Dolphin - Data Foundation

To ensure success visualizing your data on Gaidge, ensure your practice management software is set up to help you track items as efficiently as possible. As part of our implementation process, we will share some best practice strategies. 

Most of your financial information is automatically pulled from your system as that is standard for all users.  For discounts and write-offs we must determine and map the associated adjustments. For your non-financial key practice indicators we must also map your data to Gaidge. 

Gaidge collects data for your new patient exams, retention checks and emergencies/repairs by kept appointment types.  We also set your deband appointments to automatically change patients into a retention status. We use patient statuses to track patients in pre-treatment and between phases observation separately, and to count debands for Full, Aligner, Phase 1, Phase 2 and Other treatment categories. We gather your treatment starts from your contracts started. The type is determined by treatment types. Schedule information is pulled from appointment statuses, for example no-shows and completed appointments.  

Please don't delete items before our data review as this will affect the accuracy of your historical data. You may want to mark them with a  z at the beginning of their description.

Treatment Types

For Dolphin users, Gaidge counts treatment starts when contracts are started. The start category is based on the treatment type (contract name.) Gaidge tracks the following Starts types: Aligner, Full, Limited, Other, Phase 1 and Phase 2, plus subtypes:

• Full Adult, Full Child, Full Medicaid
• Phase1 Aligner, Phase1 Appliance, Phase1 Medicaid
• Phase2 Aligner, Phase2 Appliance, Phase2 Medicaid
• Aligner Adult, Aligner Child
• Limited Adult Aligner, Limited Adult Appliance, Limited Child Aligner, Limited Child Appliance

All of the above except Phase 2 are used in determining case acceptance.

Appointment Types

Gaidge generates statistics on the following appointment types:

• Debands
• New Patient Adult
• New Patient Child
• Retainer Check (Non-production retention visits) 
• Repair appointments (Non-production emergency - such as Comfort Visit Long, Wire Poking)

To track debands, Gaidge uses  retention statuses(and their status start date) so it is important that each patient’s status is changed to a status that is marked this is a deband as discussed in the Patient Status section above. The deband appointment types signify the end of an active treatment and ensure the patient’s status is changed to the correct retention status at the time treatment is completed.  This enables us to track Treatment Efficiency on the Gaidge website.

Edit > Scheduling > Appointment Types There are two options to accomplish this.  Create a deband appointment type for each treatment type or have your deband appointment(s) prompt with options for the deband status.

• If you choose to create new appointment types for each treatment type, please z any old types that you will no longer be using.
• If your deband appointments prompt for a choice of status, the person performing patient checkout must know what type of treatment has been completed

To Print Appointment Types Report: Reports > Reports – Schedule tab – Appointment Types with Class

Charge Types (Non-Contract Charges)

1. Verify all of your Charges are set to Affects Production. To print the Charge Types report: Reports > Reports – Other tab – Services Report Any that are not may be updated under Edit > Financial > Charges
2. Confirm that all of your Charges are set to their full fee for the service provided; use adjustments to decrease so you know how much you are giving away in discounts, etc. 
3. Look for duplicate charge codes or codes that should be Treatment Types 
4. Put a z in front of the description of any charge types that you no longer use.  This will not affect any historical data; it will only move them to the bottom of the list reminding you to not use them moving forward.

Note: We have added the following four Charge types as seen in the picture below. They will not be set to Affect Production. We will go over their use during the Final Review

• Inc1   Increase to Reverse Prior Write-Off
• Inc2   Increase to Reverse Prior Discount 
• Inc3   Increase to Correct Prior Adjustment  
• Inc4   Increase to Refund Total Due 

Adjustment Types

Decrease Total Due Adjustments should be write-offs and discounts only, for any other decrease to a patient's account there is a better way to affect the balance in Dolphin, for example, reversing a charge.  Under Edit > Financial > Adjustment Types, verify all of your Adjustment Types are set to Affects Production.  

Treatment Discounts

Go to Edit > Financial > Treatment Discounts and confirm that all of your Treatment Discounts are set to Affects Production.  (If you have the Zuelke module installed, the check box for Affects Production will not be an option)

Treatment Discounts and Discount Adjustments should correspond as you generally make the discount adjustments for forgotten or missed Treatment Discounts.  

Patient Statuses

Edit > Patient > Patient Statuses 

Print the Patient Statuses Report: Reports > Reports – Other tab – Patient Status List Report 

We look for at least:

• pre-treatment observation
• between phases observation 
• active treatment status 
  • full braces
  • aligners
  • phase 1 
  • phase 2 
  • limited 
  • other
• retention

Verify that for each active patient status, the box for This starts a treatment (also counts as a Status start) is checked, which will place them on your Practice Analysis in the Status Starts – Tx Starts section. This is a case start should also be checked, except for statuses such as Phase 2 and Additional/Retreat.

Check that your statuses which identify debands such as Retention and Phase 1 Retention or Waiting For Phase 2, have the box checked for This is a deband which will place them on your Practice Analysis in the Status Starts – Deband section and update the patient’s deband date. 

Gaidge currently analyzes treatment efficiency for 5 different treatment types:  Aligners, Full, Phase 1, Phase 2, and Other Treatment.  Completed treatment is determined by the deband status.  We have added retention statuses for different treatment types if you didn’t already have them in your system.