Pre-appointment Preparation
Taking the next steps – Contactless pre-appointment preparation
Now that practices are reopening, preparing your patients for their appointment is essential in proving your patient care credentials, ensuring they are well-informed and suitably prepared ahead of their visit. This means providing a smooth, efficient and importantly, safe patient journey – making the most of the tools and support available via EXACT dental software, that will help communicate a new way of safely delivering dentistry.
Up-to-date patient information should be available online about the new procedures in place and contact made with patients prior to their appointment. As guidance suggests[i], digital communication should be used wherever possible via text or email, but other forms of contact should be available to ensure that access to information is available to everyone.
Reducing time in practice
With safety a top priority, it’s essential to reduce face-to-face patient contact and minimise the time that patients spend in practice. In order to achieve this, it’s important to streamline administrative tasks that previously would have been carried out at reception.
In the new world of dentistry, completing paper forms with a clipboard and pen is discouraged due to the inherent risk factors. The BDA’s COVID-19 special guidance[ii] suggest that pre-appointment paperwork such as medical histories and forms “should ideally be completed on a mobile device…” before attending the practice.
Dental software can help practices follow this guidance, minimising time spent in the waiting room, reducing the risk of infection and providing a contactless, high-tech solution to reassure patients. Using an individual, secure online patient portal, forms and consents can be sent direct to a patient’s mobile device and can be completed before attending the practice. Once the patient submits, the forms are sent direct to the patient’s file, reducing administration time for reception staff.
This technology, combined with tele-dentistry, provides a range of options to safely triage patients and reduce the time they spend in practice, making the contactless patient journey shorter, smoother and safer.
For more information about how Software of Excellence can help you transform your patients’ experience visit https://softwareofexcellence.co.uk/contactless-patient-journey/
TOP TIPS: Pre-appointment
- Communicate new processes for patients attending your practice
- Use digital platforms where possible
- Send pre-appointment forms to patients electronically, to be completed before they attend the practice
Part 3 of the Contactless Patient Journey – Contactless practice arrivals and departures – is available here.
[i] Implications of COVID-19 for the safe management of general dental practice. FGDP. June 2020
[ii] Returning to face-to-face care. COVID-19 Special Guidance. BDA. June 2020
