You’ve decided using the Clinics features is right for you. You’ve set up Clinics, and now you’re ready to see patients. This post will provide best practices for managing patient flow, no matter where they receive treatment.
Working in a Clinic
When you’re an employee working in a specific Clinic, first make sure the correct Clinic is selected in the dropdown. Depending on your User Security Setup, not all Clinics may be available.
When you have your Clinic selected in the dropdown, the rest of Open Dental defaults to your Clinic.
For example:
- Reports will default to your Clinic
- The Select Patient window will search for patients assigned to your Clinic (and includes patients who are unassigned). When creating new patients, they’ll also default to the selected Clinic.
- Opens the Appointment Module to your Clinic’s schedule
- Assigns the Clinic to Time Card events (clocking in & out)
Assigning patients to a Clinic
Patients can be assigned to a specific Clinic, typically whichever Clinic they are seen at most. You can schedule a patient in any Clinic as needed.
Each patient should be assigned a Clinic in the lower-left area of the Patient Edit window.
To determine whether patients must be assigned to a Clinic or can remain unassigned, see Allow new patients to be added with an unassigned Clinic in Setup > Preferences (use search to find the preference).
Patient Flow & Clinic Logic
The Clinic a patient is scheduled in will follow them throughout the patient process for the visit (even if the patient isn’t assigned to that Clinic).
The appointment
First, the patient’s appointment is scheduled in a Clinic A Operatory – the appointment is automatically assigned to Clinic A.
TECH TIP: If the appointment is moved to an operatory at another Clinic, the Clinic on the appointment is updated.
The Clinic assigned to procedures on an appointment will match unless manually changed. If the procedures were treatment planned for a different Clinic before creating the appointment, the Clinic is automatically updated when the procedures are attached.
TECH TIP: When charting treatment from the Chart Module, procedures are assigned to the patient’s Clinic by default.
The Claim
When the claim is created, the Clinic will be automatically selected based on the associated procedures. Clinics on claims cannot be changed.
The Insurance Payment
The insurance payment associated with the claim will also match the claim’s Clinic. However, the Clinic associated with the insurance payment can be changed from the Edit Insurance Payment window if needed.
Patient Payments
Patient payments are a little different. The Default Clinic for patient payments is set in Preferences. Take care when entering payments that the correct Clinic is selected. This will affect reports.
TECH TIP: If a payment needs to be split between multiple Clinics, you can manually change the Clinic attached to a Payment Split.
Reporting with Clinics
One of the key benefits to Clinics is the ability to report on each Clinic individually. Nearly all built-in Reports have Clinic-level filters.
Keep an eye out for the Clinics section on each report window. Reports can be run for only specific Clinics or the entire practice.
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Are Clinics a good fit for your practice? Need help setting up Clinics in Open Dental? Have a question on patient flow when using the Clinics feature? Contact us – we’re here to help all of your locations!