Our daily routines often swallow us, taking up most of our time and stopping us from doing so many important tasks because they are not urgent. One that often gets pushed to the side is chart auditing. Many dental practices have thousands of dollars sitting on reports in their dental software and honestly don’t know how valid these numbers are. Usually, it is because the practice is so busy with the day-to-day routine that they have lost track of why a patient no-showed, canceled, or failed to schedule an appointment. You are not alone!
Dental Support Specialties’ patient reactivation and chart auditing for dentists program can be customized for your practice to validate these reports and give you a true pulse point on your practice’s patient base. When you know your numbers, you can make informed decisions that are best for your practice in regards to the staff, marketing, PPO plans, continuing education, and the general direction you need to go to ensure future growth.
Our team can help you in the following ways:
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Increase production by systematically calling on past due re-care and unscheduled treatments
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Be prepared with benefit information
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Validate your short call or quick fill list
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Connect with your patient base and improve communication
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Discover how many active patients are truly active
Common Chart Auditing Problems
We Discover Hidden Opportunities
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You Can't Focus on Patient Relationships
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Undone Dentistry is a Problem in Your Practice
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You're Unsure How Many Patients are Truly Active
You Can't Focus on Patient Relationships
Dental Support Specialties is passionate about customer service and patient experience. Patients appreciate speaking with a person who can help them immediately, is confident in what they are doing, and treats them as if they are the most important part of their day. That is the service you can expect from Dental Support Specialties.
Undone Dentistry is a Problem in Your Practice
Performing a chart audit is one of the best ways to understand the true value of your patient base and where you could improve it. Dental Support Specialties will examine your patient charts one by one to determine how many patients in your practice are truly active. Are they keeping up with their preventive care? Is there undone treatment in their chart? If so, why has it been left undone? Have their dental benefits changed? Would they like to come back and see you? Let us find the answers to these important questions for your practice.
You're Unsure How Many Patients are Truly Active
Don’t become so focused on bringing new patients into your practice that you lose track of the ones that you already have! Chart auditing is a great way to reactivate patients, strengthen connections, and ultimately get them back through the door.
With it, we can:
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Verify Patient Insurance Information
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Make Reactivation Calls to Fill Your Hygiene Schedule
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Make Treatment Calls that Boost Production
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Assess the Number of Truly Active Patients So That You Can Make Informed Business Decisions
Contact us to discuss the need for chart auditing today. We can help you develop and maintain a long list of satisfied patients!
Chart Auditing FAQs
What Is a Dental Chart Audit?
Chart auditing is the process of checking clinical and financial documentation and patient records to make sure everything is clear, compliant, and correct. This quality assurance method can provide reassurance that your dental practice’s records are reliable and that your team is on track with their various responsibilities and documentation.
While chart auditing, you can review your patient base looking specifically for those who have had treatment recommended in the past but it has not yet been scheduled as well as those who are no longer active patients. Whether the patient wanted time to decide or wasn’t ready at that moment to complete treatment, identifying and following up with these incomplete cases can present opportunities for additional revenue, improved patient communication, and fuller production schedule.
How Often Do Charts Get Audited?
Unfortunately, many dental practices would love to perform chart audits in-house on a regular basis, but compared to other duties, specifically patient care, this important administrative task can fall down the priority list. Ideally, it’s recommended to audit your patient records four times per calendar year. Ideally, these audits are conducted by an external, trusted organization to prevent bias, inconsistency, and inaccuracy. At Dental Support Specialties, we can provide an honest, clear audit of what your patient base actually looks like, what can be improved in your documentation processes, which patients should be contacted for follow-up scheduling, and more.
What Audits Are Needed in a Dental Practice?
Auditing your dental practice is a smart business idea. You can measure the effectiveness of not just your administrative team but also your clinical team. Although you can define your own parameters and standards, these are examples of things you need to keep an eye out when you conduct an audit:
- Completeness and accuracy of clinical notes, documentation, billing information, and claims.
- Inactive patients, or those who have not come to the office in more than six months but who may be reactivated.
- Unscheduled treatment that can become scheduled with a follow-up call.
- Accounts receivable and unpaid claims.
