Following Was Not Brought Guidance in Dentrix Ascend

Public Health England have recently released guidance to healthcare professionals advising them to track any instances when a child or vulnerable adult is not brought to their appointment. This could be a sign that they are being neglected or mistreated and allow for follow ups to be made via the right channels.

One person at the practice should be made in charge of this project and be responsible for sending letters to households and sharing information with the relevant personnel (schools, doctors, child social services).

There are a number of functions within Dentrix Ascend that can help you follow the guidance which you can find here and advice on how to implement this by the BDA here.

Marking a patient as Was Not Brought

When marking a patient as FTA (see guide here) you can add a Missed Appointment Reason. Mark this as Was Not Brought or WNB. This will then show when reviewing patients appointment history. In order to report on this status you need to also add WNB to the appointment reason (the Other box next to procedure). You must do this before you mark as FTA or you wont be able to add it later.

Setting up the Was Not Brought report.

1. Click on Home->Power Reporting.
2. Click on Missed Appointments report.
3. Click on Filters.
4. Change Appt Status Includes to only show FTA.
5. Click on Toggle Edit.
6. On left hand side right click Reason and click Filter (You can also drag Reason to the filters section).
7. Change 'Exactly Matches' to 'Contains.
8. Type WNB in the right hand box. Click Ok.
9. Click on Save and save to organisation reports with a suitable name (eg Was Not Brought Patients). 

Running the Was Not Brought report.

1. Click on Home->Power Reporting
2. Click on Was Not Brought Patients under Organisation Reports.
3. If you require to change the appointment date search click on Filters.
4. Double click Appt Date.
5. Change the date parameters and click ok.