5 Ways Your Dental Office Administration Can Improve New Patient Intake

New patients are making judgments about the quality of care they receive long before they step into the treatment room. This is why new patient intake is so important for dental practice growth – and why dental office administration plays a key role in welcoming new patients and keeping them coming back to the office. 

At Dental Practice Enhancement, we offer complete administrative training. We can teach your team best practices for new patient intake and train them on the latest administrative technology. By building on your existing skills, we can help you cultivate a genuine, welcoming office culture that will keep new patients coming back for years to come. 

To learn more about our training and to find out how it can benefit your dental office administration, contact Dental Practice Enhancement today.

1. Offer Online Forms.

If your office is still relying on outdated paper intake forms, it’s time to up the ante with administrative technology. There are many benefits to going digital: 

• Patient records are more secure.

• Going paperless is an economical choice, saving you the cost of paper and printing.

• Digital records are easier for your staff to locate.

• Digital forms **decrease patient error **and help to ensure that patients fill out all appropriate fields.

• Providing new patient forms ahead of time can significantly reduce wait times. This is a major contributor to retaining new patients. As many as 30% of patients will leave the office before seeing the doctor if they face a long wait time. And 20% will find a new provider after a negative waiting experience.

2. Make Online Forms Available in the Office, Too.

Although it’s ideal for patients to fill out forms before they come into the office, busy schedules mean this doesn’t always happen. In these cases, it’s helpful to provide a tablet so that patients can complete the same online forms in the waiting room. Although this doesn’t have the same level of efficiency, this process still offers the other benefits mentioned above. 

3. Use a Virtual Waitlist.

Perhaps one of the advantages of the COVID-19 pandemic was that it made virtual waiting rooms much more common. Allowing patients to see their place in line reduces the amount of time they spend in the office. This can be especially beneficial if your practice sees new emergency patients. Imagine requesting an appointment online and automatically seeing your name in the queue for a same-day appointment. That’s impressive! 

4. Offer Online Payment Options

83% of patients prefer online bill pay to traditional paper payments. Further, online bill pay offers many of the same advantages as online intake forms – better security, reduced overhead, and easier access to past records. 

5. Make Sure Your Staff Is Fully Trained in All Technology.

Of course integrating new technology in your practice is marginally beneficial if your office administrators are not fully adept with all platforms. 

If you need help with administrative training and technology integration, Dental Practice Enhancement can help. With over three decades of experience, we have quickly adapted to waves of new technology, helping dental offices use them to their full advantages.

Contact Us for Dental Office Administration Training

If you are looking to improve your new patient intake or any other administrative aspect of your practice, schedule a coaching session today.

Reach Dental Practice Enhancement online or give us a call at 833-DPE-FOR-U.