Softdent Enhancement Request

[Emery]

1- Billing Statements - add more spaces to add notes and messages

2- Need to be more user friendly showing ICONS like the Dentrix, so we can add team members with beginning dental terminology

3- Need to combine account mode and patient mode. It is JUST way TOO confusing. We have one account for each patient, and we have a code that says it's a child so we dont bill the child

4- add a special alert stating that the patient is a child

5- add alert stating that this pt is a Delta Dental pt

6- should a section for occupation on the pt mode

7- should be able to print pt's call list & bday list with pt's email and pt's cell phone, which it only currently shows home and address

8- should be able to see not just one or the other pt's cell phone , email address, and home phone on the scheduler

9-Should be able to enter more additional comments on the primary trmt plan section , add more room /space to write

10-should have section to enter driver's license # on pt mode

11- should have a section to enter relatives and friends in the office

12-should be able to enter country code if foreigner or out of country phone number and cant even put the foreign country address and zip code

14- should have a utilities feature to default every patient’s primary contact as the cell phone

Questions-

Why is patient named Chi- La still having some insurance credit even if he is maxed out $2000 for 2018?

Why is patient Nidahl Damen walkout statement showing that he has an insurance payment due of over $3000 however his insurance is only $1500 per year?

15 - Can we change our treatment form plan? One more professional looking.

16- Cant change order of trmt plan group numbers to move down if we want to change and add another group 1 to the top so trmt ins benefits doesnt look like it's max out (to reestimate ins amount benefits)

[debi_peterson]

This is a great list, and a great collaboration between users!! Let's keep this going.

[danelle_canales]

I have one someone asked for the other day... What do you guys think about "Search for patient by DOB"?

[callton]

I use this feature in SoftDent scheduler version all of the time.  There is a search box on the scheduler where I can put in just about any information: first name, last name, DOB, phone number, etc to find a patient.  If a message is garbled, you can at least identify by phone number so you know who you are calling.  Really helpful if someone walks in and I can only remember their first name.  I need this info in seconds, not minutes!  If I had to run a report with someone on the phone or at the desk it would just take too long, even with report parameters set up.  I don't know what other differences there are between regular SoftDent and SoftDent schedule version but this feature should be integrated into SoftDent, it is invaluable.

[mdunham]

The search bar would be excellent!

[danelle_canales]

Thanks, @callton, I agree!  I train both versions - the look up and the ability to schedule directly from the treatment plan (without as many steps) would both be SO great in the classic scheduler version of SD.  Something else for me to take to my meeting tomorrow.  

[doctom4300]

Yes, please. I've asked to be able to search the patient list by DOB before.

I would also like to be able to search the list by phone number.

[suzanne]

I am in agreement that the lists should be easier to sort and search at this stage of the game.  I would love to be able to sort any list by the column headings, similar to the sorting feature of the Windows Explorer windows or Mac Finder windows.  After using Softdent for 25 years, I have encountered many situations when clicking on a column heading would have tremendous benefits for our patient goodwill: 1) finding the oldest/youngest active patient for a monthly practice discount, 2) finding the patient who has referred the most, 3) finding the patients who are overdue for exams so I can have a new employee immediately start calling them, rather than waiting to make sure I have given them the appropriate security permissions, waiting for the next training session to review ALL of the available reports, or waiting so I can supervise them to make sure they don't accidentally print out a 3000-page report of 30,000 patients!  I understand that most of these "searches" can be done with the User-Selected Reports; however, that seems to take an average of 5-10 minutes per report where I am unable to do any other work in any other Softdent window.  Completely shuts me down.

It should also follow that ANY list in Softdent should have the "Find" feature available.  For example, the Allowance Tables only have an option to View Codes, but there isn't a "Find" feature to be able to go to a specific code.

Some lists should have a Find by Keyword option: 1) Diagnosis Codes, 2) ADA Code list - to help minimize coding errors from newer employees, or even seasoned employees who haven't memorized the annual CDT updates yet! 3) Memo List could be more usable if it could be sorted by keyword, such as finding all the reminders to send a weekly statement to Guar2.  Also, it would be nice to have a "Recently Deleted" option, so if an employee accidentally deletes a Memo it can be retrieved without a major headache. 4) Labs should have a feature that allows us to select all the types of labwork that they do, and then be able to sort/search by type of work.  For example, checkboxes to show that Lab A can do Crown/Bridge/Dentures, Lab B can do Partial Framework/Orthotic Appliances, etc.  And a bonus would be to have a second box to designate Dr's "preferred" lab for each of those categories.  Sometimes our "preferred" labs get overloaded, and if a patient is under a time crunch, we may opt to send to another lab with the desired turnaround time.  Being able to sort by labwork type and quickly scan our options would be very useful. 5) Weblink list under Ins. Co. would be more useful if we could search by keyword again.  Whenever a website's provider login page changes, we have to scroll through 150 entries just to modify the URL.  It would also be helpful to Show Insurance Companies that use each particular website, like the feature that shows all Insurance Plans that are linked to a particular Ins Co, or all Patients who are linked to an InsCo/InsPlan.

