5 Steps to Becoming a Paperless Dental Practice

Imagine a game of Rock Paper Scissors. If you’re familiar, you know that paper covers rock, but scissors — that’s a different story. The analogy works especially if you’re committed to becoming a paperless dental practice.

Paper does indeed cover a lot. Even so, there are limitations to its efficiency.

Why the interest in going paperless?

Technology has leveled the field. The evolution of device technology, smartphones, e-commerce and cloud software has transcended paper-based systems.

Technology aside, paper will likely stick around. For example, Forbes confirms that the paperless narrative has been around for years, but “the average office worker still uses some 10,000 sheets of paper a year.”¹

Research from Medium also confirms that corporate America spends over $120 billion on printed forms. Most become outdated within three months.²

Overall, there are steps many industries (including dental) are taking to transition from paper to digital. Most do so knowing the risks and costs.

Either way, the decision to go paperless ranges from partial to full scale. Each course of action is best navigated one step at a time.

And make sure your why goals are clear from the beginning.

• Improve your practice and team efficiency
• Reduce costs
• Increase patient satisfaction

5 steps to becoming a paperless dental practice

1. Look under the hood of your current systems and workflows

Start with your operational procedures. Evaluate paper use across all your daily practice routines.

• Appointment scheduling
• Insurance claims submission
• Treatment plan creation
• Inventory lists and tracking

How paper dependent are you and your team around these common tasks? Again, there might be occasions when paper is required (e.g., insurance claims and legal documentation).

Action step: Explore your dental practice management software (PMS) capabilities and its support of paperless dental office software.

Speaking of software…

2. Maximize your PMS platform

You might discover you’ve been underutilizing your dental PMS. Or you could find a third-party application will support your transition to being paperless.

• Confirm you’re operating on the most recent software update.
• Look for digital options within your dental PMS.
• Research third-party paperless dental office software solutions that are compatible with your practice management platform.

3. Design (or redesign) for digital

Consider that your current practice environment is likely designed for a more traditional (analog) setup. Space for files, charts and paper-based supplies can be transformed to accommodate a paperless setup.

Startup dental practices have somewhat of a design advantage. Although, an established practice can also take advantage of a few redesign tweaks to adapt for paperless (digital) solutions.

• Design for efficient use of technology. Consider monitor style, monitor placement and monitor use throughout your office.
• Design with ergonomics in mind. Digital functionality should reduce stress — not add to it!
• Design for improved patient interaction. Provide patients a digital alternative for paperwork, appointment sign-in, treatment presentations, post-visit follow-up and take-away resources.

4. Pace your conversion from paper to digital

Once you get a taste of paperless dental software, you’ll want to eliminate paper at every opportunity. But it’s important to pause before you empty and sell all your file cabinets.

• Preserve patient privacy and HIPAA compliance as you dispose of paper patient records.
• Ease your team into the transition from paper to digital. Allow hesitant team members to phase out of their paper dependence.
• Create new defaults for how you share, access and save patient and practice data. Retrain your routine around digital-first actions.

5. Enhance the security of your practice data

There are downsides to being dependent on paper records. It’s equally essential to be aware of the security issues associated with using paperless dental office software.

A chartless or digital practice environment can be vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches, malware and human error. The necessary level of security goes beyond basic antivirus protection.

• Ensure your digital data is encrypted and secure.
• Avoid easy access and sharing of storage devices such as thumb drives, portable hard drives and other data storage technology.
• Assess the security and encryption protocols of your cloud-based and paperless dental software solutions.
• Apply daily and routine backups of your digital data. Redundancy is your friend when it comes to data backups.

A good place to begin your transition to a dental paperless software solution is a workflow and systems evaluation. Becoming a paperless dental practice happens best in phases.

• Phase up your software and necessary hardware.
• Phase out your dependence and usage of paper throughout your practice.
• Phase in new digital tools, technology and timelines to become less paper dependent.

Cloud-based dental software provides an effective and efficient foundation for becoming a paperless dental practice. Check out these cloud-based and paperless dental software resources:

Save Money With Paperless Dental Software

Dental Charts and Imaging Enhanced by the Cloud

Choose a proven, secure and paperless-friendly platform when you upgrade to cloud-based software

Dentrix Ascend from Henry Schein One centralizes data, supports the structure of your practice and/or DSO and provides scalability as your practice or organization grows.

Learn what makes Dentrix Ascend the right solution for your dental practice or DSO.

Request a demo today.

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¹ https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/04/02/going-paperless-a-journey-worth-taking/?sh=6204d4f35ca1

² https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/04/02/going-paperless-a-journey-worth-taking/?sh=6204d4f35ca1