March 20, 2020
Have you ever found yourself with a minute to breathe and wondered, “What should I do now?” Well, there are always more things to learn about using Dentrix Ascend, and there are configuration reviews you may find worthwhile. Here are some examples of things you and your staff can do when the practice is not bustling with patients.
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Get Some (Essentials) Training
Did you know that Dentrix Ascend has 100+ video tutorials for key, everyday tasks? Browse according to your area of responsibility. Videos are grouped into lessons for easy, self-paced learning. These can be especially useful for new employees or anyone new to Dentrix Ascend.
“We must never become too busy sawing to take time to sharpen the saw.” –Dr. Stephen R. Covey. Why not take a few minutes to brush up on some practice management tips and ideas? Dentrix Ascend keeps links to many of its popular webinars. Click a link and register to open the recording.
Get Caught Up on New Features and Enhancements
Dentrix Ascend gets updated every few weeks—literally. Although there are pop-up guides to alert you to the big stuff, that’s not always all there is. A review of the latest release notes may reward you with an “aha!” moment.
Dentrix Ascend default settings must be tweaked to work specifically for your dental practice. Although there are endless configuration selections, we have a handful of specific recommendations to guide you.
Set Up Your Scheduling Time Blocks
You can have time blocks appear on the calendar as a guide for which types of appointments to schedule on which days of the week, at which times of the day, and in which operatories. Useful? You bet! If you haven’t tried this yet, now is the time.
What responsibilities should team members have? What activities should be hands-off? Dentrix Ascend provides extensive flexibility when it comes to these questions. An employee’s role controls his or her Ascend rights. Are your roles up to date? The Security Rights List is a living guide to user permissions that gets updated with every software release.
Chase Down Your Outstanding Claims
You’ve seen it every time you log in: widgets with information about your unattached procedures, unsent claims, and unresolved claims. Have you clicked those widgets to follow where they lead? Afraid to? Well, fear no more. You may also like the companion article, Processing Denied Claims.
Your patient database is a dynamic thing—new patients come, and existing patients go, for any of several reasons. When is a patient no longer active? You decide. Many practices consider a patient inactive when they have not been seen in over a year. On one hand, this is a great opportunity for reactivation efforts. But when you get to the point where you’ve reached out repeatedly without success, it may be time to inactivate the patient.