Ethos Dental Group Turns Time Savings into Better Patient Care with Dentrix Ascend
Ethos Dental Testimonial
The Challenge
When Ethos Dental Group started expanding, their server-based system wasn't built for their growth. Managing multiple locations on a client-server setup meant one computer had to stay dedicated to the database at all times, remote access depended on a stable connection, and a dropped connection meant the second location was locked out entirely.
When Ethos acquired practices running on Eaglesoft after they'd made the move to the cloud, moving them to a unified platform became an immediate priority. Eaglesoft's insurance setup was limited, with breakdowns restricted to broad categories with no way to split out specific codes or percentages, and its server-based architecture created separate patient databases at their two locations, leading to duplicate patient charts, no unified scheduling, and no shared visibility across locations.
On top of that, verifying insurance for 80 to 90 patients a day was consuming hours of staff time — visiting individual payor websites, deciphering faxbacks formatted differently by every insurance company, and building manual cheat sheets just to estimate realistic patient costs.
The Solution
Moving to cloud-based Dentrix Ascend for all of their practices was the clear path forward.
“We decided to go with Dentrix Ascend because it was the easiest, most comprehensive, and allowed us to look up information about any location from any location.”
— Dr. Emily Hansen, Associate Dentist, Ethos Dental Group
To tackle the insurance verification burden, Ethos added Eligibility Pro — bringing real-time benefits information directly into the workflow their team already used every day.
The Results
One platform. Multiple locations. No duplicates.
Moving from an on-prem server solved the multi-location problem immediately. Staff switch between locations with a single click, schedule patients at any office without creating duplicate records, and access complete patient history from anywhere.
“If I had to go back to Eaglesoft, the only way I would ever do it is if it was a single location and there was zero chance of it becoming multi-location. It's kind of a nightmare with multiple locations.”
— Debra Bafia, Office Manager, Ethos Dental Group
Insurance accuracy patients can trust
The contrast with Eaglesoft's insurance capabilities was immediate for the offices that switched. Entering a new patient's insurance now takes about a minute — compared to five in Eaglesoft, plus the manual workarounds required to produce usable estimates.
“I don't feel like in Eaglesoft the insurance was as detailed as it really needs to be. Insurance has gotten so fickle and so fine-tuned over the years. Not being able to customize that for your patients puts a lot of distrust into the practice.”
— Debra Bafia, Office Manager, Ethos Dental Group
Hours recovered with Eligibility Pro
The practice's insurance coordinator previously spent 90 minutes completing one day's worth of eligibility checks by visiting individual payor websites. Now, with Eligibility Pro, she completes two and a half full days of schedules in that same time.
“With Eligibility Pro writing everything back, it just blows my mind how much easier it is and how much easier it makes everybody's job.”
— Debra Bafia, Office Manager, Ethos Dental Group
On average, Eligibility Pro saves Ethos about four hours of payroll every single day.
“We no longer require a full-time employee to manage that work anymore, and we're able to allocate those funds elsewhere.”
— Debra Bafia, Office Manager, Ethos Dental Group