24 Sep Tablet Mode

File Away the Filing

I hate filing. Before joining Pearl I worked at a pension company. I would spend my afternoons filing new prospects, filing old clients, the information that’s attached to each client and all the maintenance that comes with a full filing cabinet.

I’m not too good at filing either. It would take me longer then I’d like to admit (two cups of tea and a packet of supportive biscuits) to work out what order to file John Martinez, John Martine and John Martines in.

Since joining Pearl I’ve not had to file a thing. The nightmare that is filing has been filed away in the darkest deepest area of my brain never to be seen again. I’m so far removed from ‘file life’ that I’ve forgotten the battle that many dental teams experience daily with their filing cabinet. That was until I started work on the announcement for our new tablet integration.

Pearl Dental fully integrates with Windows tablets.

“So much less filing”

I rang Skircoat Green, a brilliant dental practice using Pearl Dental and one of the first to get ‘tablet mode’. I wanted to see how it was changing their day-to-day running of the practice, particularly for Chloe who is part of the reception team. The first thing Chloe said was; “It’s made my life a lot easier on reception, so much less filing!”

I’d not really grasped the impact using ‘PearlPad’ has on the filing cabinet until then. With PearlPad, you don’t need to print off a medical history form, treatment plan, consent form/s, FP17DCs or your PR Form to give to the patient to sign, collect, scan/ stack for filing. The pad is handed to the patient for them to fill-out in the waiting area and handed back to you once completed. The completed forms are automatically stored or updated on the patient record depending on what the patient has filled in. It simply takes the filing off your hands.

You don’t need to worry about the security of your documents either. Whether you manually backup using our backup tool, or use our online backup, your stored data is fully encrypted and secure.

Roomy Reception

Having a quieter reception is the dream of most reception staff and the nightmare of most practice owners. But a quiet reception doesn’t have to mean less business through the doors.

Reception is responsible for a huge number of tasks during the day-to-day running of a practice. Anything to reduce the workload and make reception run smoothly will help. PearlPad allows you to ‘delegate’ tasks to the tablet. For example, PearlPad can be used for updating the patient’s personal information, putting the onus on the patient. This is a great way to disperse the workload, so the reception team has more time to focus on other tasks.

PearlPad also reduces traffic around reception, so at busy times your patients won’t have to queue too long to speak to a member of the team. Your patients can take a seat with PearlPad in hand and fill it out their paperwork at their own pace, ensuring the information is accurate, and information read is fully understood.

And by gathering patient data directly in this way you gain the additional benefit of compliance with the requirements of the GDPR that came into effect May 2018.

Delegate medical histories, treatment plan, FP17DC, PR forms and consent forms to your tablet.

What Exactly can I do with PearlPad?

PearlPad takes care of pretty much any data task you used to do on paper (or the old Topaz signers for PearlPlus users) plus a little bit more.

These currently include:

• Medical History – patients can update their medical histories straight on the pad and this information will automatically sync with their medical history on the patient record to ensure you’re as up to date as possible. They will also be prompted to sign it confirming the details they’ve added are accurate.
• Treatment Plan – patients can sign their proposed treatment plan and a copy of this is stored in the patient’s folder.
• Consent Forms – you can design multiple personalised consent forms for the patient to sign. These can range from consent for treatments to consent for using their pictures for your portfolio of work – it’s really whatever you’d like to put on them. The signed consent form will then be stored in your patient’s record folder.
• FP17DC & PR Forms – if you’re an NHS practice you’ll be used to getting your patients to sign 100s of these a week. This can now be done on the PearlPad. The FP17DC will sync up with your treatment plan proposals. The PR form is fully filled in by the patient including exemption status. They can then read through their declaration before signing it. A copy of each document will be saved into the patient’s record.

What’s the Damage?

You’ll need to purchase your Windows tablet and we only ask that you meet the minimum specification. You can spend as much or as little as you’d like on that purchase and choose your own supplier or ask us for a recommendation.

We’re not fans of added extra costs hidden away in the fine print. We like to buck the trend of pricey extras that other practice management providers sneak in. Tablet setup, updates and troubleshooting are all included in your Pearl Dental software subscription.

Sign me up!

Getting set up with the PearlPad is easy. You’ll need to order a Windows tablet with a minimum 64GB space and 2GB of RAM.

We recommend Microsoft Surface Go, which we know works well with the program! We also have a recommended supplier. If you’d like to know more give us a call on 0116 275 9995.

Once you have your tablets, contact us for install and setup. We can run through a few examples with you to find the best setup for using it in the practice – and help brainstorm ideas of how to dispose of that pesky old filing cabinet.