Recent research indicates fewer than 2% of general dentists maintain all of the patient records (both clinical and billing records) on their computers. Why such a small number?
Lack of trust in the reliability of computer-based records seems one possible answer. As true as this may have been at one time, computer usage is ubiquitous in 2008. Backup systems are easy to use and cheap, and virtually eliminate the risk of permanent loss of records. Besides, 25% of dentists already use computers chairside. Not to mention that many more use computers in their office even if there’s no computer in the operatory.
The best reason so few dentists maintain a “paperless” office is inadequacy of digital patient records in current software. As Titus Schleyer and his colleagues report, “Anecdotal evidence suggests that dental computer-based patient records (CPR) do not represent clinical information with the same degree of completeness and fidelity as paper records.” In other words, computer-based records are not very good. They don’t compete very well with paper records in recording essential patient information. (Drs. Schleyer, Hallek, and Hernandez are leading researchers in dental informatics.)
Hmmm. How bad can digital patient record formats be? Pretty bad. The articles suggests that leading software programs omit important categories of information and make it difficult to manually fill in the gaps. Little wonder the usage number is so low.
Our commercial: Dental Symphony was not considered in this research. Our patient record, in our judgment, solves the problem of the “Missing Digital Record”! It is both easy to use and complete.
