by the HP PC Learning Center

Do the cables, connections and ports in your home and office confuse you?

Understand the connectivity of your TV, PC, and other digital entertainment products by making sense of them on your devices.

Click here to learn more: http://cli.gs/cables

Periodically we here at Datacon Dental take this space in our Newsletter to spotlight our clients who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. This month we have the extreme pleasure of spotlighting four extraordinary clients! If someone on your staff has done something special to make a difference, please let us know!

Dr. James (JT) Henley of Rohnert Park, CA was recognized for his years of community involvement. These are just some of his notable community building achievements: Dr. Henley has been a founder and board member of SCAYD since 1984, is former president (twice) of Active 20-30 Club, Rohnert Park Parks & Recreation Commissioner, he helped form the Technical High School on Sonoma State University campus, coached CYO basketball teams, Rohnert Park Economic Development Committee member, Chamber of Commerce board member and former president, six years with Education Foundation including term as president and numerous other community betterment groups. Our (collective) hats are off to you, Dr. Henley! THANK YOU for your many years of community service! Visit this link to view the full article that appeared in The Community Voice: http://cli.gs/jameshenley

Dr. Kevin J. Garvin of Cloverdale, CA is a Commander in the US Naval Reserves. He has been called to active duty and will be leaving for three months of training in Mississippi to prepare for active duty in Afghanistan. Dr. Garvin will be serving as Dentist to the CB Marines. While he is away, two local dentists have made arrangements to care for his patients. Dr. Brad Chun (Windsor, CA) and Dr. Lambeth (Ft. Bragg, CA) will be sharing his patient load during this time. Dr. Garvin and his wife have two sons in high school. Please join us in saying a great big THANK YOU to Dr. Garvin for stepping in to serve our country!

Dr. Adrian Fenderson of Napa, CA has been practicing dentistry for almost 40 years. His involvement in humanitarian missions throughout the world, as well as his local community efforts, have earned him the prestigious Jefferson Award for the Northern California Bay Area. Sharon Chin, news reporter for CBS Channel 5-KPIX, presented him with his award and interviewed him on camera for a segment that aired on December 26. The archived news story is available at: http://tinyurl.com/yge4wns Dr. Fenderson was honored for such efforts as his Free Dental Day and his Do-A-Good-Deed Contest (to encourage local youth volunteerism) as well as his fundraisers and support of COPE Family Center, Molly’s Angels, and the Napa Food Bank. Congratulations Dr. Fenderson, and THANK YOU for your years of community service. For more information, visit: http://cli.gs/adrianfenderson

Dr. Daniel Miyasaki of Sacramento, CA was recognized by the CDA this past September for his years of dedicated service to advancing the level of clinical excellence and the quality of dental meetings as a member of the Board of Managers, Scientific Sessions. Congratulations Dr. Miyasaki and THANK YOU for many years of dedicated service to the dental community.

For the past 28 years, Datacon Dental Systems has offered its employees the opportunity to vote for a fellow employee who, in their minds, best contributes to the company’s philosophy, spirit and objectives.

For 2009, our winner is Andy Speicher, our lead technician. Andy has been with Datacon since July 2000 and has been chosen as Employee of the Year a record four times; this year as well as 2002, 2005 and 2008. Employees vote on a monthly basis and these monthly votes are then tallied at the end of the year to determine Datacon’s employee of the year.

Congratulations to Andy for this tremendous achievement.

by Julie Thompson

Our Customer Support Team, here at Datacon Dental, has had the opportunity to look at some of your Practice Management Systems while helping you with various tasks. We have noticed that many could benefit from a little “Spring Cleaning.”
Items that raise a red flag are severely outdated recall, outstanding insurance forms, and old User Defined Lists, to name a few.

One item that should always be monitored is remote system access. As more people setup remote connections to their Datacon Dental System from home via pcLink, it is vital that you immediately restrict access to an employee that leaves the dental practice. To do this, simply remove their initials from the Datacon Dental System and Time Clock user files. This prevents that employee from entering your system using their user logon. The steps are simple and will give you peace of mind for the security of your software.

Much like any other cleaning, tidying up your data files is not necessarily a task that you or your staff are clamoring to tackle! Why not allow the Datacon Dental Support Team to clean it up for you?

Our Support Team will connect to your system via modem or DSL, run programs to remove old data, clean up the User Defined Lists, inactivate old dental patients, and run a few diagnostic programs to keep your Practice Management System running at its best!

This service has been discounted to $80.00 per hour. The process usually takes about two hours, however some systems may require more time. We will work quickly and efficiently to make your system run smoothly.

Give us a call today to schedule your “Spring Cleaning!”

By Stacey Byrne

As you may remember, in early 2003 Datacon prepared and signed HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) business associate agreements with all of our clients. This agreement states that Datacon, as a recipient of Protected Health information from a Health Care Provider, (you), will properly safeguard this protected health information pursuant to the written agreement contained in the HIPAA Regulations (particularly 45 CFT 164.504(e))

This agreement specifies that Datacon will care for and protect this patient data while caring for your Datacon system:

Converting your data to Datacon Dental Systems format

Converting your data with regards to the sale or acquisition of your practice

Installing, upgrading your Datacon system or network

Troubleshooting your system

Training your staff members

Designing and developing reports for your practice(s)

It is our belief that you should have a signed HIPAA agreement with ANY entity that has access to your patient data. This includes digital imagery, electronic submission, automated recall software vendors and website creators that have access to your patient data. If you are interested in more information about HIPAA rules and regulations, please visit http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/index.html

If you cannot find your copy of our Business Associate Agreement, please contact our office to request an electronic or hard copy for your records.

by Brian Benefield

Have you been reading about how digital x-rays have a host of advantages over traditional film? Has a colleague told you about the benefits of showing a patient their condition on a large flat-screen monitor? Are you interested in submitting an electronic copy of an x-ray to the insurance carrier and having the claim paid faster? How nice would it be to say goodbye to all of the x-ray chemicals? The benefits of digital x-rays are real and there is no time like the present to make the change.

