Dental practices can benefit from their patients’ positive experience. Ensuring that your patients only have praises for your clinic will boost your practice’s reputation, thereby attracting more customers and, consequently, increasing your revenue. Additionally, positive experiences help cement your patients’ loyalty to you. Keep in mind that with the range of options available to them, loyal customers are hard to come by these days.
There are many ways to facilitate positive experiences, but you don’t have to achieve your goal unassisted. One of the best ways to do it is by using technology to your advantage.
#1. Combine data and analytics to ensure timely service
Dental anxiety occurs in 9 to 20 percent of Americans and can persist well into adulthood. For people with this condition, even the act of waiting for their turn in the dentist’s chair can be an ordeal. Ensuring that the treatment starts and ends within your patients’ expected time frame will reduce their distress and will ultimately leave them more relaxed.
Some dental practices are looking into the dental procedures they perform, using analytics to identify the factors that affect the start time and duration of each treatment. By following this method, you can come up with ways to improve the timeliness and pace of the procedure without affecting its outcome and your patient’s experience.
#2. Use mobile devices to keep your patients entertained
But what if the wait ends up taking too long? You can make the wait less stressful by taking your patients’ minds off the procedure temporarily. Leverage the power of mobile devices — give your patients devices equipped with educational and entertaining videos, tools, and games. This strategy is especially a hit among younger patients.
You can also use this approach to educate patients about the procedure and set their expectations about sensitive matters like recovery time and potential pain levels. For patients undergoing dental treatment for the first time, this strategy can appease their apprehension and help them approach the procedure with more confidence.
#3. Provide videos with diagnosis and treatment details
Even after simple, routine procedures, some patients can be so bothered that they can’t remember your instructions. Sure, they can always call you back at a later time, but this could end up being too inconvenient as you might still be in the middle of a procedure. Instead, you can provide patients with videos containing your diagnosis and special instructions. On the off chance that they forget the proper order of their medications, for instance, they can just refer to your video for information.
However, do note that this type of content has highly regulated patient information. What you can do is partner with HIPAA-compliant and cloud-based platforms like Playback Health. This platform helps you create and store videos that your patients can share with their family members, friends, and other health providers in a secure manner.
#4. Centralize patient and billing records
Centralizing your dental practice’s data ensures quick retrieval without jeopardizing security. The strategy lets you lock information away from prying eyes and limit access to select members of your staff. Centralization is a useful strategy if you want to stay compliant with industry cybersecurity regulations.
One of the best ways to ensure the security of your data is to partner with a managed IT services provider (MSP), especially one with experience in the dental healthcare sector. An MSP handles all aspects of your network’s security, from keeping your tools and applications patched to monitoring for and preventing cyberattacks.
Dental IT. Remove the Burden. Embrace the Use.
Quality patient care – it's ultimately why you became a dental professional. But, some business operations can get in the way (such as pesky computer issues or lack of IT support). That’s where Pact-One Solutions can help! Our passion lies in supplying reliable, responsive dental IT support and security that practices can count on.
Whether you’re looking for dental IT services for your startup or searching for more responsive dental IT support – our team of dental IT specialists have you covered. With team members throughout the United States, we offer nationwide support to dental practices of all sizes. Our wide range of dental IT services ensure your data is secure, accessible, and protected.
Don't let technology challenges hinder your ability to deliver exceptional dental care. Contact us at info@pact-one.com or 866-722-8663 to join 350+ dental practices thriving with the support of a dedicated dental IT team.
