Cloud-Based Software Designed for the Modern Practice
As practices from coast to coast work to rebuild production lost during the pandemic, one office manager shares her story of how Dentrix Ascend kept her business moving—and booming—during a temporary office closure and beyond
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as dental offices across the country were forced to close their doors to non-emergency patient care, many dental teams were left asking themselves a simple question: "What now?" The team at Bell Family Dentistry in Riverbank, CA, was as much in the dark as any practice, but with a significant advantage. A few years ago, Dr. Brent Bell and business manager Amanda Bell saw a demonstration of Dentrix Ascend, a cloud-based practice management system from Henry Schein One, at a trade show. They were blown away at how easy it was to use the software, as well as its modern look and enhanced visual elements. “The thing that immediately caught our eye was how visual Dentrix Ascend is,” said Amanda Bell.
“Dr. Bell is a very visual person, and we both really appreciated the fact that we could view reports and create beautiful charts and graphs to illustrate our patient and practice data. It’s really built for the way things are done in the modern world.”
A Solution That’s Up in the Clouds
While a cloud-based platform wasn’t initially a major deciding factor in bringing Dentrix Ascend on board, Amanda noted that it certainly came to the rescue during the first few months of the pandemic when the office was forced to temporarily shut down. Dentrix Ascend is designed as a single, secure system that can be easily accessed from multiple locations and devices. “Originally, the fact that Dentrix Ascend was cloud-based wasn't really a big draw for us, and I was honestly a little worried about how it was all going to work—but it ended up being one of the biggest benefits,” recalled Amanda. “If we get an emergency call on the weekend, for example, we can look up a patient's history even if we’re not in the office. It has made things so much easier. And during the pandemic, it was absolutely a lifesaver.”
Business as Usual in Unusual Times
Amanda remembers seeing quite a few emergency cases during the temporary office closure. “It seemed like every patient was breaking a tooth,” she joked. So, while Dr. Bell went in the office to treat these patients, Amanda logged in to Dentrix Ascend from home and continued business as usual—checking insurance information, developing treatment plans, and generating electronic consent forms that Dr. Bell could quickly access in the office and share with patients. “Dentrix Ascend has a feature called Quick Exam, which allows me to click on a tooth and start typing in a diagnosis. From there, I attach our preferred code and it is automatically sent over to the Treatment Planner—it’s just that fast,” said Amanda. In addition to fast and efficient treatment, Dentrix Ascend also helped keep the practice’s ledger up to date during the shutdown. As insurance payments billed before the pandemic trickled in, Amanda was able to enter them into Dentrix Ascend from home. “I know a lot of practices that, after being shut down for 2 months, opened back up with the feeling of, ‘Where are we, and what do we need to do?’” she shared. “While I may not have gotten everything up to date, we weren’t in a situation where we were backlogged for months.” Prior to the pandemic, the practice signed up for Dentrix Ascend’s integrated ePrescribe program, which Amanda said was another lifesaver. “The ePrescribe tool was really helpful because if someone was in pain and needed medication quickly, we could just send it to their pharmacy electronically instead of writing out a prescription and having them risk coming into the office to pick it up,” she said.
“ If we get an emergency call on the weekend, for example, we can look up a patient's history, even if we’re not in the office. Dentrix Ascend has made things so much easier. And during the pandemic, it was absolutely a lifesaver.”
Amanda Bell, Business Manager at Bell Family Dentistry
Hitting the Ground Running
Right before Bell Family Dentistry re-opened its doors to normal patient care, Amanda hired her full staff back, setting up different permissions so that employees could log in to Dentrix Ascend from home with the necessary access. “My team members were able to do chart audits, clean up treatments plans—just all the little things that I hadn’t had time to get to," she said. "It also helped get us prepared so we could hit the ground running once we opened. We were just slammed with patients from day one, and it hasn’t stopped yet.” Amanda said she looks forward to taking further advantage of the many features within Dentrix Ascend while acknowledging that, by design, it is an incredibly easy-to-use software that's backed by great training and support. "If I have a simple question, I can easily find the answers through a help section in Dentrix Ascend, which has pictures and videos that walk through common work-?ows," she said. "Or, if we have a more complex problem, we can call customer support and get help right away." While Amanda said her team was initially a bit hesitant to learn something new, if you asked any of them today, they would say that Dentrix Ascend is the best investment the office has ever made. “The way we do things in the office today is completely different from the way we used to. That’s why I’m such a huge fan of Dentrix Ascend—we are now much faster and more accurate. It's really revolutionized our office, and our profitability has re?ected that,” Amanda concluded.
AMANDA’S TOP 3 FAVORITE FEATURES OF DENTRIX ASCEND:
- Quick Exam—Create a treatment plan from a single screen, rapidly document baseline charting for new patients, and enter important information directly into a patient’s chart. Clinical Notes are automatically associated with the tooth or teeth selected.
- Recare Tracking—A patient-specific homepage shows information such as their ledger, medical alerts, consent forms, or treatment plans. Determine how many care appointments a patient’s insurance allows, schedule a repair visit, or send automatic text message reminders when an appointment is missed.
- Clinical Notes—Create standardized templates and easily add procedures, conditions, and clinical notes during the exam. The system alerts users if a required chart note has not been entered or billed correctly.
