Following the successful launch of the Internal Referral Management System in Denticon in April, we are excited to now announce the launch of the External Referral Management System for our Denticon clients. Again, this robust referral management system is the first of its kind in dental practice management solutions. With the External Referral System, practices will now be able to refer and communicate with external providers securely and efficiently.
As with the internal referrals, the External Referral Management System is a free tool for Denticon subscribers and also benefits external providers who will be able to receive referrals and communicate securely with the referring office even if they are not Denticon subscribers.
Challenges with External Referrals
Referring patients to an external provider has never been a smooth process. Let’s say you own a general practice. Your patient needs a root canal, so you decide to refer them to an endodontist in your area. The old way would have been to mail, fax, or email patient records to refer your patient to the specialist. Or perhaps your treatment coordinator would give your patient a referral slip and ask them 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 needs to refer a patient to an external specialist, the External Referral Management System in Denticon will be an invaluable feature to help you securely refer and track cases.
“One of the biggest frustrations in the referral process that we heard from clients was, ‘How can I send patient information securely to offices outside my organization without it being such a long process?’” said Chae Kim, Senior Vice President of Product at Planet DDS. “So, we designed the External Referral Management System to enable offices to exchange information securely and seamlessly, even when the receiving office does not use Denticon.”
Whenever you need to refer a patient to a specialist, your treatment coordinator simply creates the external referral within Denticon by sending a verification email to the external specialist. The email itself contains no personal health information.
Once the email is received, the specialist’s office can verify their email with an automatically generated unique eReferral ID. After verifying their email, the specialist can securely access the patient information using the external eReferral Portal, even if they are not Denticon users. 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 an external provider for extractions. The external provider can review additional details and patient X-rays securely by using the Referral Portal.
Instead of emailing, faxing, or having the patient call to schedule their own appointment and hand-deliver their X-rays, everything can be completed within Denticon. 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 receiving office uses Denticon or not.
Since the specialist 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 these new Internal and External Referral Management Systems, 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 new Internal and External Referral Management Systems improve and streamline communications among providers, reduces operational inefficiencies, and enhances the patient experience.
If you’re a current client, be sure to utilize the Internal and External 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.