There is ample administration involved in running a successful dental practice. This responsibility is often left for dentists to manage or involves employing outside assistance. Patients need to be regularly updated on appointment reminders, new schedules and changes to their dental practice. Dental practices can either pass this information on through text messages, emails, phone calls or the traditional method of posting letters. While electronic methods cost dental practices less, many patients, especially the older generation, would rather obtain their communication and reminders through the post. This allows them to retain something tangible, which can act as a reminder in the days coming up to their scheduled appointment time.
In the modern world, where speed and expense are two fundamental characteristics that help generate competitiveness, dental practices must keep up to date with what is on offer in order to increase their patient care and maximise profitability. There is a variety of ways to save money through technology, smarter ways of working, and specifically outsourcing.
The traditional method of reminding patients of appointments and keeping them abreast of practice changes was originally by sending letters through the post. Many practices today still use paper correspondence. Managing this in-house demands additional space, time and manpower to manage. It can be time consuming and expensive due to high postal costs, which is why some dental practices have moved towards telephone communications. While less expensive than the conventional method, telephone correspondence is far from perfect as it can leave practices open to forgotten appointments, empty dental chairs, and there is no clear tracking process to see who was contacted, when and by whom.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing certain aspects of your practice administration will save money and free up resources, permitting dental staff to focus on other elements that will, in turn, add value to the business. If postal correspondence was outsourced then employees could focus on the day to day running of the practice and keep paperwork to a minimum. It would also free up any physical space that was previously used for storage and printing, and there would no longer be a need to employ a full time staff member to man this administrative process. A dental practice can gain from the low cost of paper, packing and posting that the service provider can offer due to their economies of scale.
Carestream Dental has introduced AutoPost, a cost effective technology that allows a practice to correspond with patients without the administrative workload that comes with it. AutoPost has been designed to fit into the CS R4 practice management software.
In a world where social media, text messages and status updates are two a penny, practices shouldn’t forget loyal patients who would rather receive a physical letter than any other method of communication. There are new, innovative ways of using this more traditional method of communication with patients. These opportunities allow you to improve your practice, show your patients that their custom is appreciated and make savings along the way.