It’s now easier than ever for specialists on the Denticon practice management system to receive external referrals from other dentists.
The External Referral Management System is a free tool for Denticon subscribers. With this tool, external providers will be able to send referrals and communicate securely with a specialist who uses Denticon, even if the referring dentist uses a different practice management system.
Denticon also has a robust Internal Referral Management system in place. With the expansion of the External Referral Management system, Denticon is the first and only practice management system with an end-to-end patient referral management system.
Challenges with Generating External Referrals for Dental Specialists
Dental specialists depend on external referrals for practice growth. Let’s say you own an endodontic practice. A general dentist finds that a patient needs a root canal, so the general dentist refers that patient to your endodontic practice. The old way would have been to mail, fax, or email patient records to refer your patient to the specialist. Or perhaps a treatment coordinator would give the patient a referral slip and ask them to coordinate with the endodontist. None of these methods are secure or convenient for your practice or your patient.
And once the patient has successfully been referred to the specialist, there was still no easy way to track the referral status without picking up the phone or following up via email. A tedious and inefficient process at best.
Seamless Referrals with External Providers
Denticon’s External Referral Management System is revolutionizing the way dentists manage their referrals. Any time your practice receives a referral via this new functionality, the External Referral Management System in Denticon will be an invaluable feature to help you securely track the case and then respond to the referring dentist when treatment is completed.
One of the biggest frustrations in the referral process that we heard from clients was, “As a specialty group, we need to receive referrals from non-Denticon dentists with as little friction as possible and when specialty treatment is completed, we need to send the referral report with images or X-rays back to the referring dentist,” said Ron Burke, Senior Product Manager at Planet DDS. “So, we designed the External Referral Management System to enable offices to exchange information securely and seamlessly, even when the referring office does not use Denticon.”
Denticon provides specialists with a customized link they can share with referring dentists via email, as well as put it on the specialists’ website.
Whenever a general dentist needs to refer a patient now, they can enter some details into a secure web form and the specialist using Denticon will be alerted and the specialty team can contact the patient for scheduling. The first time the referring dentist uses the portal, he or she will receive a unique eReferral ID. That ID will let them view the status of all referrals moving forward.
Once the referral treatment is completed, the specialist’s office can send a report back to the referring dentist. The referring dentist receives an email which includes a link to take them to the external eReferral Portal. This is hugely beneficial for both the referring office and the specialist’s office to be able to send and receive patient information securely and efficiently.
In the above example, you’ll see a secure email being sent to a referring dentist now that the referred endodontic treatment is completed. The external provider can review additional details and patient X-rays securely by using the Referral Portal. What previously could have taken days and involved multiple people can now be completed with a few clicks of the mouse.
Secure Communications, Even for Non-Denticon Practices
With the External Referral Management System, there’s no need to make extra calls or send emails to the specialist’s office to follow up on the status of a referral. There’s no need to track down patient X-rays and treatment notes that all need to be sent in compliance with HIPAA. Everything can be completed through the External Referral Management System, whether the referring general dentistry office uses Denticon or not.
Since the specialist’s office can communicate using the eReferral Portal, they can inform your office when a procedure has been completed, provide other relevant status updates, or securely send patient records. By making communication easy, both the referring practice and the external provider can stay in contact, increasing your visibility over the entire referral process.
Being able to send secure communications between practices isn’t just convenient; it helps practices comply with HIPAA and privacy laws, too.
Referral Management Made Simple with Denticon
With referral management functionality that covers both internal, external outgoing, and external-incoming, Denticon continues to lead among practice management solutions for dental practices. The External Referral Management System revolutionizes a previously tedious process and makes it simple and secure.
Denticon’s Referral Management System improves and streamlines communication among providers, reduces operational inefficiencies and enhances the patient experience.
If you’re a current client, be sure to utilize the Referral Management Systems to increase revenue and streamline referrals with outside providers.
If you’d like to learn more about how Denticon’s comprehensive platform can help your practice with referrals and much more, contact us today.