Wednesday, February 11, 2015
There are millions of small businesses across America struggling to compete and maintain their customers. This is an environment the dental community knows well.
Technology provides one way dentists can compete against similar practices down the road and around the corner. There are numerous ways technology can be used to improve a dental practice, so it can be difficult to decide where to start. Here are a few ways to use technology to increase profits and stay on track in the New Year.
1. Organize Digital Assets with Existing Tools
Years ago it took paying someone to set up a file server or domain to kick off a business. Now, in the age of smartphones and apps, most of these components are just a few clicks away for little to no cost. Dentists can save money on an IT company in 2015 and instead invest in Google Drive for file storage and backup. Your employees can sync your desktop calendar schedule with your smartphone so you’ll never lose track of patient responsibilities.
2. Collaborate in the Cloud
Let’s face it, business is constantly evolving, no matter the industry. The dental world of 2015 is no different. This means dental colleagues and contemporaries are not always accessible in person, and dental professionals need to diversify their means of interaction. Collaborating remotely via cloud services is one of the most efficient ways to connect. Collaborators can share patient data and programs online, while editing documents together in real-time. Although it sounds expensive, many cloud services that provide these solutions for collaborative productivity are free.
3. Go paperless
One of the biggest expenses many healthcare offices still incur (despite our highly digitized world in 2015) is paper. Paper, printers, ink, and supplies together form a costly segment of your budget which can be avoided easily. We now have digital signatures to sign contracts, electronic statements to show billing activity, and email that makes fax machines obsolete. Resolve to push your practice towards digital solutions and automated processes this year. They will be cost effective for you and painless for your patients.
4. Upgrade your memory
Revamping your office computer system’s memory will lengthen its lifespan, saving your practice time and money in 2015 and beyond. Memory (or DRAM), is the component within your computer that provides short-term data access to run multiple applications at once. When your computer has more memory, it can run more applications at once and your employees can perform tasks more efficiently. The good news: Computer memory upgrades start out at around $50 apiece. This relatively inexpensive fix can go a long way to making sure your office system is as reliable as possible.
This is just a selection of the many technologies at dentists’ disposal to help save money in the New Year. By following these tips, you can free up some of your budget and time to focus on what is most important – providing the best possible care to your patients.