Imagine lying in the dentist’s chair, paper bib in place, mouth open just waiting for the dentist.
But they can’t read your x-ray. Their computers are down. The dentist can’t process or access your x-ray results or complete your treatment.
It’s a wasted appointment. A frustrating day for you, and a rough unproductive day at the office for your dentist.
Newcastle City Dental experienced the frustration of poor IT systems too many times.
‘We used to work with another IT company, but they weren’t local, they didn’t have real-time support and anytime something went wrong, we were at the bottom of the waiting list to get it fixed.
Practice Manager Terrie-Ann Lepisto admitted it was scary to switch and put your faith in a new IT provider, but it was time to bite the bullet.
‘If our IT goes down, we can’t function. We needed an IT company who delivers and doesn’t just talk the talk.
And that’s what we get with Gravity IT. The whole team goes above and beyond.’
Dental practices have always relied heavily on detailed records to provide excellent service. Slow, cumbersome paper patient files and old-school diaries have been replaced with an IT system that runs everything.
‘All our patient records and software programs work in real-time and through the internet. When we take bookings, we need everything to work symbiotically’.
For Newcastle City Dental, it’s vital that they can manage all aspects of a patient’s needs at any point in time, whether that’s keeping up to date records, being able to book or re-book appointments, read x-rays and reports or manage payments.
When you factor humans and human error into the mix, there’s always the chance of an IT screw up.
‘Software updates can mess things around when there are multiple systems working at the same time’ said Terrie-Ann.
‘ If any of those update happen concurrently, conflicts can occur. We’ll often have reception staff, dental nurses and dentists themselves reading documents all at the same time’.
The cost of broken or poorly functioning IT is huge for a dental clinic: the frustration factor for patients of long wait times or having to rebook, lost revenue and potential reputation damage.
‘If our computers aren’t working, we’re looking at significant income loss. And it really only takes one bad comment on social media to impact business and undo all the positive experiences our patients have had’.
With a Managed IT plan in place, Newcastle City Dental have peace of mind knowing their IT systems are working well, and they have backups in place should a system update create an issue.
‘It was the best move ever switching to Gravity IT. The whole team goes above and beyond’.
And that’s enough to make any dentist smile.
