Security in dental office computing

Dental office computers are increasingly used to store critical financial and clinical data. That data is subject to loss or alteration from a number of possible sources. Secure communications, security of the computer system from outside attacks, and data back-up are discussed.

Helping dentists manage accounts receivable

First Pacific Corporation (FPC) has worked with dental practices since 1961, providing personal services that optimize practice performance. In addition to being the premier service provider for administrative tasks in dental offices, they supply state-of-the-art hardware and accounts receivable management software. FPC designs and teaches practice development strategies, deliver on-site training, and much more. FPC is dedicated to the long-term professional success of dental clients, their staff, and their practices through a unique, integrated package of services. As a family-owned business, with headquarters in Salem, Oregon, FPC employs approximately two hundred staff who serve practices in twenty-two states.

The dentist-laboratory relationship: a system for success

There are many changes occurring in the field of dentistry that are impacting the way dental offices and dental laboratories must work with each other. Materials and procedures are changing at an extremely rapid pace. At the same time, the knowledge and demands of the patient continue to rise. In order to navigate through these challenging waters, the relationship between dental office and laboratory must become one of corroboration and partnership. The relationship between dentists and laboratories should be viewed as an interactive system. With full participation, better education, and wise management of information, this partnership can grow to the benefit of all concerned.

Redesigning the medical office for improved efficiency: an object-oriented event-driven messaging system

Medical practitioners are under ever increasing pressure to maximize patient care, while minimizing costs. One productivity area that has not previously undergone thorough investigation is the efficient utilization of time for intra-office communication. Medical office personnel typically need to communicate patient information and resource requests, as well as personal messages. An intra-office communication system is designed that reduces time-waste typically incurred in medical office environments. Redesigning medical offices with intra-office communication systems provides time savings of several man hours per day. The subsequent increase in time efficiency enables higher quality of patient care and larger patient loads to be managed by existing medical staff.

Work force trends that influence dental service capacity

Although the total number of active private dentists increased by 21.7 percent between 1982 and 1995, the number of active private part-time dentists increased by 104 percent, while the number of active private full-time dentists increased by 8 percent. Thus, the total number of hours active private dentists spent in the office has not increased to the same extent as the number of active private dentists. During the same period, however, the average number of hours spent treating patients increased, indicating that dentists are becoming more efficient in directing their office hours toward clinical dentistry. The distribution of active private part-and full-time dentists and the actual number of hours they spent in the dental office and spent treating patients provide a more complete picture of the capacity of the dental care delivery system than only looking at the increase in the total number of dentists.