Question: “Why do I need an EMR in a down economy? I have tons of time in my schedule to do things manually right now.”
Answer: “In a down economy, competition is at its highest peak. Investing all your efforts into practice marketing is where you need to spend your resources.”
Expenses and Fees — The Obvious:
- The average cost of a Periodontist is $1000 per hour, give or take
- The average cost of a transcriptionist is $300 to $600 a month depending on how much dictation there is
- The average cost of practice management software per year is $1500 to $2500
Expenses and Fees — The Hidden:
- The average cost of a Periodontist is $1000 per hour, give or take
- This fee doesn’t include how much time needed to proofread the letters at an average rate of $1000 per hour
- When you don’t get the letter back to the referring doctor in time, this can have a negative impact on your business and practice-to-practice relationships
- The average cost of a transcriptionist is $300 to $800 a month depending on how much dictation there is to send
- This fee doesn’t include how much time you have spent proofing the letters at an average rate of $1000 per hour
- When you don’t get the letter back to the referring doctor in time, this can have a negative impact on your business and practice-to-practice relationships
- Transcriptionists type wordy paragraphs and it’s been proven that referring dentists don’t read long letters. However, they still need these fully detailed letters delivered on time. It’s expensive to upset dentists and loose referrals
- The average cost of practice management software per year is $1500 to $2500
- This doesn’t include the amount of time it takes you to transcribe your clinical notes into new progress notes then convert or dictate them into letter format. This means that you the doctor have to be the key player in the creation of these materials at an average rate of $1000 per hour
- If the staff use standardized tick sheets to create letters, they can result in incomplete, boring, ‘form letters’, often with mistakes too
- Someone at your practice has to create these notes and letters. If you have a key player doing this, what happens if this person is gone for some reason? It’s expensive, time-consuming, and stressful finding new employees that are competent
- Practice management software was designed for billing and scheduling, often requiring you to add on modules in order to create clinical notes and reports. These are just glorified word processors that actually create more work since templates still have to be filled out manually then transcribed into reports
- Practice management software clinical charting was designed for dentists and leaves little to be desired for Periodontists. It is risky medically and legally to chart only a portion of what is needed, which can also be time-consuming and expensive
There are many other issues that come up regarding inefficiency and resources poorly spent, but PANDA addresses all of them so you can focus on saving your practice time and money in this down economy. For less than $290 a month!
That’s less than the price of a transcriptionist or even a part time employee.
| What PANDA is | What PANDA is NOT |
|---|---|
| Perio and restorative charting all on one page with point-and click data entry | Complicated charting modules that require multiple clicks to open, difficult to learn and requiring the use of going into different “modes” |
| Easy to learn hands-free charting options with the use of a very useful foot-powered computer mouse called The Dental Rat | Complicated voice activation that is difficult and often not achievable to learn and use |
| Automated progress notes templates and a system of automatically filling in questions and answers through the use of "tokens" that completely minimizes typing | Manual click-through templates that are laborious to design and still require lots of editing using word processing (for example, Microsoft Word®), still resulting in a lack professionally created detail and completeness |
| Fully-stocked Library of customizable consent forms | Rigid consent forms that require lots of extra editing once created |
| Fully-stocked Library of automated correspondence letters that are written by the program contemporaneously – that is, while your in the live appointment | Manual click-through templates that are laborious to design and still require lots of editing using word processing after the appointment is already over, or alternative dictation which adds a fee and takes even more time. |
| Easily drag-and-drop images on to any style of letter | Complicated process to add images to letter templates |
| Flexible and standardized electronic signature capability using any stylus | Special hardware requirements for electronic signature functionality |
| Record tracking and audit trailing. Track the steps of any record to ensure correspondence has been sent and processes have been fulfilled | Appointment tracking for scheduling purposes; no way to track appointments and ensure the next step has been completed without looking at reports with a huge amount of information to sift through |
| Powerful and easy-to-read comparison of up to 5 historical records at once, with threshold options and various comparison components that are popular with Periodontists | Limited comparison for general dentists of less than 5 visits and minimal information |
| Include comparison findings in correspondence letters, fully automated by the program | Comparison at-a-glance that still requires manually transcribing the outcome into a letter or report |
