Dentally has announced new contactless reception features including online medical history, self-check-in and payment links, that has been integrated into the software to support dental practices with social distancing and COVID-19 guidelines.

As part of a contactless reception process patients will need to complete a medical history. Online medical histories allow patients to complete their medical history themselves via a unique link.

Once the patient clicks on the link it will take them to their medical history; once the patient completes the questions, they click to sign it and save it. As soon as the medical history has been completed it will appear in the patient's record in Dentally - and will show as being completed by the patient. The dental practitioner can then review the medical history as they would do normally and click to say they have done so.

The self-check-in features allows the practice team to send an SMS to patients arriving just prior to an appointment time at the practice. The patient can click on this link and check themselves in as they arrive on site, this will change their status within the Dentally software to 'Arrived'.

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It is simple to set up for the dental practice; you just need to use a new data tag in a default set SMS. When the patient clicks on the link, it will take them to a page that allows them to check in 30 minutes prior to their appointment.

If the patient clicks on the link before the 30 minutes, then the page will display a message to advise them that check is not yet open. This prevents anyone from checking in too early.

Once the dental practitioner has said goodbye to the patient and they have left the surgery - rather than a member of the staff having to have physical contact with the patient to take payment, it can now be done securely through a SMS sent straight to the patient.

The practice team can now send the payment link as soon as the patient has left the surgery or at certain times during the day as a bulk exercise. As you would expect from Dentally, this new functionality is easy to set up. To use this functionality, you will need to have a Stripe account for the payment. Once you have this, you can create a payment screen - which can be customised to include your practice logo and details. The payment page is fully responsive and will work for whatever phone, iPad or device the patient is using.

You can then create a SMS message with the information you wish to include and a data tag for the secure link to your payment page. Once it is sent to the patient, they see a secure link that allows the patient to pay the bill by clicking on the link to the payment page, using a credit/debit card, Apple Pay, etc. All of the relevant information, such as the patient's name and the payment due is shown on the payment page. Once completed, the payment will update the patient record within Dentally.

By using these new contactless reception features, it will help dental practices limit the number of staff members the patient has to come into contact during their visit for dental care but helps retain a seamless patient experience.

If you would like more information on how Dentally can make your life easier as you reopen your dental practice with their special toolkit of features, then email hello@dentally.co to talk to the team.