Leveraging Technology to Meet Evolving Needs
When A.J. Peak started in dentistry, it was in his dad’s practice. Fifteen years later, Peak Dental Services has grown to sixty locations in two states. For a long time, the dental service organization (DSO) used a server-based practice management system, which made it challenging to access data, manage the revenue cycle, and run real-time reports.
In 2021, Peak Dental replaced its server-based practice management solution with Denticon, a cloud-based solution that could ensure the clinical, operations, and revenue cycle management (RCM) teams could easily track and manage patient data across multiple locations.
“There are four pillars of growth: get the strategy right, have enough cash, have the right set of people, and execute with the right KPIs,” Peak said. “The key to success is building systems in your dental group, with accountability metrics. For that, you need to have standardization and visibility into your data.”
Optimized Practice Management and RCM with Centralized Patient Data
Moving to Denticon gave the Peak Dental team more tools to help them automate and streamline tasks. One group that benefitted immediately was the RCM team.
“Peak’s RCM team works remotely, and we used to have to remote into servers,” explained Lindsay Romeo, Peak’s RCM Manager. “Every site was different. You had to log out and then log back into each location, otherwise you couldn’t see what was happening at the other location. It was a pain having to navigate through that. We needed to go cloud-based so we could see all locations in one place. Now with Denticon, I have all the offices right at my fingertips.”
With Denticon, Peak now has a secure, cloud-based system with centralized data that can be accessed by authorized users anytime, anywhere. Implementing Denticon has also made several other operations easier to facilitate for the RCM team.
“I can block the charges to the ledger, so that if the eligibility check fails for some reason, there’s a block there now, whereas before it would just keep going forward,” Romeo said. “Now they have to fix the problem in order for it to move forward.”
“We want to be very standardized. When we acquire a new practice, we move them over to Denticon as soon as possible. It gives us the ability to view data in real time and creates a roadmap for operational efficiency, goal-setting, and performance evaluation,” shared Amber Collins, chief operation officer of Peak Dental Services.
Streamlined Tracking for All Patient Records
Many of Peak’s locations are close together, making it convenient for patients to visit different offices if they need to. Additionally, Peak locations can refer patients to other offices when needed. Denticon improves the patient and staff experience, by keeping patient records updated and accessible no matter which office a patient visits. This ensures patient records are consistently updated without the need to track down and update information.
“The solution we used prior to Denticon did not allow us to easily manage clients if they were going to more than one office,” Romeo explained. “We have many offices close to each other, so some people go to multiple offices. Now with Denticon, we can easily track and manage patients who go to more than one office.”
Interoffice referrals are a central part of Peak’s ability to effectively serve patients, and using Denticon ensures the referral process is seamless. This includes sharing patient information and imaging so that office staff and doctors always have access to the most current information.
“Denticon makes the referral process very easy, and we save time with referrals,” Romeo said. “We have all of the specialties offered within Peak, and Denticon makes it much easier to refer patients because we all share the same system. Everything is right there in one place for us. We can access X-rays in Denticon, meaning we’re not chasing X-rays from another system, which saves us time.”
Additionally, Denticon’s patient communication features make it easier to oversee patient activity. “Some of our offices are using Denticon’s patient communication features such as being able to text and email with patients, and I like that this communication is automatically added to the patient’s notes,” Romeo said.
Efficient Cloud-Based Reporting for DSOs
Denticon provides robust reporting, with centralized data that makes customizable reports easy to pull. With Peak’s sixty offices on one system, Denticon provides reporting capabilities that save time.
“Denticon reporting is more efficient. In our prior system, with sixty locations and sixty servers, we had to run sixty different reports,” Romeo explained. “With Denticon we don’t have to do that.”
“We can run all of the reports from one place, easily changing a report according to the office or the information we need to pull. This is definitely a time saver.”
Denticon Practice Management Is the Solution DSOs Rely On
Romeo is a champion of Denticon and the go-to for her organization whenever any of her colleagues have questions on how to best leverage Denticon’s features.
“I find Denticon easy, and I am the unofficial Denticon trainer,” Romeo shared. “I even have people from other DSOs calling me with questions and I’ll walk them through what to do on Denticon. When I’m training people, I encourage them to not be scared to click a button. They can always back out if they made an error. I encourage people to play around. For example, if you have a lot of test charts, go in there and push buttons, and get familiar with it. You’re not going to break it.”
“I would recommend Denticon. Denticon has great features. For anyone still on servers, take the leap. Your servers aren’t going to last forever,” said Romeo.
To learn more about Denticon and other Planet DDS solutions, book a demo with our team today.
Download the Peak Dental Case Study.