Open Dental Forum

Hello Dr. Jordan / Team,

When one clicks on the 'Letter' option in opendental and uses the template to send a letter to a Patient, my office staff does customize the letter depending on a specific patient scenario.

Looks like opendental does not save the customized details in the patient communication log. It is funny, since the email communication does store the details in the communication log (including attachment).

Do I need to make any setting changes to enable this functionality or is a Bug or a limited functionality at this stage ???

Any workarounds recommended ???

Cheers,

OpenSource

It's by design. Of course it would be better if it did archive the letter, but there are other higher priorities at the moment, such as the sheets framework which would handle archiving of a wide variety of documents such as referral slips, letters, Rx, postcards, etc. So we're taking more of a global approach on that missing feature.

Hello Dr. Jordan,

Thanks for your quick response. I agree on the hollistic approach.

For the time being, I guess...I will ask the office to create a PDF version on the file..(cutepdf)...print it (for mailing) and import it in opendental (images) module for our records. I will increase a couple of steps but I guess that is fine for now.

Cheers,

OpenSource

That's a lot of work. Couldn't they just get by without an archived copy? It is a simple letter, after all.

use the stationery function and it will archive it in your images for you...

place a blank document form in your data path and specify the exact name in Setup |Misc, then on the down arrow of the letters click the stationery button. It will automatically place a copy in you images folder and open that file for you to edit.

Well, the common reminder kind of ones are not an issue but there are times when the office sends letters such as they need to see certain specialist for further treatment or if their account was complicated due to insurance carriers not making payment for certain procedures and we now need to collect the patient from the patient (the office sends a letter explaining the issue / problem).

I guess at the end of it, there are situations where-in the office needs to send letters to patient and we need to keep a copy of the same in our records (just like how the email feature works). Not sure if Drtech workaround would also work in different situations since we use templates for letters (in opendental) but will play around with the idea. Thanks!!!

Cheers,

OpenSource

right, it does not allow you to directly use the templates, you would have to copy them out of the OD letter window...a workaround for sure. (But it does automatically place the patient's address and general salutation to the clipboard when used, so after the document opens, just hit paste and the patient info will be right there and ready for you to type in the letter. It was really intended to be for non standard letters that you are typing to a patient.