CASE STUDY: How Curve Dental Software Helps Ninth East Dental Improve Practice Management

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1 CASE STUDY: How Curve Dental Software Helps Ninth East Dental Improve Practice Management

2 When Dr. Adrian Huang opened Ninth East Dental in Provo, UT in July 2010, he knew his choice of dental practice management software would be a critical one. Having previously owned other practices in Arizona before moving to Provo, he was well aware of the drawbacks of other dental software systems and had a good idea of the type of system he wanted to implement at Ninth East Dental. In searching for a system, Dr. Huang s most important consideration was that it have remote web access and be hosted in the cloud. With most dental practice software systems on the market, the software is loaded onto the practice s server and run locally, he says. Curve Dental is one of the very few systems that is cloud-based, which is the main reason we chose it. Dr. Adrian Huang, DMD Curve Dental s cloud-based system enabled Ninth East Dental to start scheduling new patients before it even opened, which meant Dr. Huang and his staff could actually treat patients on the first day it opened for business. To do this, we needed a practice management software system with remote web-based access, he explains. We chose Curve Dental not only for this reason, but because it also includes many other helpful features that are critical for a dental practice software system. Advanced Online Training Quickly Got Staff Up to Speed All Ninth East Dental staff received remote training on the Curve Dental system before the office opened. Staff members were able to train on their own online, in their homes, at their own pace, says Dr. Huang. This meant the practice didn t have to push back the opening date or suspend operations for a day or longer to hold an intensive training course for staff.

3 Case Study: Kronos Helps Sulco Warehousing & Logistics and Lancer Transportation Manage Employee Time and Attendance (continued) Training was performed via several 90 minute GoToMeeting sessions, in which staff were able to virtually interact with Curve Dental trainers as they were guided through how to use the software. This segmented, interactive training approach is designed to optimize retention and reduces the time needed to re-learn how to use certain features. User-Friendly Interface Reduces Manual Data Entry Dr. Huang cites the user-friendly interface of Curve Dental as a significant factor in enabling staff to learn the software quickly. The software has a drag-and-drop feature that enables the quick transfer of patient scheduling information from one day (or week) to the next, rather than having to re-enter data manually, which Dr. Huang says is common in other cloud-based systems. Curve Dental s scheduling screen

4 You can just click and drag an appointment to a new day and time if a patient wants to change it, he says. Some other dental practice software systems I ve used in the past were more like the old DOS computer language they were cumbersome to use and not very aesthetic. Curve Dental is very easy for staff to learn quickly and start using on a day-to-day basis. Remote Scheduling Allows 24/7 Appointment Setting The remote scheduling benefits of a cloud-based system like Curve Dental go beyond merely lining up patients before a new practice opens its doors. Such a system also allows a dental practice to be responsive to patient calls during non-business hours, whether at night or on weekends. Nowadays, people expect service providers, including their dentist, to be available 24/7, says Dr. Huang. Ninth East Dental uses an after-hours answering service to answer calls placed to the office when it s not open for business. The answering service has been given access to Curve Dental s scheduling component so they can remotely work patients who call at night or over the weekend into the next day s or upcoming week s schedule as quickly as possible. In fact, thanks to this capability, a patient recently called Ninth East Dental at 4:15 a.m. on a Sunday night and was able to get an emergency appointment for Monday morning. By using Curve Dental, we typically schedule two or three appointments every weekend for the upcoming week, Dr. Huang says. That s eight to 10 additional appointments per month, or up to 100 additional appointments per year. If each appointment is worth between $500 and $1,500 in revenue, that s an additional $5,000 to $15,000 a year in revenue just because we are able to schedule appointments over the weekend.

