Patient Recall

A patient's Next Prophy date represents when he or she is due for the next check-up. The Next Appt date represents when he or she is due for other work to be performed. For accurate patient recall, these dates must always be kept up-to-date.

Maintaining Next Prophy Date

Your system will keep Next Prophy dates updated with no input by you.

When you enter certain procedures (such as a Periodic Oral Exam or Prophylaxis) on a patient's ledger, the system recognizes the patient has had a check-up and automatically changes the Next Prophy date to represent when he is due for his next check-up. The system calculates the Next Prophy date by adding the number of months specified in the patient's Recall Interval to the date of the transaction.

During this process, the system also erases the Next Prophy time. When you review the account later and see there is no Prophy time, you will know the date was calculated by the system and no specific appointment has been set.

NOTE: Procedures with Update Recall (Yes/No) set to Yes will update the patient's Next Prophy date in the manner described above. Check your Master Fee Schedule to make sure every procedure that in and of itself represents a patient's check-up has Update Recall (Yes/No) set to Yes.

When an appointment is entered into the Scheduler, it automatically is entered into the Next Proph line in the program.

To Pre-Appoint a Patient:

Enter the procedures performed today.
Access the patient record.
Enter the appointment date, time, time units needed, and operatory (if applicable) in the appropriate areas.
Click Apply to save your changes and exit the screen.

If you enter the appointment for the next prophy and then enter the procedures that were performed today, the system can overwrite the scheduled appointment with its calculated Next Prophy date. Therefore, if the system sees the Next Prophy date is already in the future with a specific time, it will display the message in the figure below prior to overwriting the Next Prophy date.

Prophy Overwrite Prompt

If the From date accurately reflects the patient's next prophy appointment, choose No. If it does not, choose Yes.

Maintaining Next Appt Date

The system can not estimate when a patient would need a non-prophy related appointment so it is up to you to keep these dates updated.

To add, change, or delete an appointment, follow the same instructions for pre-appointing a patient as described above.

The system will help you keep this appointment information up-to-date when it can. If you enter a procedure for a patient who has a non-prophy related appointment scheduled on his record, the system will display the screen below.

Appointment Update Prompt

The top of this screen displays the appointment information as it is currently set on the patient record. The changes you make are automatically recorded on the patient record.

The last work to be performed entered into the Scheduler will automatically be entered into the program as the Next Appt.

Performing Patient Recall

Your system gives you the ability to print recall mailing labels, recall phone lists, recall letters, complete recall postcards, or fill in the blanks of pre-printed recall postcards.

In addition to these manual recall methods, your system can send your recall information electronically to our processing center for printing and mailing.

When performing recall, the system prompts for a range of dates. If you want to create a list of everyone due during September of 2003, enter 9/01/2003 as the Beginning Date and 9/30/2003 as the Ending Date.

It then asks if you would like to perform recall for Prophys only, Other appointments only, or Both. And last of all, it asks if you would like to perform recall for Schedule appointments, Unscheduled, or Both.

Example: An office can have two sets of postcards. One reminds a patient of his appointment time, and the other reminds a patient he is due and needs to make an appointment. You would put the first set of postcards in your printer and ask the system to print Scheduled patients. You would then put the second set of postcards in your printer and ask the system to print Unscheduled patients.

If you print both scheduled and unscheduled appointments on one report, you should direct your attention to the appointment time. If there is an appointment time, the patient has been pre-appointed. If there is not, he has not been appointed (the appointment date represents generally when the patient is due).

Since the Next Prophy date is automatically updated by the system every time a patient has a check-up, everyone's Next Prophy date should be in the future. If a patient's Next Prophy date is in the past, he is overdue for his check-up.

Therefore, if it is currently October 2003 and you would like a report of everyone who was due last month but did not make it in, enter 9/01/2003 as the Beginning Date and 9/30/2003 as the Ending Date.

Likewise, if you want a listing of EVERYONE who is overdue for their check-up, enter 00/00/0000 as the Beginning Date and yesterday's date as the Ending Date.

Recommended Recall Method

We recommend you run three prophy recall lists each month.

One for people due in the upcoming month,
One for people due last month who still have not shown, and
One for people due three months ago who still have not shown.

Therefore, the patient receives a notice when he is just about due, when he is one month overdue, and when he is three months overdue.

When approaching your slow time of year, you should print a list of everyone who is at least one year overdue for a check-up. This will help fill gaps in your appointment book and keeps patients from slipping through the cracks. For a complete list, enter 00/00/0000 as the Beginning Date and one year ago today as the Ending Date.

NOTE: We recommend you perform your patient recall over the phone. This is more personal and takes the responsibility off the patient to make the call.