Dentrix Enhancement Requests

These enhancement requests have been submitted by Rich Acuff (Rich@Dr-Amy.com) of Amy Guthrie, DDS (http://www.Dr-Amy.com).

I am posting this list here in the hope that other Dentrix users will see these and, if they like them, submit them to Dentrix as well. Dentrix says they implement features based on feedback from users, so give them feedback!

Allow a brief not in Main Appointment Book window

Date:
7/13/2004, 2:50PM

Method:
Email

Type:
Enhance an existing feature

Problem:
The "Note" section of the appointment book is very useful to us. Sometimes, though, we want of have a brief note that is so important for that day that it should always be visible.

Proposal:
Place one line or part of one line at the top of the Appt Book, perhaps taking part of the line now used to show the date (most of that line is blank). That area could show the first part of the day note, or it could have its own text.

Comments:
(None)

Don't Crash and Burn if a Year is Used in the "Prior Date" Field

Date:
3/11/2004, 11:45AM

Method:
Phone (Chaden) and Email

Type:
Fix a problem (bug)

Problem:
Rarely do we know the exact date which a crown or bridge we are replacing was placed, but we can usually determine the year. Rather than lie by making up a date, we have, for 5 years, simply entered what we do know; the year. This has always worked until recently.

Unfortunately, the failure mode is pretty severe. When a claim containing a 4-digit year in the "Prior Date" field is submitted, the entire batch of claims is rejected, and an ambiguous "Claim Processing Failed" report comes back instead of the "Confirmation Report". It says to try again later and call NIS if that doesn't work.

Proposal:
In order of usefulness to the user:

Go back to allowing just the year. Otherwise you're forcing us to lie by making up day and month information we don't have.
If you simply must have a full date, then change the claim field to not accept other than a correct date, like other Dentrix date fields.
Failing that, the claim validation process within Dentrix should catch the problem and reject the claim before it's ever submitted.
Failing that, the file parsing software on the claims server should not choke on the whole batch because one claim is missing a couple trivial numbers. The fact that it can is most disturbing to my peace of mind regarding the robustness of Dentrix and eTrans software. Instead, the one claim with a problem should be rejected.

Comments:
(None)

Keep the Selection where it was after deleting the Unscheduled List

Date:
2/10/2004, 10:04AM

Method:
Email

Type:
Fix a problem (bug)

Problem:
In versions prior to 10.0, after we deleted an appointment from the unscheduled list, the selection was left in the same place on the list. This made it fairly easy to run through the list, processing appointments as needed. In 10.0, the selection always moves to the top of the list, making it much more difficult to keep track of where in the list we are presently working (as well as wasting time scrolling back to that point).

Proposal:
Please go back to the old behavior and let the selected item stay at the same place in the list after deleting an appointment.

Comments:
Entered into request database according to phone call from support.

Allow Selecting Partially Off-screen Appointments

Date:
10/24/2001, 3:51PM

Method:
Email

Type:
Fix a problem (bug)

Problem:
I think you're well aware of this, but it bears reminding as it gets someone in our office at least once a week. If the Appointment Book window is arranged such that an appointment is even a little bit off the top or bottom of the window (in other words, the window is scrolled too high or too low, or is too small), that appointment can't be selected by clicking on it. Since the selection highlight is subtle, the usual result of this is that someone thinks they've selected an appointment, does something with it, only to later realize it wasn't the right appointment at all (if we're lucky).

Or they complain to me (and anyone else who will listen) that Dentrix has crashed.

Proposal:
Best: Allow the partially visible appointments to be selected.
Better than nothing: Pop up a warning if a user tries to select a partial appointment.

Comments:
This problem has been known to Dentrix since at least Nov 1999.

Support Grouping and Ordering of Treatment in Chart

Date:
10/24/2001, 3:38PM

Method:
Email

Type:
Improve an existing feature

Problem:
Our Dr.s like to group treatment together into appointments, specify the time for the appointment, and set order for the appointments. Even though we use the Tx Plan Presenter to group items, we still have some significant problems:

It is very hard to pass on to the scheduling people the times required for each appointment. The defaults for treatment are not sufficient as the time required may vary depending on difficulty in access, etc. We currently use fake procedure codes that get grouped with the real procedures to specify the time, but this solution has many drawbacks.
The groupings and priorities cannot be seen in the Chart. It is quite awkward to have to bring up the Tx Plan Presenter to see the "flow" of treatment for someone.

Proposal:
Add support in the Chart module to group treatment and specify time required for the groups. Allow those groups to be ordered, and displayed in that order in the Chart. While you're at it, let us specify that a group has been recommended but turned down by the patient.

Comments:
Someting similar is on the enhancement request list per 2/6/04 letter.

Allow Ordering of Treatment in PreEst

Date:
10/24/2001, 3:34PM

Method:
Email

Type:
Improve an existing feature

Problem:
When we prepare a Preliminary Determination of Benefits (PreEst) form, the procedures are ordered on the form (whether electronically submitted or printed on paper) in a Dentrix way. If the work is done in another order (as is most often dictated by clinical priorities or logistics), it can lead to problems with obtaining benefits from those plans which "reserve" against the plan year maximums.

