Your Patient's Details Tab

Exploring the patient's details screen including, archiving & deleting patient records, as well as editing & updating details and images.

Shelley Withington avatar
Written by Shelley Withington
Updated over a week ago

Let's explore entering and editing the patient's details within Dentally. The Details tab is where the patient’s personal details are stored and edited. It is split into three verticle sections to make things easy to find.

Let's explore each section below;

We will also look at


Basic Details

Enter or edit a patient's personal details here.

  • Title

  • Full Name

  • DOB

  • Biological sex

  • NI/NHS Number

  • Insurance Number

  • Ethnicity - From a drop-down list for NHS Transmission purposes.

You can add up to 2 additional custom fields here from Settings > Practice > Other > Custom Fields & Charting.

If you require more than two additional fields, you can do this from Settings > Practice Settings >Custom Fields tab.


Address & Phone

  • Address

  • Phone Numbers - Bear in mind that SMS messages will only be sent to the number in the Mobile field.

  • Email

  • Preferred contact method

  • Doctor - From a searchable list configured from the Settings Menu in Contacts

  • Occupation - From a searchable pre-defined list

  • Set up Family Members here if needed.

The Nationality options on the phone numbers will insert the correct dialling code for the country selected.

Important to Note! If a text or email is returned automatically saying the number or email is unavailable, the preference is automatically set to NO. Therefore, If you see a mobile number or email and the preference is set to NO, please check that the number or email is correct with the patient and that the preference is set correctly.


Preferences

  • Location - This will only show for multi-site practices and is used to identify the usual location the patient attends. This allows you to automatically assign the correct Dentist and Hygienist from that site.

  • Payment Plan - select from a drop-down list of your already created plans.

  • Dentist - select the patient's dentist. This is important for recalls, and appointments. Adding the Dentist ensures continuity of care and automatically assigns the patient to that Dentist. This will be the Dentist automatically assigned for Dentist Recalls.

  • Hygienist - assign a Hygienist to the patient for continuity of care. This will be the Hygienist automatically assigned for Hygienist recalls.

  • Receive Email - Do patients wish to receive emails from you? If yes, there must be an email address in their record.

  • Receive SMS - Do patients wish to receive SMS texts from you? If yes, there must be a valid mobile number in the Mobile field.

  • Marketing consent - does the patient want to receive non-clinical updates and news from you? You can report on this field later when looking to send communications out to your patients.

  • Dentist Recall interval - this is set at the end of each course of treatment by the Dentist. If it is not set, it is automatically set to 6 months for a new patient, but can easily be changed here.

  • Next Dentist Recall - Calculated from the patient’s last Exam appointment but can be changed here.

  • Hygienist Recall interval - this is set at the end of each course of treatment by the Hygienist. If it is not set, it is automatically set to 6 months for a new patient, but can easily be changed here.

  • Next Hygienist Recall - Calculated from the patient’s last S&P appointment but can be changed here.

  • Recall method - The patients' preferred method of contact when sending recalls.

  • Acquisition Source - This shows how the patient found the practice. From a configurable list in Settings > Contacts.


Adding a Patient Profile Photo

Once you have saved the patient's details, you can also add a picture if you wish by clicking the coloured square beside the patient's name at the top of the patient record.

You can either choose to 'Upload a new photo' which will require you to have an image stored on your computer which you can then select and use.

You may also see options such as Use Twitter photo or Use Facebook photo. This will require you to enter the patient's username so it can sync to their profile photo there.


My Patients profile Image has been automatically uploaded?

Should you encounter the patient's profile image being automatically uploaded when you create their new patient account or update their email address, This is due to the patient having an online profile where their email is set up with, or linked to, a Gravatar account.

If a patient has previously set up or linked an email address to a Gravatar account, then Dentally will automatically update their patient image with that associated with their public Gravatar domain.

Gravatar is a sign-up service specifically intended to share your profile image based on your email address. Gmail, Yahoo, WordPress and various others provide this as part of your profile with them.

There is no requirement for you to seek permission or ask for consent, as the patient/user would have agreed to this when they created their Gravatar account.

Please note that currently, you are unable to overwrite this by uploading your own patient profile photo.


Additional Options

Dentally Patient Details - Additional options

Save

Click ‘Save’ after you have changed any of the patient's details.

As you make changes to the patient's details, the save button turns blue, visually reminding you to save your changes.

If you try to leave the screen without saving your changes, a pop-up box will ask you to confirm that you wish to leave without saving changes.

Click Cancel and then click Save.

Custom Fields

Custom fields for patient details are created in Settings > Practice >Custom fields.

The More Menu

Dentally Patient Details - More button
  •  Add a Family Member - This allows you to quickly add a new patient with some information copied from the currently open patient’s record. Or you can link two already existing patients together in a family group. This can make booking family appointments quicker and easier for the reception team.

  •  Archive Patient - This allows you to take a patient out of the day-to-day system and set an archive reason against them for clarity. This will still keep all their information stored in Dentally. They can be searched for still by typing an asterisk (Shift 8) in front of the details when searching. The record can also be unarchived if required.

  • Delete record - Allows those with Level 4 (administrator) permission levels to delete the patient record.

The Call button

You can now call patients directly from Dentally. See our How to call from Dentally web page to find out more.

The Patient Details Record update

Along the bottom of the patient’s Details tab is a box that informs you of who last updated the patient's record and when.

You will also find information on how long the patient has been a patient at your surgery.

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