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Provide the Right Training Tools

With good reason, many dentists are careful in watching, monitoring and controlling their every expense. As a dentist, you own a practice where you face real pressure to meet payroll and other financial obligations. With these pressures, you may be tempted to forego buying the software training tools that your staff requires. Unfortunately, without proper training from the outset, software can be misused, creating situations that could be simple and easily avoided, but become very difficult to correct. Things like incorrectly entering payments and write offs will affect all of your financial reports, making it difficult for you to assess your practice’s financial performance. Sometimes these training and support tools come with a price; however, often these tools have no associated expense. Please don’t be the dentist who is willing to provide the latest tools for your personal use but skimps on the front desk’s training and support tools. Remember, your front desk is working to collect your money. Providing your front desk with the right training tools is to your benefit.
    
Any newly purchased software, at a minimum, should include a user’s guide, as well as an initial “free” period for telephone technical support. In addition, a good software program will include interactive help screens that prompt and give specific instruction on how to carry out your software’s various functions. If you are simply upgrading a current software system that your staff is already using proficiently, these limited tools will probably meet your office’s needs.

If you hire new personnel or migrate to a different software system, your front desk will require more complete training. Again, risking the possibility of your staff incorrectly entering information simply isn’t worth it. In the case of a new system, provide more comprehensive training tools like training videos, interactive training CDs. All you need is a computer with a CD ROM drive and speakers, and a voice will “handhold” you through the learning process. Remote access training is also an option, although many soft¬ware companies now offer onsite training either through their own training department or through one of their local dealers.

Networking

Some of the best practical training your staff will ever receive won’t be from the company that sold you the software, but from other offices that are using the same software or even from offices that use different software. Why? Often questions aren’t just software specific but involve insurance and other issues that are unique to offices in your area.

As the owner, help your staff network with other offices to find out what works and what doesn’t work for your area. Set up a lunch-and-learn with another office’s personnel, where your staff can share ideas and compare notes. Later, when issues do arise, your staff members will feel more comfortable calling the other office and comparing practical knowledge. Here’s an example on how office networking should work. Let’s say your front desk just received a rejected claim from the state Medicaid program. Your office’s call to the office down the street may go something like this:

“The state’s Medicaid insurance just denied a claim with this rejection code. Have you ever experienced this?”

 “Yes.”

“What did you do to fix it?” “Where do I enter the new code?” etc.

The answer is provided in less than a minute with no hold time, and no long explanation – just quick, practical answers from a neighboring office.

Conclusion

In summary, give your front staff the tools needed to get the most out of your dental software. If properly trained and educated on how to use the software, your front staff will be all the more equipped to increase your production and collect your hard earned money. From a financial standpoint, properly training your front office personnel is one of the best things you’ll ever do.


David J. Arnett has owned and operated two dental offices and is the co-founder of DentiMax. Visit Dentimax at www.dentimax.com.

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