Are you searching for ways to lift your customer satisfaction scores? How about improving employee retention? One way to do it is to use more practice functionality on an app. Many of your providers and staff are likely digital natives born in or after 1980. According to the American Dental Association, close to 34% of dentists affiliated with DSOs are between the ages of 21-49, meaning they have grown up with technology. For some, their first cell phone was an iPhone. They have used mobile applications like photo-sharing sites, social media, music, and video streaming for years. They are even filing their taxes using an app. So, incorporating apps into the daily workflow of your teams will keep them feeling right at home.

Healthcare experiences are going digital, but what does that mean? It has become an era of any-time, pocket access to the tools you use daily. People are comfortable living life with this kind of technology as an enhancer. How often have you heard, “there’s an app for that!” That’s because over 3.4 million apps are in the Apple app store alone.

In today’s dental landscape, it is common for practices to have a hybrid approach to software use. Not everything can be on the app, and sometimes migrating legacy systems can be expensive, time-consuming, and resource-heavy. The good news is that ePrescribing is available on the Open Dental Mobile App, and here are three reasons you should consider using it.

1. ePrescribing technology allows you to serve your patients better.

The digital portability of your most mission-critical dental practice tools can benefit patients and help them feel like a valued part of your practice. You can manage your appointment book, communicate with patients via 2-way texting, and provide better service with the data you need at your fingertips. When a patient has an urgent need outside of office hours, you can quickly provide the appropriate level of care. Maybe they are requesting a refill or a medication switch. The DoseSpot ePrescribing platform is fully integrated into the app, helping you deliver care in seconds from wherever you are.

When you can provide exceptional service or help a patient through a medical moment by quickly providing empathy, reassurance, and relief, they tend to share their gratitude; often through a very public Google rating or feedback survey.

2. Help your providers find some balance between work, life, and learning. 

Frequently, providers feel tethered to the demands of their patients, their staff, and the day-to-day operations of their practices. It’s hard to break away for vacations with family and friends or even learning opportunities like professional conferences. The more operational you can make your practice from afar, the easier it becomes to get away for a bit. Critical work can get done if an emergency patient intervention is needed without a required office visit in the middle of the night or on holidays.

With Open Dental Mobile, providers can prescribe while out of the office, giving the entire staff peace of mind. Imagine a patient is experiencing a reaction to a medication that was initially prescribed—simply access your cell phone or tablet. You can send the new prescription to the pharmacy within a few clicks. You’ll even know when the pharmacy has filled it. So, enjoy that time away!  

3. Navigate the app safely and securely.

Healthcare requires strict security measures because a breach can harm your operations. While you can’t control everything, working in apps does include layers of data protection. For application developers and providers, this is necessary to stay compliant. If their systems go down, there are already protocols to limit the disruptions it can cause. Cloud and SaaS applications have teams whose only role is to proactively identify security weaknesses and patch them before they become a problem. Think iOS updates for iPhone users.   

Getting Started

App adoption can help create efficiencies for your staff and allow you to build a more accessible partner ecosystem. The developments in cloud-based technology are not going away. Capabilities inside apps will continue expanding. Gartner predicts that by 2026 cloud spending will surpass 45% of all enterprise IT spending. Together with the Open Dental team, we help practices like yours access ePrescribing software from anywhere. To get started, connect with the Open Dental Support Team and ask about DoseSpot. We would be honored to serve you.