Dentrix overdue recall list: how to build it with Continuing Care

Where the Continuing Care List lives

Dentrix tracks when patients are due for hygiene and periodic visits as continuing care, with types such as prophy and perio attached to each patient. The list of patients due, or past due, is the Continuing Care List.

Henry Schein One's Dentrix materials describe two ways to get at it. The traditional Continuing Care List opens from the Appointment Book. A more interactive version is available from Letters & Custom Lists in the Office Manager, which is also where offices build mailing lists and custom patient lists. Some versions also offer a scheduling assistant that can filter by continuing care due dates.

"Dentrix" covers more than one product: the desktop G-series, the cloud-based Dentrix Ascend and Dentrix Enterprise for groups. Menus and button names differ among them, so treat the paths here as a map and confirm the clicks in the Dentrix help topic on using the Continuing Care List for your version. If you're on Ascend, see our Dentrix Ascend export guide, which covers its recare reporting.

Setting the view so it shows overdue patients

The Continuing Care List shows patients based on the continuing care view that was last set. Dentrix's Enterprise documentation describes changing it from the list's Views menu, under Setup. A view can filter on several things; for an overdue list, set them like this:

1. Continuing care type: choose the types you want to work, such as prophy and perio. Many offices work them as separate lists, since perio patients are often on shorter intervals.
2. Due date range or span: set the end of the range to today, or slightly before, so only past-due patients appear. Set the start to the oldest due date your team will reasonably work this round, such as 24 months ago.
3. Scheduled appointment: set the filter to show patients without an attached appointment. Dentrix's documentation describes a setting that shows patients with, without, or regardless of an appointment. Without is the one that matters, or you'll spend time calling patients who are already booked.
4. Status and billing type: exclude statuses or billing types your office uses for patients who shouldn't be contacted, such as inactive or transferred.
5. Last visit or prior treatment span: if your version offers it, use it to separate recently overdue patients from long-lapsed ones.
6. Save the view with a clear name, such as "Overdue, no appt, prophy," so anyone on the team can open the same list.

Check the list before anyone picks up the phone

A Continuing Care List is only as good as the due dates behind it. Before working it, spot-check a handful of patients. If someone who was seen last month shows up as overdue, their due date likely didn't reset after the visit. Dentrix's own blog notes that this often happens when the procedure codes used at the visit don't have continuing care attached. Fix the setup once and the list gets cleaner every month after.

Then look at what each row tells you. Whatever columns your version shows, make sure you can see:

• Due date, so you can group patients into bands such as 3-6, 6-12, 12-24 and 24+ months past due. Each band needs different wording; see our dental recall text message templates.
• Continuing care type, so you book the right length of visit.
• Phone number, ideally mobile, to choose between a text, a call or a letter.
• Provider, if your hygienists each work their own patients.

Working the list: a weekly routine

Dentrix's guidance recommends reviewing the Continuing Care List at least monthly. For a busy office, a short weekly session works better, because the list never gets large enough to feel hopeless.

1. Open the saved overdue view at the start of the week and note the count.
2. Start with the most recently overdue. They are the easiest to book. Long-lapsed patients belong in a separate reactivation effort.
3. Schedule straight from the list. Dentrix's documentation describes double-clicking a patient in the Continuing Care List to open a new appointment with the continuing care type already attached.
4. Log every contact. A Dentrix expert writing in Dr. Bicuspid suggests calling overdue patients, since they have probably already received automated reminders, and logging follow-up notes in the Office Journal. A note like "LM 10/22, will try Thurs PM" saves the next person a repeat call.
5. Clean as you go. Patients who have moved or transferred should be updated so they leave the list.
6. End the week with one number: how many patients from Monday's list now have an appointment.

Getting the list out as a file

Many Dentrix lists are built for the screen or for printing. If you need the overdue patients as a spreadsheet, check your version's output options for the list and for Letters & Custom Lists, which is designed to produce lists for mailings. Dentrix support can tell you which list in your version exports cleanly.

Treat any exported list as protected health information: store it securely, share it only with a vendor that has signed a Business Associate Agreement, and delete local copies when the job is done. Our Dentrix schedule export guide covers the appointment-level files that sit alongside this list.

Illustrative math: the cost of not working it

These numbers are illustrative. Say your overdue view shows 340 patients past due with no appointment, and each month another 40 patients cross their due date without booking. If a hygiene visit is worth $185 and the team books 25 overdue patients a month, the list still grows by 15 a month, about $2,775 in visits added to the backlog every month.

Raise bookings to 45 a month and the list starts to shrink. The difference between those two months is 20 visits, about $3,700, from patients who already know your office. Use your own fees and counts; the point is that the trend of the list matters as much as its size.