dentalblogs.com

Never underestimate the power of photography and cosmetic imaging
    
Before                  After
My favorite imaging program is ImageFx here [1]

[1] http://www.scican.com/usa/dental/imaging.php#imageFX

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Popular Photography asked this question and got 4000 answers. At a photo store 23% At a drug, department, or discount store 17% At home on an ink jet printer 45% At home on a dye-sub printer 3% At an online service 8% At home in a darkroom 4% Tom Hedge www.Dentalhealthcenter.com www.Tomhedge.com 11-11-05 Digital Dentistry […]

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Pending TreatmentManagement consultants tell us we all have fortunes in our filing cabinets. That is treatment we have diagnosed that patients have yet to schedule. Ask the computer to make a list of all treatment that has been diagnosed but has not been completed, then check the electronic appointment book to make sure the patient hasn’t scheduled an appointment. Now check the patients financial status, do they have unused insurance benefits for the year? Now make a list with the biggest treatment plans listed first with a phone number.
Wow! Now you have a list that can be really useful. The patient will get their needed treatment and the office will increase production. If this process can reactivate just three patients a week and the patient just does a simple procedure averaging $330 that translates to $47,520 extra income per year.
Income TrackingThis literally means asking the computer to “Show me the money!” Where does the money come from? What do we do the most of? What creates the most income per hour?
Consider this, the first thing many insurance companies ask a dentist to do when he/she signs a contract is to provide periodic exams for free. Many dentists look at the fee and figure, “It’s only $20 I can afford to give it away.” That’s because they haven’t run the numbers. You can bet the insurance company has run the numbers, which look like this. If the hygienist sees eight patients a day, the doctor charges $20 for the exam and the office works four days a week that equals $32,000 a year in income. If the insurance company can get the dentist to give away $32,000 a year they win you lose. In the information age he who has the data wins.
Insurance TrackingWith this report you can ask the computer: Which insurance company do I do the most business with? Which companies pay the quickest? How much income do I write off to a PPO like Delta? Can I afford to drop or add a PPO?
If you are trying to decrease the influence of insurance on your practice these numbers can help you make good choices. For example, an office producing $500,000 per year. found that 25% of the procedures were covered by Delta, however Delta patients only accounted for 15% or $75,000 of the income. The office was loosing 10% or $50,000 a year to Delta withholds and write offs. In this case the office could drop the Delta contract and if 40% of the Delta patients left the practice they would still break even. ($125,000 x 60% = $75,000).
Insurance tracking will help even if the office is content with insurance. For example you can easily follow up on unpaid claims, you can check to see if services were attached to a claim, if pre-treatment estimates have been sent or check utilization with a dental HMO.

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I will be traveling to Minnesota today to meet with the High Tech group at Patterson. They are calling the event, “Connecting with Digital Leaders”. I will report back any new and exciting developments.

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Today’s consumer is very well informed. They have more information available to them than ever before through sources like the media and the internet. Computers, digital cameras, and photographic quality printers are all in the main stream of consumer purchases. Consumers are also accustomed to watching and learning via a television or computer monitor. Our […]

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I got this from Andy Thompson at Norman Camera: File Attachment: AACD Protocol.ppt (878 KB)

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I have discovered some new research on how people search the web. I haven’t looked at it all, but it seems to be a unique analysis. I will have it all sumarized in the first fifteen minutes of my lecture in Dallas. This meeting is October 20 – 22,2005. www.genr8tnext.com for information on the meeting.

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Sedona: The 2006 Technology on the Rocks dates have been set: June 22–24

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Servers for your businessBy Christopher Null
Need help choosing a new server? Here’s how to pick the right model for your office–whatever your needs and budget.

Any machine can ostensibly work as a server, but performance counts far more here than it does for any desktop or notebook PC. After all, if your server is under too much strain, it’ll slow down your whole network.
Once you notice your network is slow or erratic, don’t immediately rip out your PCs, buy an expensive T1, or upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet. Take a close look at your server first: Server disk drive and RAM bottlenecks are two of the most common culprits when it comes to network performance problems.

Read the whole article here: ZDNet’s Business Buying Guide: Servers – ZDNet: Reviews [1] It can save you a lot of time and money! The article notes that any entry level server should handle up to 20 users (which includes most dental offices) and cost about $2500. Also concentrate your budget on disk space and RAM, not fluff like a CDRW or Xenon processors.

[1] http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/ZDNet_Servers_Business_Buying_Guide/4520-3001_16-1016406.html?tag=zdfd.dir6a

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Sikka Software Corporation is now shipping Dental Practice Optimizer, allowing the integration of financial data and dental practice management data in one place. The President and CEO of Sikka Software Corporation, Vijay Sikka, said, “We have always strived to help dentists take control of the business management of their practice and Dental Practice Optimizer lets […]

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