I am consistently surprised at how many dental practices do not use passwords in Dentrix or if they are using them, are using them improperly.
Here’s one example:
Recently, I was consulting with a practice and the doctor stepped away for a few moments. We needed his user ID and password for a report that only he had rights to, but just as I was about to go get him, a team member mentioned she had the doctor’s user ID and password, and she logged in with it. When I expressed surprise, she said they all have his login information.
Password sharing should be prohibited among team members, and sharing the administrator password basically defeats the purpose of using passwords at all.
Why It’s Important for Everyone to Have Their Own Password:
- When you share passwords, anyone has the ability to sign in as the administrator or another team member. When you make deletions, date changes, etc. it is recorded as if that administrator made them. This means no one knows who is accountable for the changes being made.
- Training and fairness. Another office had multiple team members responsible for scheduling. They were having a problem with appointments being deleted and, since passwords were implemented, we used the Audit Trail report to discover the team member responsible. Because we knew who was making the errors, the rest of the team didn’t have to sit through repeated training and we were able to train that single employee and correct the behavior.
- Save Money. Using passwords can aid in finding honest mistakes that could cost you money. They can also help team members focus on the details and double-check entries—employees tend to make fewer mistakes when they know you are involved.
- Protection. Using passwords in Dentrix gives you a layer of protection from embezzlement.
There was a practice I worked with years ago that was not using passwords. They discovered their most trusted employee (their office manager) had been stealing from them. The practice wanted to prosecute, but the State Attorney’s Office needed proof. Since passwords were not in place, finding evidence of entries that could be attributed to her proved to be a daunting task. In the end, the investigation did find she had embezzled $50K, and the State’s Attorney did proceed with prosecution, but had passwords been enabled, it would have been easier to identify misuse.
Passwords are not only intended to protect the practice, but also to protect your honest and loyal team members. When you’re implementing new password rules, talk to your team about why you’re doing it. Make sure they realize it isn’t because you don’t trust them—in fact, passwords can protect them as much as they protect the office.
Learn More
If you found these ideas helpful, learn more about the Dentrix Profitability Coaching Program, where one of our highly skilled and experienced profitability coaches teach these, and many other great concepts, strategies and ideas, to you and your team. To find out more about Dentrix Profitability Coaching, CLICK HERE.