As a dental professional, you understand how important the analytical tools found in your lab and office workflow management software are for helping you make informed decisions about patient care. But what about analytics outside of the clinical space? What is needed is an electronic health record (EHR) system to provide data insights that can help with your business development efforts? And if you already have an EHR, how exactly do you go about getting at that data? These are all questions that require answers before you even begin looking into software solutions. Here’s what you need to know.
EHR
Is your EHR making money for your practice? Tracking key metrics and PQRS measures may be required for sustainable reimbursement, but you can also use them to drive revenue.
Data’s the foundation of building your practice analytics program
Building a successful analytics program begins with data. What kind of data do you need? Consider this: if you’re able to answer all the “W” questions (who, what, when, where, and why), as well as understand who your patient population is and how they interact with your clinic inside and out, then you’ll have a much better idea about what data will yield useful insights that can help take your practice to the next level.
It goes without saying that turning those into actionable plans will require data. You can’t set goals if you don’t know where you stand now, and it will be the job of your analytics program to help provide that information.
A look inside dental analytics software
So what does dental practice analytics software need to do? We surveyed users of dental practice management, dental EHRs, and lab/office workflow systems on their requirements for effective analytic tools. What we learned is that data needs to be presented in context, meaning at the right time with the right level of detail so that it’s useful without being overwhelming.
This means not only delivering insights about where patients are coming from (both online and offline) but also how they interact with your website or landing pages over time, as well as how they find out about your practice, what they think of it once they arrive and how long a visit lasts.
Dental analytics software needs to provide actionable insights that will help you make changes to better meet the needs of your patients. Discover dental analytics software solutions that can help you grow your practice!
How much does dental analytics software cost?
The actual price varies depending on which solution you’re looking at, but most systems we know of range from $49 – $199/month per user (pricing is typically paid annually via credit card or check). That might sound like a lot for an EHR system (which doesn’t exactly grow on trees), but that price gets you to access all of the analytic tools and customer support (i.e., fixing problems).
Do I need a separate system for dental analytics software?
One option is to integrate your existing EHR or practice management platform with an analytics solution we saw one company, at least, make this claim but we’re not sure how well that works. Even if it does, though, it’s still going to cost you money (and time) to do the integration work. If this is what you want then go for it! Just be aware of what’s involved before making any decisions around implementation and how much additional functionality you may actually get out of the box.
What about Analytics dashboards?
An analytics dashboard is a visual representation of data and information used for tracking and measuring business performance. These can be incredibly helpful when it comes to producing insights, but most dental software providers we know of don’t include them in their analytic platform at least not yet. It’s possible to create your own with Excel or Google spreadsheets if you wanted; we even found some free add-ons that will help out with this.
Lastly, A successful analytics program begins with the right data and context, which means using EHRs and workflow management systems as analytic platforms is an ideal solution that provides immediate access to all the metrics you need without having to integrate anything.