Sat, Nov 21 2009
|
|
Published January 05, 2009 02:33 pm - In what Robert Wood calls “the old days,” the team at Dr. Robin Wood Dentistry would sit around one computer in the conference room and print out the day’s schedule. Dentist office goes paperless By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
news@joplinglobe.com PITTSBURG, Kan. — In what Robert Wood calls “the old days,” the team at Dr. Robin Wood Dentistry would sit around one computer in the conference room and print out the day’s schedule. Someone would notice a change to be made and run up front to the office to make that change, then print out a new schedule for everyone to see. The staff would evaluate the day’s patients by going through each one’s folder of medical records, all printed on pieces of paper. As things changed, new pieces of paper would be printed out and added. That was then. This is now. During “morning huddle,” the team still meets in the conference room, but its members are armed with medical-grade portable computers — they call them “tablets” — the size and shape of a clipboard. Team members use them to make decisions about that day’s patients “on the fly,” said Robert Wood, the dentist’s husband, who is the practice’s technology director. Members of the team carry the digital tablets from treatment room to treatment room, using them with patients to call up medical histories, past digital images, notes about what to watch for in the future, and even forms for patients to sign right from the treatment chair. This idea of a “paperless office” sparked the enthusiasm of the husband-and-wife team in 2000, just as Robin Wood was looking at setting up a dental practice. They saw the potential to improve office efficiency and productivity, enrich customer service, and reduce environmental impact. “True office efficiency is in everything,” Robert Wood said. “Not just environmentally, not just with the patients, not just with the staff, but all of it.” By fully integrating their new system, he said, the couple’s dream is to eliminate “file cabinet after file cabinet of documents, working toward being totally paperless.” “We’re just waiting on software to catch up,” he said. “In the past, it has been inefficient. What paperless has meant is scanning and entering forms into the system, then shredding the hard copy.” What it means in the Woods’ office: n Signatures: “One of the best electronic document softwares is Adobe Acrobat, which allows a user to add an electronic signature,” Robert Wood said. “We have used that as a guide. With the new version, it automatically certifies the signature right when you sign it, and if any changes are made to the document after it’s signed, it lifts that certification.” The tablets can be sterilized, are durable for a clinical environment, and use a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard so they can be taken to another exam or treatment room. 
•
Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.
More from the Business section
|
Print this story
E-mail this story
Post to del.icio.us
Discuss this story
Water company wants variance
Watch the day's top business stories unfold
 |
 |
: Special Offer For New Subscribers :
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
|
|
Published by Newspaper Holding, Inc. 117 East Fourth Street, Joplin, MO 64801 Using our site is your agreement to the terms and conditions. News: news@joplinglobe.com • (417)623-3480 Advertise with the Joplin Globe Copyright © 2006 The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO All rights reserved. 
|
Popular Business directory links - Joplin Apartments | Joplin Attorneys | Joplin Auto Dealers | Joplin Auto Parts | Joplin Auto Repair | Joplin Beauty Salons | Joplin Car Rental | Joplin Dentists | Joplin Doctors | Joplin Flowers | Joplin Hotels | Joplin Insurance | Joplin Loans | Joplin Mortgages | Joplin Movers | Joplin Pizza | Joplin Realtors | Joplin Restaurants | Joplin Storage | Joplin Tax Preparation | Joplin Travel | Joplin Featured | More...
|
|
Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. • CNHI Classified Advertising Network • CNHI News Service |
