At the beginning of the year, Dental Product Shopper outlined 5 things every dental office should automate in 2018, with help from the practice management experts at XLDent. So… how’s it going? Have you made any progress in adopting paperless processes that can maximize your efficiency, productivity, and profitability?
As a refresher, the 2018 New Year’s resolutions included automating patient confirmations and check-in, charting and treatment planning, electronic payments, interoffice communications, and employee timesheets. Maybe you’ve already tackled that list or had a head start. Or, maybe you haven’t yet committed to digitizing your records and modes of communication. It’s never too late to get started, and we do have a few suggestions that can help you finish the year strong as you transition some of your office’s key processes from paper to digital.
Here are 5 things you should consider automating in the 5 remaining months of the year:
August — You’re never too backed up to get a proper backup strategy. Your practice needs a reliable backup in the event of cybercrime, theft, natural disaster, or another event that can lead to patient data loss. Don’t wait any longer!
Helpful automated feature — Ensure your data protection with a fully automated, off-site data protection service. XLBackup from XLDent is a service that 
includes storage management and optimization, data integrity-verification checks, and annual disaster recovery fire drills. Organizations can quickly restore lost files, images, and critical data to get their office back up and running if disaster strikes.
Importantly, XLBackup uses HIPAA-compliant encryption technology to store your data in multiple data centers, and an encrypted copy of designated backup sets are available on the local LAN. XLBackup also routinely scans your data for inconsistencies and will notify you if corrupted data is uncovered so the issue can be resolved.
September — Back-to-school season is in full swing with busier young patients and their juggling parents. How is your no-show rate? The manual task of calling each patient for recall is a job in itself, and between answering phones and greeting patients, your staff’s time is better spent elsewhere.
Helpful automated feature — To ensure the consistency of your efforts to reduce no-shows, consider an automated service like the Appointment Reminder Service. This Lighthouse 360 solution is integrated with XLDent or can work with any practice management system, and automates reminders 
to go out in the months, days, and hours before the appointment.
Joseph Kern, DDS, uses this feature to reduce no-shows and says, “The XLDent Lighthouse Reminder Service has greatly enhanced the efficiency of our office, and it’d be hard to imagine practicing without it now.” See more of his remarks on XLDent’s website.
October — Whether you have to message a single person, a group of people or workstations, or the entire office, the days of telephone game and Post-It notes are over. Communicate smarter by going digital.
Helpful automated feature — Consider adopting an automated interoffice communication system like XLNotify from XLDent, which is compatible with all dental practice management systems. Quick buttons help users send one-click messages or type a personalized 
?note in the message dialog. Users can also select their preferred message alert tone and use a discrete message display.
XLNotify earned a DPS Best Product for helping to increase office productivity, among other advantages. As office manager Lisa Meyer explains, “We are now able to stay with our patients, but communicate with others in the building when the need arises.” Check out this demo video to see how XLNotify works.
November — Make a difference in your community and do your part in decreasing prescription drug use and abuse by going digital. In fact, many states are already moving towards banning handwritten prescriptions in the medical and dental fields.
Helpful automated feature — ePrescribing allows you to safely and securely prescribe Amoxicillin, Vicodin, and other drugs. XLDent 
is the first dental practice management system to offer integrated ePrescribing services to help dentists complete their electronic dental health records. Specifically, XLDent is certified to send electronic prescriptions for controlled substances, an industry achievement that gives dentists the ability to securely ePrescribe these drugs in 49 states.
Dentists also benefit from instant access to patient medication history lists, LexiComp’s medication database, and dental-specific information to help improve patient outcomes. Importantly, XLDent’s ePrescription service works with any practice management software, not just XLDent.
December — At this point, 2018 is coming to a close. Before the New Year and tax season arrives, get a sense of how your business 
has performed through your KPIs (key performance indicators), including production, collection, active and new patients, and recall metrics.
Helpful automated feature — A KPI dashboard, like the one available through XLDent, will provide you a real-time view of the data and numbers behind your practice—no number crunching required. The cloud-based dashboard provides access to monitor daily activities from anywhere, anytime, and on any device. There’s no need to upload, sync, or share your practice data with a third party, and you have administrative control over who has access and what they can see. When tax season does arrive, simply provide access to your business team, including your accountant.
If you want to learn more about any of the features mentioned in this blog, contact XLDent for a demo. Sign up, get trained, and you’ll be up and running.