Integrated payment systems

Practice management software is at the heart of many dental practices, and functions to simplify routine tasks and improve communication across the business. While running a successful practice can be a complex and highly involved task, practice management software is designed to ease the burden of administration, taking care of the details, so you can take care of your patients.

Beyond helping to relieve the administrative burden, many of the best practice management solutions are modular in nature, giving you the means to tailor your software to meet your specific business needs. This may include options such as online appointment booking or modules designed to help you enhance your patient communication. All of which can be used to improve either productivity or the quality of patient care, thus helping you grow your business.

Integrated payments

Of all the many advances demonstrated in the latest practice management software on the market, the option for integrated payment systems has been one of the most significant. By integrating payment processing with your other day-to-day practice management functions, you can save time and money, reduce errors and get a better view of your business.

One of the main advantages of integrated payment processing is that it greatly enhances your business efficiency. Transaction amounts are sent automatically to the card payment terminal. This means your team members don’t have to enter transaction amounts by hand, which reduces errors and speeds up the whole procedure. Furthermore, because the whole process is linked in with your management software, at the end of the month you won’t have to reconcile figures with your merchant statement – the whole process is completed for you.

For a small business, efficiency gains such as these can make a major difference. Where one member of staff will often have many different roles within the business, time spent on re-entering data or re-verifying credit card information can be re-allocated to more important tasks that can help your business get ahead. After all, time is money, and the time you save with an integrated payment system can be put to much better use caring for patients and ultimately, helping your practice to grow.

A case study

One example of how integrated payment systems can greatly enhance the efficiency of a dental practice can be found in the case study of Carestream Dental. The company has partnered with leading omni-channel payment services provider Anderson Zaks, to offer a fully integrated payment processing for its R4 Clinical+ Practice Management Software.

Chris Groombridge is Principal Dentist of 543 Dental Centre in Hull. He has sourced equipment from Carestream Dental for many years, and has recently introduced integrated payment processing to his practice. This includes the RedCard payment application and a card reading PIN pad that links  directly with his practice management software.
 

“We use a lot of the software and technology available from Carestream Dental within our practice, due to the quality of both the equipment and the customer service provided,” says Chris.

“The main reason we sourced the RedCard solution  from Carestream Dental, was that it could be fully integrated into our practice management software. Data is therefore fed directly from the R4 software into the till, and this automation greatly reduces the chance of human error.

“Through our own market research, we also found the new payment processing service offered by Carestream Dental to be cheaper than other alternatives available in the industry, which was another great plus.”

Further benefits

In addition to the efficiency benefits offered by an integrated payment system, you will also find that having more convenient payment options for patients also reduces the amount of debt owed to the practice, and will help to promote fast payments. Patients will appreciate the fact they can pay for treatments by credit or debit card, and the ability to do so is the hallmark of a modern practice.

If you already have an existing payment processing facility that isn’t integrated with your practice management system, you may be interested to learn that the latest systems do not require a dedicated payment processing telephone line as they operate through your existing broadband connection, thus saving further practice resources.

Whether you have an existing payment processing facility, or you are still yet to make the move over to credit and debit card payments, adopting an integrated system such as that available with Carestream Dental’s R4 Clinical+, offers a number of persuasive benefits. As well as efficiency and productivity gains, your practice will also benefit from improved cash flow on account of faster payments and the fact you are able to track payments through your practice management software.

While modern dentistry provides a great many challenges for dental practice teams, payments needn’t be one of them. An effective, integrated payment solution can prove an invaluable tool in making payments simpler, giving you and your team more time to spend on the things that matter the most.
 

For more information, please contact the experts at Carestream Dental on 0800 169 9692 or visit www.carestreamdental.co.uk