Proposal:
Best: Allow treatment items to be ordered, grouped, and prioritized in the chart and then follow that ordering on the PreEst.
Good: Allow items to be reordered in the PreEst specifically.
Better than nothing: Follow the ordering set for the Tx Plan Presenter

Comments:
(None)

Allow Multiple Dental Claims for Procedures

Date:
8/7/2000, 2:53PM

Method:
Phone (Jacob)

Type:
Improve an existing feature

Problem:
We send a claim to dental plan X, then later need to send a claim to dental plan Y. (This happens, for instance, when a client didn't realize his plan had changed, or neglected to give us that info.) Now, we must delete the claim to X before we can send a claim to Y. If there is a payment (even a zero payment) in the history for the claim to X, this is impossible, and we have to resort to some very messy work arounds.

Proposal:
Allow more than one primary claim to be attached to procedures. This would allow us to:

Handle insurance changes much more easily
Not have to worry about entering a zero payment when we get a denial
Have a record (that would show to clients on their statements) of claims submitted on their behalf

Comments:
(None)

Improve Statement Printing from Ledger

Date:
1/10/2000, 2:15PM

Method:
Phone (Rand)

Type:
Improve an existing feature

Problem:
It is common to print a single statement for a specific account while working in the Ledger. The Statement button on the tool bar often works well for this, but in a number of situations it works poorly, confusing the staff and causing a lot of extra work. For instance, sometimes the statement is blank*, or the "balance forward" amount is questioned by a client.

Proposal:
Have separate configuration for statements printed from the Ledger. Set it up so that a statement always prints if requested from the Ledger, even if there are no transactions at all, because the user asked for it so he must want it. Ideally, have a setting that lets us make the "Balance Forward Date" be the last day the account balance was zero (so all "open" transactions will appear). Or at least put in a preference setting that would let us increase the "look back" time to more than 30 days.

Comments:
From Dentrix support: *This is because the statement printer uses the defaults stored for use by the "Billing Statements" report in Office Manager. If those settings are configured so that this account wouldn't get a statement printed in the batch (for instance, due to having outstanding claims, or a credit balance), then it won't print from the Ledger either."

From me: yeah, OK, so fix it please.

More Info for Secondary Claims

Date:
1/4/2000, 11:18AM

Method:
Phone (Ben)

Type:
Improve an existing feature

Problem:
Secondary dental plans sometimes pay as though they are primary, despite the fact that the primary carrier is listed on the claim, and the amount paid by the primary carrier is carried in the electronic claim submission. Support's workaround is to manually include a note about the primary amount in the claim note field.

Proposal:
Automate the workaround so that a "Primary plan paid $xx for this claim" can be automatically included in electronically submitted secondary claims.

Comments:
(None)

More Options for Autodialler

Date:
12/15/1999, 1:10PM

Method:
Email

Type:
Improve an existing feature

Problem:
The autodialler often doesn't have enough data for us to use it on its own. In particular, we need to make sure we don't bug clients who have instructed us to not call at certain times, etc. To do that now, we have to go to the FamFile and open the Patient Notes before any call. Also, many of our contacts are via email which isn't supported.

Proposal:
Things we would like to see with it include:

Phone number extensions
Email address and button to send
Patient notes so we can check for things like "day sleeper; don't call before noon" or "prefers email"

Comments:
(None)

Don't change Provider when Continuing Care changes

Date:
12/9/1999, 10:04AM

Method:
Email

Type:
Improve an existing feature

Problem:
When editing existing appointments, if you attach a CC item to the appointment, the provider will change to the default provider for that CC. Most of the time when making those changes we're updating the CC info but not scheduling with someone else! Then the user has to go and change the provider back. Very confusing and error prone. Support says most offices like it that way, but none I've talked to do; they're just used to it.

Proposal:
Add a preference item that allows this "feature" to be overridden.

Comments:
(None)

Facilitate Copying Settings from Station to Station

Date:
11/6/1999

Method:
Email

Type:
Add new feature

Problem:
It's tedious to configure settings on every workstation.

Proposal:
Add global preferences to allow us to select which items are "workstation specific" or not.
Provide a way to smoothly distribute settings in whole or part from one workstation to others. Or at least an easy way to Import/Export.

Comments:
Since this submission, the DentReg utility has been introduced which goes part way to achieving this.

Clearing Audit Trail needs Busy Cursor

Date:
11/1/1999

Method:
Email

Type:
Fix a problem (bug)

Problem:
If there's a lot in there, clearing the audit trail can take a while, but there is no indication of activity, leading the user to wonder if something has hung up.

Proposal:
Follow the standard Windows procedure of putting up a busy cursor while the process is running. A progress bar with a cancle option would be sweet in the ideal world...

Comments:
(None)

The following items were reported in the past, but seem to be addressed in recent versions of Dentrix:

Let "Do Not Nill to Insurance" work from the "Initial" list

Date:
9/20/2001, 3:37PM

Method:
Phone (Sandy)

Type:
Fix a problem (bug)

Problem:
If a procedure is added to an appointment from the "Initial" list (called "Appointment Reasons" in Definitions), the "Do not bill to insurance" feature doesn't work. If that appointment is set complete, all procedures are set to appear on dental claims, even if the procedure code was defined with "Do not bill to insurance" set.

Proposal:
Make it so the "Do not bill to insurance" setting is copied correctly, no matter how a procedure is associated with an appointment.

Comments:
This seems like an obvious bug, but support says it's supposed to work this way.