print or email to the patient post-treatment.

Effective automatic clinical note templates per treatment item

You want a system that works the way you do, to make your life easier than using paper. As a result, I think it will be fair to say that you have likely written the same notes for specific treatment items more than once. Never do it again once you have set your templates in Dentally! Every time you propose treatment, the notes templates which you have designed (or we assisted you with, if you’d like a hand) will appear, so you can minimise effort spent.

Effective NHS claims

This one will only woo our NHS dentists, but Dentally is incredibly efficient at sending claims to the board. Automatically sending within the hour of completion, you will be able to get notifications or run reports on their status, which is not only far simpler than doing so on paper, they are also far more accurate than if using an older software solution. Dentally will automatically calculate the number of DMF for you, so you need not spend ages calculating these for every set of UDAs.

Improve your marketing

Run reports to view which patients have not visited the practice in recent years. Find out which of your marketing channels are the most effective to increasing new patient acquisition. You gain more control over who you contact and why, for example arranging to contact patients who normally visit a specific performer, are due a recall, and have been contacted no more than 5 times from the practice. Or let your patients know you are thinking of them with a birthday email sent from a template designed beforehand.