Recalls are the lifeline of any dental practice as they generate an income stream that is predictable and recurring which often constitutes majority of their revenue. Therefore, most practice management systems today provide the means to schedule recall appointments. However, your staff will be more diligent about doing so if the scheduling and recall management process is streamlined and automated.
The most effective method for managing patients recall appointments is to schedule the subsequent appointment in person, after their current appointment has been completed. To ensure this happens for majority of the patients, ADSTRA software clearly shows the patient’s recommended frequency for continuous care appointments which is taken into account when attempting to book the next appointment. This is an important consideration as it assures that the period between appointments are in accordance with the coverage provisions included in the patient’s insurance. Furthermore, the next recall due date is also shown for related patients which guarantees follow ups for family members in which the recall appointment was not yet booked.
When booking appointments far in advance it is paramount to have a strong reminder and confirmation system to ensure a high attendance rate. Since various methods such as SMS, email, or phone calls can be used for the reminders and confirmations, it is essential to make sure that the method adopted for contacting the patient aligns with their preferred form of communication. This information should be easy to set up in the patient’s file that is included in your practice management software and should be automatically used by the automated appointment confirmation and reminder system. Additionally, ADSTRA software can generate patient lists of Recall Appointments and Missed Recall Appointments which are essential for recall management as they provide a real-time list of patients that need to be scheduled. Ultimately, this information will help ensure no patient is overlooked and no revenue is lost.
Moreover, there may be instances where a patient may have a treatment already planned for their next recall. With ADSTRA, when you are booking a patients succeeding recall appointment, it can be linked to that planned treatment which will automatically associate the treatment codes to the appointment so no codes have to be entered manually, making the recall management process easy, quick and efficient.
Having a reliable practice management system implemented in your dental practice is clearly beneficial and crucial. An effective system such as ADSTRA Dental Software, will ensure your biggest source of revenue – recalls – is properly managed, giving your practice the means to generate steady revenue and thrive. Having a system that can automate and streamline various recall management processes will make them unequivocal and second nature due to ease of use, leading to an increase in revenue.
Take the steps to make ADSTRA Dental Software the solution for your dental practice!