Dental Clinics
Introduction
The Dental Clinic in Houston, Texas, was one of the leading dental clinics in the region. However, with the increasing popularity and incoming patients in the dental clinics,
administration staff found work to be hectic and quite difficult to cope with, especially with limited space, restricted IT resources, and lack of patient focus due to the fast pace environment of the dental clinics. This is known to create havoc in the administration system of dental clinics.
This dental clinic in Houston was severely facing such issues with insurance claims, verification, patient registration, equipment maintenance scheduling, and preparing the dentist’s calendar. Such administrative tasks became overwhelming for the existing staff of dental clinics. Naturally, one would hire additional staff for the dental clinic, however, it isn’t feasible for new dental clinics that already have a pre-loan to start the business and are looking for ways to cut costs. This case study provides a brief overview of how this dental clinic made use of Virtual employees by Ossisto to leverage their dental start-up with a cost-effective solution.
Challenges Faced
While for a business like a Dental clinic in the US, getting a high influx of incoming patients is a good sign for business growth, it also invites tons of administrative work if you are not prepared for the same. Here are some of the common issues faced by the Dental Clinic with a high influx of patients with its soaring popularity.
*A poor scheduling system with overlapping patient appointments leads to chaos.
*The hassle of training and hiring a new workforce with added expenditure within the dental clinics.
*Finding skilled workers for task administration at a cost-effective price.
*Handling patients with ease and organizing file storage digitally.
*Answered queries and returned calls in the dental clinic.
*Scheduling maintenance and repairs of medical-grade equipment for seamless operations.
*Keeping detailed reports of patients and working on claims.
The Challenge
The dental clinic struggled quite a bit for this very reason, and the cost of hiring and the time for finding the right candidate was not feasible. With boosting visibility, the dental clinic became the answer to many individuals querying, “dental clinics near me”. These challenges impacted the business growth and became a barrier to improving the image of the dental clinic establishment. Patients always expect the best, and it isn’t easy to give it to them with a staff shortage, budgeting, and other factors.
The gist of the whole situation is that the dental clinic was feeling strained and swamped with task administration. Though the situation could be solved easily by hiring more staff, the expenditure and employee benefits on the same could be taxing for a budding business. Another aspect is that hiring staff could be quite difficult in this scenario with a shorter time frame and quality of work put in by workers.
The Solution
The dental clinic decided to go forward with Ossisto’s Virtual Assistants for task administration. The VA proved to be a valuable asset to the Dental clinic with a cost-effective and affordable hiring cost. However, the dental clinic benefits from the mass handling of patients effectively with time constraints and ease of scheduling appointments. Virtual Assistants turned around the business capability and improved customer support for handling patients
well with quality emergency dental services. This improved the rating of the dental clinic, and it now handles more patients than ever before. The scheduling time has been reduced, claims are processed faster, and insurance-related tasks are completed on time.
The impact of Virtual Assistants on the Business
The clinic was losing many patients due to a poor appointment schedule and chaos in getting a dental appointment with the doctor. Many patients also couldn’t process their insurance on time, and the clinic was bearing heavy losses in terms of capital loss and poor interaction with patience. The integration of Virtual Assistants with the administration of the Dental Clinic positively impacted the clinic with happy patients, faster insurance claims, reimbursement, streamlined work process, and more.
Efficient admin functionalities with VA
With the integration of the VA with the existing workforce, the process of insurance-related tasks has been streamlined. For instance, VAs were present to call and verify insurance companies for faster claims with benefits from the American Dental Association. The system also allowed Ossisto to patiently check eligibility for the patient and lay down insurance breakdowns for the best patient emergency dental services. Apart from this, as per ADA standards, the document attestation for insurance was seamlessly handled, and the clinic did not face any issues.
Adding attention to patients with a check-up call before the appointment promotes a reliable patient network. Earlier, this wasn’t feasible due to a shortage of staff. The VAs were also responsible for set-up the database, engaging in maintenance, and assisting in insurance claims
with a patient-centric approach to explain the benefits. One of the metrics that improved dramatically after getting Ossisto VAs onboard was the auditing and billing department, which documented each and every financial transaction and streamlined the process for tax claims.
Furthermore, the VA’s online portal made it easier for patients to schedule an appointment. A survey conducted by patients showed that they were quite happy with the appointment flexibility and wide range of options. The VA were also responsible for reducing total AR within a given TAT, learning database with EOBs, end-to-end tracking of payment history, clearing outstanding payments, and providing real-time dashboards for dentists on-call.
This improved the clinic’s efficiency with a cleaning management system, and guidelines were followed, abiding with HIPAA and CMS. In addition to this, the process of clearing AR inventory was made simpler with the establishment of a highly productive program.
The Verdict
The Dental clinic dramatically turned from a chaotic management environment to a streamlined management system with the integration of Virtual Assistants by Ossisto. Hiring such an experienced workforce to provide suggestions and that have efficient problem-solving skills leveraged the clinic to take in more appointments with the same workload. This improved the business model and the clinic’s reputation in the neighborhood. Virtual Assistant integration with the clinic prepared it to handle multiple patients in a day without compromising on patient care, emotional support, or task administration. It is a cost-effective investment to get VAs onboard, especially when the business has levelled up with a high volume of workload.
