Sometimes you want to pull a quick set of patient data out of Open Dental, and the Patients-Raw list may be just what you need. This post will walk through a specific example to show you how to select fields and filter them to get the data you want to see.

In our example, patient favorite Dr. Abbott is retiring. We want to pull the names, addresses, and phone numbers of her patients to let them know that Dr. Abbott is retiring, and introduce them to the other wonderful providers in our practice that will be happy to help keep their smiles healthy and bright.

To generate a list of Dr. Abbott’s active patients, we’ll start by going to Reports, Standard. On the right under Lists, select Patients-Raw (think raw data, ready to be manipulated!).

Now, we need to create the fields we want on our report. We need to include fields we’ll be filtering by like patient status (to filter it to only active patients) and billing type (so we don’t mail to patients who are in collection status). We’re already in the SELECT tab, so hold down the control key and click to select the fields to include. Notice, as you click to include fields, it’s starting to build the query at the bottom of the window.

Now, we want to set the filters. Click on WHERE at the top of the window, to set the conditions to filter the data. In our example, we only want to include Active patients of Dr. Abbott who are on Billing Types for patients in good standing with us. As we add each condition, that is moved down to the middle section, and the query continues to build at the bottom of the window.

To build this list, we took these steps:

• Selected PatStatus, clicked =, then selected ‘Patient’ and clicked Add.
• Selected PriProv (Primary Provider), clicked =, then selected the provider, and Add.  (When we add Dr. Abbott, the resulting entry only shows her system ID number, which is 5).
• Selected Billing Type, then “Standard.” If selecting more than one, hold down ctrl as you click to select fields. Once added, the system ID number for that Billing Type will display.
• Repeat for any other field you may want to be conditional to only include certain options. If you accidentally added something or want to edit your selection, delete it, then re-add.

When you’re done, click OK and the list will be generated. Our list looks like this. We had also selected the Guarantor field – you’ll see that on the far right. This field will allow you to see which person in a family group should get your communication.

The data is ready to be exported (you can then use that file for a mail merge or to create labels, or printed and used as a call list – it’s up to you.

The Patients-Raw list is a great way to quickly pull patient data out of Open Dental. If you need a more customized set of data combined into a custom query, our Query Team can help. Start by submitting a custom query request for a free quote. If we can help you with the Patients-Raw list or anything else in the software, please contact us.