Dentaltown September 2016 - 42

practice management message board Handoffs Seeing room for improvement, a Townie asks for advice on handling patient handoffs. Dentaltown.com > Message Boards > Practice Management > Ask a Dental Consultant > Handoffs Brad Blair Member Since: 01/11/08 Post: 1 of 52 I have come to the conclusion that we could do a better job of (for lack of a better term) handoffs. For example, when a hygiene patient leaves the tx room and needs to be reappointed with a specialist. Or it could be to return for fillings, models, crowns or whatever. Not often, but sometimes, the process breaks down and the patient does not get routed to the proper place. Maybe the hygienist didn't explain to the front desk, or she was on the phone. Such as today ... I explained to the patient what our first step was (twice). Walked her up to the front and explained to front desk, with patient by my side, what the next step was. Maybe the phone rang, don't know, but it got screwed up. So how do you do it? Paper slip of some sort? Maybe the person in the back (assistant, hygienist...) takes care of everything herself? Not a big problem, but it should be zero problem. ■ 4/29/2013 ejones Member Since: 04/15/08 Post: 2 of 52 Related Message Boards Checkout/Handoff Check Out Hygiene Schedule Nightmare Hygiene Nightmare We had custom sticky notes made at Vistaprint for like a few bucks a pad. The notes have three letters: P, I and T. This way, the hygienist can write the procedure, investment and time communicated to them for the "PIT stop." i.e.: P: Two crowns and buildups #18 and #19 I: $2,500 less any insurance T: Two hours, AM slot This way, the patient, FD and hygienist all know what is happening, and there are no surprises or dumping on the FD. ■ 4/29/2013 JasonL Member Since: 04/13/00 Post: 3 of 52 I made some fancy cards with a bunch of information but found it challenging. So, now we just use index cards. ■ 4/29/2013 drlister Member Since: 06/22/05 Post: 6 of 52 Sandy Pardue Member Since: 08/21/02 Post: 8 of 52 If you have Dentrix you can print routing slips and put them with charts. ■ 4/29/2013 I'm a huge fan of route slips. They were created for chartless practices. No need to have them before computers. I recommend every practice model implement and use them and yes, there is a system for that. ■ 4/30/2013 12345 Member Since: 08/17/02 Post: 9 of 52 I also use route slips. They're printed at the beginning of the day and sorted for me and hygiene. I write what we did today, coded, what we need to do and how much time and when. They're batch scanned at the end of the day. ■ 4/30/2013 JasonL Member Since: 04/13/00 Post: 11 of 52 I think route slips are a waste of ink! ■ 4/30/2013 Continued on p. 44 42 SEPTEMBER 2016 // dentaltown.com http://www.dentaltown.com/MessageBoard/thread.aspx?a=11&s=2&f=195&t=205014 http://www.Dentaltown.com http://www.dentaltown.com/MessageBoard/thread.aspx?a=11&s=2&f=142&t=254923 http://www.dentaltown.com/MessageBoard/thread.aspx?a=11&s=2&f=143&t=251052 http://www.dentaltown.com

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