Managing Patient Alerts

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If you have patients who are routinely late, qualify for discounts, have large overdue balances, etc. Dentrix can alert you to these patients and situations. You can create patient alerts that are assigned to individual patients, selected family members, or entire families. And, you can set them to only appear in areas of Dentrix where they are relevant.

Watch this video to learn how to manage patient alerts. (Duration 2:11)

Additional Tips

  • You can create a patient alert from any Dentrix module except the Office Manager.
  • A valid date range, description, note, and at least one selected area must be selected/entered to create a patient alert.
  • Once a patient alert has been attached to a patient, a pop-up alert message appears when you access the preselected areas of Dentrix for that patient.
  • When a pop-up message appears, you can select Do Not Show This Alert Again Today to prevent it from appearing for the rest of the day; however, make sure that everyone who needs to see the note has seen it that day (or is aware of it) before you dismiss it.
  • If more than one staff member creates patient alerts, they should add their initials to the end of the notes, so others know who to contact if they have questions about the alerts.
  • For patient alerts that you use most often, you can create alert note templates from the Office Manager, by clicking Maintenance > Practice Setup > Definitions and add or edit Alert Notes.
  • If you want to include expired patient alerts in the Patient Alerts list, select Include Expired Alerts.
  • If you don’t want to view patient alerts on your workstation, go to the Office Manager and click Maintenance > Practice Setup > Preferences and then click the Suspend Patient Alerts checkbox. Patient alerts will be suspended from displaying on that workstation until the suspension is removed.
  • To learn more about managing patient alerts, read Creating Patient Alerts in Dentrix Help.

Check Your Knowledge

If you have access to Dentrix, check your knowledge with this exercise.

  1. Switch to the Dentrix demo database.
    (Skip this step if you are using the Dentrix Learning Edition software.)
  2. Using the following information to create a patient alert for Rachelle Johnson:
    • End Date: January 1st of the next year
    • Options:
      • Show Symbol on Appointment
      • Apply to all family members
    • Description: Benefits Maxed
    • Note: Insurance benefits maxed out for the year. Don’t schedule any more appointments this year unless she pays in full at time of service.
    • Display: Display for all appointment-related tasks
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