Let us help you sort through the options available to you. Because Datacon Dental is able to integrate with all of the major digital x-ray software, we have vast experience with the various dental x-ray systems and have collected feedback from our clients regarding image quality, customer service, value, price, diagnostic tools, etc. Plus, our technicians have tremendous expertise when it comes to installing computer hardware in dental operatories.

• Why are laptops generally inferior to PCs in the back office?
• Where will the PC go?
• Is there power available at that location?
• How will the monitor(s) be positioned so patients and staff can clearly see the screen, yet not be in the way and subject to damage?
• Where will the digital x-rays be stored and how will they be backed up?
• Do we hardwire the network rather than going wireless?
• How much should you budget for the computer hardware and installation?

With so many options, why not lean on Datacon Dental Systems for help? Avoid the common pitfalls by contacting us today!

Are you using your computer to its greatest advantage? This workshop provides an overview of how the Datacon Dental Practice Management System can streamline many areas of your dental office routine:

• TRACKING PATIENTS
• RECALL / SCHEDULING
• TREATMENT PLAN
• INSURANCE TRACKING
• FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS
• PATIENT VISIT OPTIONS
• RETRIEVING AND ANALYZING INFORMATION

This class is offered online, at your dental office, or here at our Santa Rosa, CA training facility.

Contact us today to sign up for this POWERful class.

Watch your email for Datacon’s eNewsletter, it contains a discount training coupon.

*Not receiving our email newsletter yet? Signup with the link on the right to receive all these updates automatically!

By Joseph Rogina

And the question I get asked all the time is, “Is it time to upgrade my office?” Windows 7 offers a really nice user interface and will work on many of your workstations where Windows Vista would not. This, however, is not reason enough to upgrade. I have been running Windows 7 on a notebook since before the Release Candidate. I love the look and feel, but it took a lot of work to finally get it working properly. Why? Because of the issues listed below.

Whether we’re talking about a home PC or an office PC, I would definitely recommend researching before an upgrade. If you are running Windows Vista already, an upgrade is the way to go. Regardless, you will want to know what you are getting into ahead of time. For that, you will want to run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.  This will let you know if the PC in question is capable of running Windows 7 and will give you recommendations about possible hardware upgrades that should be made before installing the new OS.

For any PC user, your day-to-day computer use consists of running a certain selection of applications. I would recommend looking into these applications to be sure that the versions you have are compatible with Windows 7. For example, you may need to upgrade your versions of Photoshop, Firefox, etc. before they will work on Windows 7.

The PC’s hardware may be an issue as well. If you are running Windows Vista and everything is ok, then all your hardware should be fine. If you are running Windows XP, however, you may very well have hardware that is not compatible with Windows 7. You will want to look at the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor results to determine which, if any, hardware will have issues, then look at the hardware manufacturer’s website to see if they have an updated driver. The easiest way to eliminate the hardware from the equation is to just purchase a new PC that already has Windows 7 running on it.

The next step would be to determine which version of Windows 7 is right for you. If you are upgrading from Vista, you are limited to what version you can use. Look at the Windows Upgrade Considerations page to see what upgrades you are eligible for. If you are doing a clean install, you can pick from any of the versions that meet your requirements. See the Windows 7 Compare Editions page to see what they offer. 

Too busy to concern yourself with all of this? Don’t give up. Contact dmi Networking with any questions you may have. Our trained helpful technicians will be glad to help out! Give us a call at (707) 523-5915 to schedule an appointment. We can also be reached at contact@dmiNetworking.com

Datacon Dental is pleased to announce its we’ve partnered with Data Deposit Box. With this online - off site backup service, you don’t have to worry about loosing critical dental patient data due to a disaster.

With this innovative new service, files that are lost due to power surges, data theft, server failure, fire, or even hackers are easily retrieved. And your business can continue with limited interruption.

Just contact Datacon to setup you secure data backup today! (800)773-78978

Or email us at info@datacondental.com

Note: Online backup will not work with the old Alpha Micro systems.

It’s that time of year again. Follow these directions to button-up your dental practice for the year.

1. Post everything you want reflected for the year, including charges, payments, adjustments, refunds, etc.
2. Run monthly reports as usual, including the Practice Summary Report for the year.
3. Print your fee schedule to give you YTD totals for procedures. SELECT Procedure Codes, Print fee schedule.
4. Run the “yearly clear.” Remember, don’t run the daily or monthly clears as the third selection in Print Control Sheets performs the daily, monthly, and yearly clears in one keystroke.
5. Remove old schedule blocking. This should be done on a monthly basis. SELECT Appointments & Recall, Schedule Maintenance, Remove old schedule blocking.
6. Reorganize files. SELECT File maintenance, Reorganize files for faster access. Reorganize each item, except Ageing list, which is done daily during the clear.
7. Archive the last backup of the year, preferably off-site.

Datacon can offer online backups now! Call (800) 773-7878 or email info@datacondental.com for details.