4 Tips to Increasing Your ROI - Dental Technology
1. Establish staff procedures that promotes usage and efficiency. By using auxiliary staff to prep an exam, the dentist can do the exam without ever picking up the camera. This saves a tremendous amount of time. Typically, hygiene operatories are camera heavy.
Knowing the optimal number of cameras required and their locations can save thousands of dollars and still produce the same results. This advice also applies to digital x-ray sensors.
2. Pick products that are easy to use. An intraoral camera that is difficult to use will collect dust. First, staff will simply not use it. Depth of focus in the optical system directly relates to its ease of use. Deficient optics will result in constant refocusing. What should be an efficient, single-handed task will turn into an inept two handed operation (one to hold and one to focus). Also, a lousy camera increases dentist-staff frustration & adversely affects ROI.
3. Patient viewing display positioning affects ROI. Dental chair manufacturer’s concept systems (at least the ones that have monitors hanging from them) are practical, but often aren't functional because they don’t enhance the patient experience at the right time. Try this the next time you’re poring through dental trade exhibits: lie yourself in a chair fully supine and ask yourself if you can comfortably view the display connected to it. I’m willing to wager that your vision is limited to the top of the display and up. Explanation: When fully supine, your line of sight is comfortably pointed at an approximate 45 degree angle with respect to your body. The “bullseye” points up towards the ceiling, doesn’t it? Dr. Michael Unthank took this photo (below) at the Chicago Midwinter Meeting demonstrating this flaw with the patient viewing display positioned low on a radius arm.
Look closely at my eyes and the direction that they are pointed…up aren’t they? This design does work but not at the right time. End result: If your patients cannot comfortably see the display at the right time, then its ROI (not to mention camera, digital x-ray) decreases accordingly.
Most offices today incorporate two flat panel displays in each treatment room. By splitting the operatory into private and public viewing zones, private information (schedule & personal information) is kept private. Public information includes intraoral camera, digital radiograph, digital SLR images and CATV. Not only does the patient display drive design, but also provides educational value, communications, and relaxation/entertainment for the patient. The ability to show a fractured cusp or calculus build up provides patient communications and improves acceptance of the treatment. Proper positioning of the patient display allows this to happen efficiently. Your top priority is to ensure that the patient can view the display comfortably while fully upright or reclined in the dental chair. If successful, any position between these points will work.
4. Treatment room computers must be set up for maximum efficiency. As challenging as computers and networks can be, their business goals are basic: to make money and to save money. An understanding of how treatment rooms function is critical to a successful design. The best way to address functional requirements is to reduce them down to their simplest form. First, make a list of requirements for each of the two displays in each operatory. Start with the clinical display behind the chair and make a list. Do the same with the patient viewing monitor. The list should go something like this depending on your specialty and how you practice:
Clinical monitor: Practice management software, image management software, charting software, digital x-ray and intraoral/extraoral camera images, schedule, paging software.
Patient viewing display: Digital x-ray, intraoral/extraoral camera images, patient education programming, cable TV/CD/DVD movies with audio.
Examine these lists and you'll find three requirements that apply to both displays: digital radiographs, intraoral camera images & extraoral camera images (digital SLR). These images require competent switching between the displays. Ultramon ($35) is an amazing piece of software that accommodates these with ease. Programming function keys can turn a difficult task into an effortless keystroke. Example: After a digital x-ray image is stored, it is usually viewed on the clinical display (private) behind the chair. To share this image with the patient, use the designated function key to reposition it on the patient viewing display. When done, you can move the image back to the clinical display by pressing the same function key. It doesn’t get any easier than that! Using Windows display properties or physically dragging windows between displays is simplified to one keystroke each direction. This simple approach will save you time and frustration while adding to your ROI.
Computers in dental offices offer potential ROI as the imaging devices attached to it. But maximizing that ROI depends on your ability to realize the big picture. The infrastructure of your computer network system is the backbone of your technology system. Imaging products & software either ride on or attach to it. Smart equipment positioning will enhance the patient experience, improve diagnosis, and increase IQ. Optimized systems and solutions offer better dental technology for a bigger ROI, …and by the way, much further than the sum of your individual products.
Since 1998, Ted Takahashi has helped more than 750 dentists successfully integrate technology solutions. Ted is the owner of T2 Consulting Inc., a planning and design firm exclusively dedicated to the dental profession. T2 Consulting, one of the most trusted names in the dental industry, chooses not to sell dental technology products, opting, instead, to provide objective and unbiased information that can be trusted. You can reach Ted at 952-891-5177 or ted@t2consulting.com.