Pediatric Dental Group of Colorado v6
2 hours
saved/day, previously spent verifying eligibility information
2 weeks
quicker to get paid
30 days
fewer spent on the A/R sequence
Challenge
As Pediatric Dental Group of Colorado grew, their original practice management system (PMS), Open Dental, was creating too much manual work for their multi-location organization.
- Insurance verification took hours each day
- Scheduling across offices was cumbersome
- Staff often had to rely on additional software just to access information
The team needed a simpler, cloud-based platform built to support growth.
Solution
By moving from Open Dental to Dentrix Ascend, the organization was able to replace their disconnected workflows with one integrated platform. That meant less administrative complexity, better visibility across locations, and a more modern foundation for staff and patient care.
Results
Hours saved each day with claims and billing tools
Ascend integrates directly with more than 90% of the practice’s payors and automatically adds eligibility information into the patient record.
“Dentrix Ascend automatically pulls fee schedule information and is able to allocate them per provider and per location. We didn’t have that feature before, and it’s also been really great to automatically attach documents, like x-rays and narratives, straight from the document manager.”
-- Nicole Hartshorn, COO and Director of Operations, Pediatric Dental Group of Colorado
For the practice’s oral surgeon, the billing and claims tools are making a huge difference, eliminating at least 30 days from the A/R sequence for oral surgery appointments.
Compared with their Open Dental workflows, the practice is now getting paid weeks quicker with text-to-pay, spending two hours less each day on eligibility, and operating more efficiently across locations.
“We actually require less staff overall now because we have so much more time to spend on other tasks.”
-- Nicole Hartshorn, COO and Director of Operations, Pediatric Dental Group of Colorado
Seamless scheduling across every location
With Open Dental, the team had to rely on additional software to view schedules across locations. Ascend now gives them access to patient and scheduling information in one place, making it easier to manage staff coverage.
“I have immediate access to all of our locations. I can easily see what’s going on at a glance and move patients or staff around without having to log into multiple systems.”
-- Nicole Hartshorn, COO and Director of Operations, Pediatric Dental Group of Colorado
Communication that resonates with patients
Text messaging, automated appointment reminders, and text-to-pay have been hugely popular with both the staff and patients’ parents.
More time to spend with patients
Dentrix Ascend’s treatment planner, templated clinical notes, and embedded AI tools are helping doctors spend less time on documentation and more time with patients and parents.
“Our doctors are now able to spend so much more time consulting with parents. Before, it took so long to physically write up notes, they had less time for patient visits.”
-- Nicole Hartshorn, COO and Director of Operations, Pediatric Dental Group of Colorado