Why do we need online check-in for patients?
Corona Virus Pandemic has changed so many things around us. Most of those things involve mitigating the risk of exposure. We have to keep our dental offices open to serve the needs of our patients. To be able to do that we have to do everything we can to reduce the risk not only to our patients but also to our team.
Steps that many dental offices have taken range from barriers in the front office, enhanced PPE for clinical staff, air purifiers in treatment rooms, extra oral suction devices etc. These steps are in addition to an already robust infection control protocol followed by dental offices.
Most dental offices have also switched to some form of “contact less” check-in for their patients. This minimizes the need to use waiting areas and also minimizes patient to patient interaction and hence minimizes potential exposure. Some offices are asking patients to call when they have arrived. Some ask their patients to text them once they have arrived. Each of this methods work but have some potential downfalls. There is potential to miss the phone calls if staff is on call with another patient. Texting is a good alternative provided you have a good platform that is intuitive for your team to text back and forth with patient. With each of this options either the staff then calls the patient or texts them to do the Covid-19 screening questionnaire or someone physically goes out to the patient car and gets the questionnaire filled and takes patient temperature. All of this takes precious staff time and potentially slows down the process.
We streamline the check-in process for you, patient does all the work by following one single link. Try the Demo
At Onlinedentalcheckin.com we have combined the check-in and Covid-19 screening questionnaire into one.
Once you sign up, you will receive a customized check-in link which will be www.onlinedentalcheckin.com/yourdentalofficename and will also receive a shorturl that you can use within a text message send to patients.
Here is how we recommend you use this site
Day before appointment: Sent scheduled patients text reminder through your automated reminder platform. The message instructs them to check-in on your customized check-in site when they arrive for their appointment. If you don’t use text reminders then you can leave this instructions with patient when you call for appointment reminders.
Day of the appointment: Have some form of signage outside of your office or on the main door that instructs patients that if they have an appointment then they should go to your customized link to check-in. This will help with patients that don’t receive your text from day before. Patients that received the text message reminder will just click on the link you send them and they will check-in there. No need to call or text office.
Your office will receive an email notification within 10 seconds (almost instantly in most cases). This email will have the patient information and their answers to the Covid-19 questionnaire. Call patient or text them to let them know that you received their check-in and that once their provider is ready you will send another text or call them again to let them know to come in. If you decide that you need to reschedule them due to something they marked on the Covid-19 screening questionnaire, then this can be done without any staff ever coming in close contact to patient at this point. The notification email also contains a pdf file of the check-in and Covid-19 questionnaire that can be printed or saved to patient file in your dental software.
You can then let your hygienists, assistants know their patient is ready and then follow your normal protocols as it pertains to taking temperature and so on.
How much does this service cost ?
This service is being offered at NO COST to dental offices through December 31, 2020. We anticipate this to cost $10/month starting January 1, 2021. You don’t need to do anything right now, no credit cards needed. Towards the end of the year we will send you instructions on how to sign up to keep your customized office link active. If you do nothing then your link will be inactive on January 7, 2021.
What is included?
Your customized page with your office logo for check-in and Covid-19 intake form- No Cost
Custom shorturl to include in text messages with a sample text message template- No Cost
Custom QR code that you can post on your office door or front desk- No Cost
Ready to offer Online Check-in to your patients? Sign up here
Have more questions? Contact us