5 Automatic Backup and Updates Increase Data Security For a dental practice that uses an on-premise management system, the risk of a server crash is very real It s not a matter of if your office server will crash, but when, says Dr. Huang. Losing a week s worth of your practice s data, or even a day s worth, can be devastating. And a server crash may shut down your office for the day, which can result in thousands of dollars of lost revenue. But none of this is a concern with Curve Dental s automatic backup because everything resides in the cloud, not on a physical server. In addition, software updates are performed automatically with Curve Dental as often as twice a month, while most traditional systems must be updated manually once a year when software vendors send discs to their clients. Along with the obvious benefit of being convenient, automatic updates can save a practice a considerable amount of money. Updating the software manually means taking the server down for a few hours, which can result in several thousand dollars of lost practice revenue, says Dr. Huang. Digital Images Are Uploaded and Backed Up Automatically Dr. Huang especially likes Curve Dental s integrated Digital Imaging tool. The software is compatible with many of the most commonly used digital x-ray systems on the market, which means all captured images, including digital photos and x-rays, are immediately uploaded to the cloud and backed up instantaneously.

6 Curve Dental s imaging screen With most other systems, [photos and x-rays] have to be uploaded manually, maybe at night while the office is closed, says Dr. Huang. This is one of the things that sets Curve Dental apart no other software system that I have seen offers this capability.

7 Automatic Updating of Patient Charts Increases Efficiency Similarly, information in patient charts is automatically updated and saved to the cloud, where it can be accessed anywhere in the office or anyplace with internet access whether at the reception desk for billing and checkout purposes or in the patient consult room. When everybody throughout the office has real-time access to all of the patient s complete dental and insurance information simultaneously, this helps the practice run much smoother and more efficiently, says Dr. Huang. At Ninth East Dental, Dr. Huang dictates dental information, e.g. patient has a gold crown on molar number two, to the hygienist, who enters it into the patient s chart via PC. Patient treatment details are also entered, so the receptionist at the front desk has all the information she needs for checking out the patient and scheduling the next appointment right in front of her. For example, a patient s chart may indicate that they had their teeth cleaned and received one filling, but will need to come back in a month for another filling, and thus will require another appointment. All this is done without a staff person having to hand a physical chart to the receptionist when the patient checks out, says Dr. Huang. This saves at least minutes per patient, and when you re seeing patients per day, this really adds up. From an efficiency standpoint, Curve Dental is almost like having another employee in the office. Patient Education Modules Are Included at No Extra Cost Another unique benefit of Curve Dental is that the system comes standard with a valuable patient education module, featuring digital videos that explain and illustrate dental procedures like root canals and bridges so patients understand them better. All videos are animated and narrated, which helps explain complex processes in simple terms.

8 An example of one of Curve Dental s patient education videos These videos cost thousands of dollars with some other software systems but are integrated into the Curve Dental software at no extra cost, says Huang. They re very useful in helping patients understand their treatment options. Patients who have a more comprehensive knowledge of procedures are more likely to consent to them. These videos also help patients understand procedures more quickly than if a dentist explains them, which adds up to hours saved in practice efficiency every year. Additionally, having a better understanding of dental work performed on them helps patients trust their doctors more, improving the doctor-patient relationship.

9 Patients Information is Easily Entered and Accessible Patients can choose to receive an via Curve Dental s patient portal with a secure link to where they can fill out their health history online, or they can do this on paper in the office. When they choose paper, the information is scanned into the Curve Dental system and added to their chart. From here, it can be easily accessed and updated by the staff either in the office or remotely. Curve Dental s online patient survey feature This makes it easy for staff to find the patient information they need quickly so they can answer patients questions faster without having to rifle through thousands of paper files and charts, says Dr. Huang. Staff can even answer patients questions from their homes by accessing the Curve Dental system remotely from their home computers.

10 A Cloud-Based System Enables Expansion and Growth A comprehensive, cloud-based system like Curve Dental can be an essential tool for practices that are looking to add more patients or grow geographically without having to implement a new system, as there is no data to transfer or anything to install. Curve Dental will be especially beneficial for us if we decide to expand and add more locations in the future, Dr. Huang says. Cloud-based dental practice management software systems like Curve Dental provide the stability, safety and web-based data access that most practices today need. These systems integrate the most essential features of dental practice software scheduling, billing, patient education, charting, prescriptions, progress notes, correspondence and digital images into a single, user-friendly system, enabling practices to perform routine tasks more efficiently and provide more effective patient care.