Traditionally, the dental industry might not have been thought of as a field that lends itself to working remotely. But as dental practices adapted over the past two years with the global pandemic and hiring shortages, remote work has shown that it has a place in dentistry and gives practices and employees a host of advantages and benefits.
The benefits of remote work and flexible working arrangements have long been known, but it wasn’t until 2020 that many employers, including dental practices, had to put remote work into effect. The results showed that remote workers were on average 35-40% more productive than their office counterparts, with 40% better performance and significantly higher engagement and retention rates. With the rise of teledentistry and continuing staffing shortages, increasing productivity through remote working is becoming an attractive and practical option within the dental industry, too.
The Advantages of Remote Work for Dental Practices
While dentistry still requires time in the office spent with patients and colleagues, many practices have embraced flexible working arrangements, allowing employees to partially or entirely work from home, depending on their job function.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was immense value for dentist and dental office employees to be able to stay productive without going into the office. For many practices, this meant the difference between completely shutting down to at least being able to keep certain functions fully operational, including billing, collections, scheduling, etc. For clinicians, it meant being able to consult and collaborate with colleagues without going into the office. In so doing, practices could get work done while complying with CDC, state, and local guidelines.
With practices back open and patient volume beginning to return to pre-COVID levels, there’s still an advantage of remote work for employers like dental practices. Another advantage is higher job satisfaction for employees. At first glance, this may seem like just a benefit for the employees, but employers like dental practices have much to gain from happy employees. Highly satisfied employees are far more likely to be dedicated to their jobs, leading to higher productivity, higher profitability, and ultimately better care for patients.
Benefits of Remote Work for Dental Office Team Members
Remote working also offers significant benefits for individual dental office team members.
First, remote work gives dental teams more freedom to arrange their work schedule. In practical application, it could be the ability of a team member to reduce commuting times or finish up work in the evening so they can take their child to soccer practice. Remote work allows dental practices to honor each team member’s working preferences.
Another benefit for team members is increased flexibility. Not everyone is an early riser. For night owls, the most productive hours can be in the evenings. The flexibility to get work done outside of the office allows employees to stay productive throughout the day when they are most productive.
Finally, remote work offers more convenience for team members. Dental practices that have used cloud-enabled technology to enable remote work have significantly increased convenience for team members, including clinicians and staff. Instead of having to go into the office for an after-hours emergency to access files or images, practices that employ cloud-enabled solutions can offer anytime, anywhere access to this information from home or anywhere in the world.
Planet DDS Solutions to Empower Remote Work
Cloud-based Planet DDS solutions can empower your team to reap the many benefits of remote work while also ensuring access to real-time data and patient information securely. The idea of securely sharing information across your organization or even around the world means you’re no longer tethered to your office to stay productive. Work can be completed on everyone’s own terms.
To protect your patient’s data, our all-in-one Planet DDS solutions provide disaster recovery, cloud-backups, intrusion detection, and software updates and upgrades in an affordable monthly subscription. Our cloud-based Denticon Practice Management Solution and Apteryx Imaging XVWeb also provide sharing portals to keep your data safe as you collaborate.
With Planet DDS solutions, you and your team can access real-time data from anywhere without any data synchronization. If you happen to be working from home and your office needs you to quickly review an X-ray that they just captured, you can log in and securely view the images in real-time. With anytime access to real-time data, remote work can truly accelerate the speed at which you provide care for your patients while giving you all the benefits above, such as convenience, flexibility, and higher productivity.
Work From Anywhere with Planet DDS Solutions
The benefits of remote work continue to prove more value to organizations, including dental practices. From benefits for employees to advantages for employers, remote work can empower teams to deliver better care for patients while boosting productivity and job satisfaction.
Contact us for a free demo to learn more about how our solutions can help you and your team stay productive from anywhere.