Multi-Location Dental Practice Chooses Denticon
Introduction
With three offices in the Roanoke, Virginia area, Cross, Lavinder, Quinn & Park Family Dentistry is known for treating its patients with the utmost care. However, while patients had plenty to smile about, the back office employees were left grinding their teeth over the offices’ practice management system. The problem? The individual offices used different practice management solutions to manage their patient and employee information, resulting in inconsistencies and frustration. The solution? Denticon, a centralized, cloud-based practice management solution.
Outcomes
- Quick and easy onboarding when new employees or providers join the organization.
- Successfully converted data from the old practice management software.
- All-in-one software provided seamless integrations.
- Easy scheduling across three locations.
- Centralized access of data across three practice locations.
Denticon vs. Competitors: Dentrix, Eaglesoft & Curve
Background
Cross, Lavinder, Quinn & Park Family Dentistry was using Dentrix when it was a two location group practice. When the group purchased a third practice that was using Eaglesoft, it began shopping around for a new practice management software to use across all three offices. Martha McCarty, RDH, the practice’s business and HR manager, worked with her IT department to determine and meet their systemic data needs.
Trying Out Other Practice Management Software
McCarty explains the growing pains the group practice experienced with practice management software. “During this year, we struggled with
Dentrix. We actually had a cable set up between the two offices so we could see what was going on in the offices using Dentrix,” explained McCarty.
McCarty says despite difficulties, they muddled along to try to make Eaglesoft work. “It was a mess,” said McCarty. “We needed a software that would connect all three companies.” The first practice management software the group practice tried out was Curve Dental. The group spent a lot of time onboarding Curve and had high hopes.”
The Denticon Difference
“We spent months onboarding Curve and this included employee training, on paper instruction, and presentations,” says McCarty. Initially, McCarty said, “Curve looked like the best thing since sliced bread.” But over time, she explained, “it was difficult to employ and lead the employee transition.” In the end, McCarty said, “[a]lthough Curve looked great in the presentation; we couldn’t make it work on our end.”
Experiencing the Denticon Difference
The practice continued to look for a better solution. “[W]e researched and interviewed several companies. We searched for dental software that was cloud-based so all three offices could communicate. We read a lot of reviews of different software,” said McCarty.They realized, “Denticon had what we needed.” With Denticon, McCarty was able to work with her IT department in streamlining data communication across locations. Not only that, she began reaping the benefits of scalable efficiency.” So we had a big weekend, a big learning weekend when all the data came over,” continued Martha. “And this data conversion was a little difficult, too,” admitted McCarty. “However, I looked at Denticon a lot and taught other people how to use it,” she said.
The Benefits of Centralization
As she utilized Denticon, McCarty began seeing the benefits of centralization firsthand. “I gained the ability to see all three offices at any given moment, and all clinical employees could do this too,” she explained. “For instance, I can see doctors’ and hygienists’ locations, schedules, how busy they are, and other factors like that quite easily by clicking the specific location.”
Onboarding Made Easier
“Denticon has also made onboarding easier when we get a new employee or provider,” said McCarty. “Initially, this process was a lot more manual work, whereas now Denticon copies documents and processes and replicates them with new employees,” she continued. “It’s a pretty magical feature because I used to have to do all of this by hand. I can also use it in onboarding providers based
on copies of what we’ve previously used for providers.”
All-in-One Solution
During the last two years of partnership with Denticon, McCarty has been able to take advantage of integrated features, smart reporting, and an overall clean and confidential data system. “I like that we have Dentigram, DentalXChange, and then we go through eClaims management.
Seamless Integration
Of course, we pay extra for these features, but they are fully integrated within the software, and it’s a great package,” said McCarty. “It feels like one is part of the other, versus when we had Dentrix and had to use Lighthouse.” Although Lighthouse was great, it wasn’t “part of the Dentrix’s system,” said McCarty. “Denticon is just more seamless.” As McCarty received more training and support on Denticon, she gained even more value out of the software. “Their reports are great and I’ve learned a lot and keep learning. Every time I talk to someone because I can’t figure out something, they show me another function I can use. And there’s a lot,” shared McCarty. “So, we’re happy with the reports. We’re happy with the ledgers and trying to read a ledger to a patient. We’re not doing e-billing yet, but we’ll likely let Denticon take care of our billing for us, too,” said McCarty. “Personally, I think Denticon is great for multiple offices, and one office would also gain significant benefits with it. The conversion was pretty streamlined and simple as opposed to that of other companies. Once data and information was input into the new software, it was a fairly easy learning curve. It’s a little on the expensive side, but you get what you pay for,” she said. “We’re a large practice with a lot of employees, so we needed a bigger system with more capabilities and Denticon could facilitate these needs. We’ve been very happy with the software,” concluded McCarty.