Pharmacies should be able to be sorted by City or Zip, so we can see options that are close to the patient if a particular pharmacy is out of the prescribed med.

Having a lot of information isn't very useful if it isn't easily accessible.

[danelle_canales]

@suzanne  - thanks for that list.  I will do what I can to write up the needed info for our developers. "Ease of Use" is a big thing right now, so anything that makes the software easier to use will be easy to push higher to the top of the list.  I'll get back with you if I have any questions. 

[suzanne]

@danelle_canales: Thanks for advocating for us! I've also been scouring the boards for any plans to update the insurance estimation that is quickly becoming obsolete with all the new plan designs. I'm not sure if it would be better presented on this thread, or starting a separate one dealing specifically with insurance estimation.

[danelle_canales]

I'll make a new one and tag you right now. 

[danelle_canales]

Quick update regarding our meeting last Wednesday... I was able to make a strong case for additional patient search options (DOB, phone number) and demonstrate how cumbersome it can be to schedule from the treatment plan.  I think both are going to get some quick attention.  I will keep this thread updated as I find out dates/versions, etc. regarding these items.  

I know you've heard it before, but we really appreciate your feedback (and your patience).  Keep it coming.  Seriously, don't give up!  Keep posting what you want - remember all ideas are good ideas but things that make using the software easier will likely garner faster attention.  

[danelle_canales]

@Anon - any advice or tips regarding Weblinks in SD?  Read the last two pages or so in this thread to catch up on the discussion.  

[mdunham]

Step 1:  Add Weblink under weblink tab.   Step 2:)  Add Vendor/Insurance Company Name under the LABS tab.    Step 3.)  Enter Vendor details/  and LOGIN credentials within Note section of Lab Tab  w/in Labs.    Step 4.)  Attach weblink to Vendor/Ins Company entry under LABS.    

Now, it is very easy to search for a weblink as well as create an easy way for selected user to update login credentials for vendors and insurance company sites.   Changes are auto-reflected universally, therefore easing the "WHO CHANGED THE PASSWORD" battles.  

Perhaps the easiest thing is for SD to create a VENDORS list similar to that of Labs and Pharmacies. 

[doctom4300]

Regarding Weblink: when I'm looking at the insurance company's information, if I'm not in edit mode the Browse button is greyed out. Is there some reason I shouldn't be able to click that button unless I'm in edit mode?

We haven't used this before, so I'm giving it a whirl. I can definitely see the problem with a website getting changed and having to manually scroll through all the insurance companies to see which ones need updating.

[doctom4300]

Wait - if a website is updated, we can just change the URL in the weblink ID and all the companies using that weblink ID will automagically have the new URL, right?

[suzanne]

@doctom4300:
Yes, all the companies that use that InsCo's weblink will be automagically linked to the new URL. It gets trickier when InsCos branch out into different departments to handle different lines of business, and have different claims addresses and provider portals. Then there are the companies that use TPAs, and the TPA may change their provider portal, which isn't directly linked to one InsCo. Furthermore, some InsCos are outsourcing just their web activities to a third party. So when secure.healthx.com changes their provider portal, I have no way of knowing which InsCos this affects. And unfortunately, the Weblink list can only be sorted by ID#, which is useless. How have you been keeping track of your InsCo websites up to now? If there is a better solution, I'm all ears!

[doctom4300]

We have not been using the weblinks within SoftDent. I just have insurance bookmarks in Chrome organized alphabetically by insurance company, with all the Deltas in their own separate bookmark subfolder.

I doubt that that's better than your solution. 🙂

[suzanne]

@doctom4300:

I have had to keep a duplicated copy of bookmarks in my browser outside of Softdent, since it is much quicker to access websites all at once whether I'm checking eligibility/benefits, downloading EOBs/Preauths, etc.  If we were allowed to create aliases for each Weblink (just like we can with browser bookmarks), it would be much easier to continually find/select the next Weblink that we need just from the Weblink list.  However, we aren't even able to pull up the Weblink list without going through an InsCo first.  But for new employees who aren't as familiar with the different InsCos/TPAs/Networks, I still have to maintain the links in Softdent.

[pksaari79]

Actually, we recently learned about the Softdent weblinks. It has been helpful in that you don't have to go out of Softdent to pull up your Google or Internet Explorer. We can't seem to do it for all of the insurance companies, but enough of them that it's been nice to have this at our fingertips within the Softdent program.

[doctom4300]

When you click on 'Browse', it opens up a browser, right? One of Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc?