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NHS

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The NHS Healthcheck

Keeping on top of your NHS contract can be tough, no doubt about it. During training we are often asked what the best way of keeping track of whether a practice is meeting the targets in their NHS contract and how to manage it. Of course, every practice runs a little differently but we have a suggested workflow that I would like to share.

When it comes to keeping on top of your NHS contract and claims, Dentally gives you all the tools. Each patient has an NHS tab which gives practitioners the ability to check the status of submitted claims. This is a great addition to the NHS workflow within Dentally which gives you an ‘at-a-glance’ overview of a patient’s status.

Dentally - Dental Software - NHS

When it comes to the full worfklow, the first thing that we always suggest is that one person in the practice is chosen to oversee the NHS health check and keep the relevant stakeholders up to date with a report. We recommend running this workflow once or twice a month for best effect. Most of the reports discussed here are exportable, if a formal report is to be published for your practice.

The typical way we see the NHS workflow run is as follows:

  1. Check claims, ensuring there are no invalid responses
  2. Check your practice and individual targets
  3. UDA performance
  4. Takings
  5. Practice Stats

Claims Report

The main place you will be working from when it comes to the NHS workflow is from the NHS claims report. From this report you can see the entire overview of your NHS contract.

Dentally - Dental Software - NHS Reports

You can use the report to view your most recent claims or look back into the past. You can also dig deeper into the report, segregating the claims by band, performer or status. The report also gives you information on which performer submitted the claims, the UDA’s expected and received, any charge for the treatment and comments received from the NHS.

Dentally - Dental Software - Band

Dentally - Dental Software - Performer Section

Dentally - Dental Software - Status

Often, the most useful feature is the status report as you are able to see the status of every claim in your practice. We find that practices use the error, queried and invalid statuses the most but you can also segregate by other statuses if required. Being able to see any claims that have an error or are queried allows you make the required corrections before sending them off again.

Dentally - Dental Software - NHS Report Claims

This is useful within the monthly check up but somebody in your practice should be doing this a few times a week to ensure you are receiving your UDA’s on time. If you need to make corrections or additions to any of the claims you can simply click on the patient’s name from within the report to be taken to that patient’s record.

Targets

We have found that practices often have individual targets for practitioners that they are required to meet. This is a great way of motivating your staff and helping to drive sales. Changing the performer on the report will allow you to check how each practitioner is performing and if they are meeting their required targets. This can be used as part of any feedback you have for a practitioner.

Dentally - Dental Software - Performer

Although band targets are harder to quantify - fully depending on what treatment each patient needs - if you have practice wide targets that you would like to hit you, you can also use the report for searching through a particular band.

NHS UDA’s

Dentally - Dental Software - NHS UDA Report

Achieving the UDA target of your contracts and not exceeding it is always the goal of an NHS practice and in the UDA report you can see how you are doing. Using this report you can see if you are meeting your monthly UDA targets. You can click the columns on this report to drill down deeper into the results.

Dentally - Dental Software - NHS UDA Drilldown

Takings

Having an NHS workflow is designed to help you monitor and increase your profits from the contract. Using the Takings Report you can see a financial report of how well your NHS contract is going.

The report should help you gain an insight into the typical cost per patient that you are performing and help you to plan for future contracts. If you have a typical amount you would like to achieve on the contract each month, this is the place to view it.

This report can also be used to assist in calculating the payment that each practitioner receives from the treatments they have performed.

Practice Stats

This report is a great report for getting a snapshot of how the practice performing week-on-week or month-on-month. It gives you a quick overview of your patient visits and appointments and also lets you know if you are achieving your NHS contract goals. The UDA and Claim bars will show you an approximate view of how you are performing which is great for practice managers or owners who want a quick view.

Dentally - Dental Software - Practice Stats Report

This workflow is just one possible way to do it. Can it be adjusted to fit your practice? Is there anything else you do when checking your UDA statistics? Let us know what works best for you.

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