Each organization has superstars: The ones that seem to know everything, and are the “go to” resource when there’s a question. Knowledge is power, but it’s also a liability for your practice if only a few people know where information is, or how to carry out a certain process. Shared knowledge can be the superpower your practice runs on. Documenting, centralizing and providing access to information improves process consistency, and facilitates ongoing evaluation for process improvement so your practice, and its inner workings, can run more smoothly and efficiently over time.

Whether you’re a fledgling business starting out, or a well-established practice, it’s never too late to get information documented and centralized. Consistent, documented processes prevent errors and omissions, and positively impact your patients’ experience with you. An organized and cohesive practice leaves the impression that you are capable and knowledgeable, and your patients are in good hands.

So how do you centralize and share the wealth of knowledge, so your staff are all on the same page?

Meet the Open Dental Wiki – your practice knowledge hub.

The Wiki is an often underutilized feature in Open Dental that is a powerful tool to centralize and share knowledge.

WIth the Wiki, you can:

• Create a shared knowledge hub that can be viewed by all of your staff. Document policies, procedures, maybe your practice’s values or shared goals. Each employee can also have their own wiki page with links to information specific to their set of responsibilities.
• Create lists that are searchable and reportable, like a list of vendors you use and their contact information.
• Pages can include images, and links to other Wiki pages, documents on your shared network, or external web pages.
• Track the changes to page content using the “History” button. See the complete history of edits, and the users that contributed.
• Search the content using Keywords.
• Information in the Wiki is accessible to anyone with access to Open Dental. It should not contain anything personal, private, or confidential.
• Wiki data is stored in the Open Dental database, and images are stored in the A to Z folders / OpenDentImages in the wiki subfolder.

For detailed information about setting up your practice knowledge hub, visit the Wiki page in our online manual, and be sure to check out the page on Wiki Lists.

Need help as you set up your Practice’s Wiki? Give us a call.