Patient forms overview

Dentrix Ascend provides an online portal where patients can complete forms prior to or during their visits.

Configuration and maintenance

• Activating patient forms - You can activate a questionnaire or a consent form as needed. Activating a form makes it available for all patients to complete online. Questionnaires come pre-defined, so the fields that are available and the names of fields on forms cannot be edited. You can customize the text of consent forms.

• Changing the expiration date of a patient form - You can change the expiration date of a questionnaire or a consent form as needed. This will affect the due date of the form for all patients.

• Customizing consent forms - A consent form is a patient form that includes statements patients read and a checkbox patients can select if they agree with the statements. You can customize and activate up to five consent forms per location in your organization. Three of the five are blank by default. Activating a form makes it available for all patients to complete online.

• Customizing Consent for Dental Treatment messages - You can customize the Consent for Dental Treatment message that appears at the bottom of printed treatment plans and on treatment consent forms. Each location in your organization can have a different Consent for Dental Treatment message.

• Customizing financial disclaimers - You can customize the financial disclaimer (Insured/Uninsured Disclaimer) that appears at the bottom of printed treatment plans and on treatment consent forms. The disclaimer for insured patients is separate from the one for uninsured patients. Each location in your organization can have a different set of financial disclaimers.

• Creating custom treatment consent messages - You can create custom treatment consent messages that can appear at the bottom of printed treatment plans and on treatment consent forms. Each location in your organization can have a different set of custom treatment consent messages.

• Editing custom treatment consent messages - You can edit any custom treatment consent messages as needed. Each location in your organization can have a different set of custom treatment consent messages.

• Deleting custom treatment consent messages - You can delete any custom treatment consent message that is no longer needed for a location in your organization.

• Enabling patient forms - If you want to allow patients to complete questionnaires (such as demographic and insurance forms) and consent forms (such as financial policy and X-ray forms) online, you can enable the patient forms feature.

• Disabling patient forms - If you no longer want to allow patients to complete patient forms online, you can disable the patient forms feature. Disabling patient forms does not affect the records of patients who have completed any forms previously.

• Expiring patient forms - You can expire a questionnaire as needed. Expiring a questionnaire resets the due date of the form to the current date for all patients, regardless of what the expiration date was before it was reset. So, any patients who completed the form previously must complete it again.

• Inactivating patient forms - You can inactivate a questionnaire or a consent form that you no longer want to use. Inactivating a form does not affect the records of patients who have completed the form previously. When you inactivate a form, it will no longer be available to patients.

• Previewing patient form templates - You can quickly see what kind of information patients will enter on a given questionnaire.

• Registering kiosk devices - You can register a device to use as a kiosk for online patient forms. You can push a patient's forms to any registered device, so that patient can use your device to complete those forms.

• Renaming registered kiosk devices - You can rename any registered kiosk device. The name should help you identify the device to which you want to push a patient's forms.

• Deleting registered kiosk devices - You can delete any registered kiosk device that you no longer want to use for patient forms.

• Patient questionnaire forms list - Dentrix Ascend provides questionnaires for gathering demographics, insurance information, dental history, and medical history. Dentrix Ascend also provides a COVID-19 questionnaire.

Usage

• Requesting patient forms - You can send requests for patient forms to be completed using the following methods:

  • Bulk automated appointment reminders - Each appointment reminder that Dentrix Ascend sends out automatically by email and text message can include a button (with email messages) or a link (with text messages) that a patient can use to open the portal where he or she can complete online forms.

  • Individual manual request - You can manually send an email or text message with a link to a patient, such as when a patient accidentally deletes the text message for his or her appointment reminder. You can also have a patient complete forms in your office on a mobile device connected to the patient's online portal, such as when a patient shows up at the office without having completed the necessary forms.

• Completing patient forms (patient does this) - Patients can complete forms online prior to or during their visits. The patient can open the online portal from his or her appointment reminder by using the button (with email messages) or link (with text messages) provided. You can also open the patient's portal on a practice-owned mobile device.

• Viewing and editing completed patient forms - Dentrix Ascend automatically saves each completed patient form in the corresponding patient's document manager. You can view that form from various areas of Dentrix Ascend. While you are viewing the most recent version of the form, you can quickly switch to the previous version (if one exists) to compare the responses. Also, you can update the responses on the most recent version of a completed patient form and then sign it.

• Changing the due dates of patient forms - By default, the due date of a patient form is determined by the expiration date of that form. On a patient-by-patient basis, as the need arises, you can change the date that a patient form is due.