New clinical notes update

Hi ​@Jess0ca , 

Thanks for taking the time to post this. We hear you that the new clinical notes feel different and that the extra steps are may take some getting used to, when you were comfortable with the old flow.

Based on user feedback, we moved to one note per appointment so everything from that visit sits in a single place easier to find later, review, and finish without jumping between treatment tabs. You can still write notes the same way you always have.

We have also added full appointment recording which will allow you to capture the consult and summarise into your template. This should help reduce the admin burden and improve accuracy of notes.

It might take a little getting used to but these should help:

• Help Centre: Appointment-level clinical notes (how the new flow works, including saving and locking)
• Training: Dentally Academy has a webinar your team can watch back

We are not planning to revert the experience, but we do want concrete feedback so we can improve it. Happy to jump on a call and discuss more, please reply if you'd like to be involved.

Thanks, 

Amy 

Hi Amy,

Thank you for the response.

I think the move to a single note per appointment makes complete sense, and I can see the benefits of having everything from a visit stored in one place.

The feedback from our team is less about the concept and more about the user experience and layout. The previous note style was very intuitive and easy to navigate at a glance. With the new design, having notes appear in side panels and additional pop-up windows feels more cumbersome and less efficient during a busy clinical day.

One of the biggest challenges is visibility. Previously, clinicians could quickly see and review notes without needing to open multiple panels. Now, there seems to be more clicking and opening of windows to access information that was previously immediately visible. The workflow feels less intuitive and adds friction to something that was previously very straightforward.

We are also finding that the screen feels more cluttered, while at the same time requiring additional steps to access key information. For a clinical environment where speed, accuracy and ease of use are critical, this has been a noticeable change.

I appreciate that the system will not be reverting, but I wanted to share this feedback as I think there is a difference between changing the underlying structure (one note per appointment) and changing the visual workflow that users had become familiar with. Keeping more of the previous look and feel while introducing the new functionality may have made the transition easier for teams.

Thank you for continuing to gather feedback.

Adding to this to give further feedback. The loss of being able to search for notes associated to individual teeth is a real step backwards for me as I used the clinical history search to look up the history of teeth on a daily basis. I also often leave notes against planned treatment items for the treatment appointment and don’t think this can be done any more

I also find the creation of a task for writing notes a completely unnecessary thing and wish there was a way that it could be turned off - i was advised need to have advance or advance plus plan but these aren’t options in the pricing scheme that I can see - we currently have Pro.

Appreciate it’s new and a big change but initial thoughts are that it is a step backwards in terms of ease of use and practical note keeping

I agree with Hazel, this has been feedback from all of my clinicans and admin as you cannot add information to be easily seen, the task ghas confused a number of people and meant that the notes are locked before the clinician has finished 

The new notes system is a complete downgrade. Its abysmal. 

It is full of errors, significantly harder to read, unnecessarily long-winded, and has made our clinical note-taking far less efficient. Most concerningly, we have already identified issues with dates and timestamps being saved incorrectly. In healthcare software, inaccurate clinical records are not a minor inconvenience—they carry serious legal and regulatory implications.

If Dentally's system is creating incorrect patient records, then Dentally must accept responsibility for the risks and liabilities that arise from those errors.

We cannot understand why this update was released in its current state.

The previous notes system was clearer, faster, and far more reliable.

Either revert us back to the previous notes system immediately or we will be cancelling our Dentally subscription .. and proceeding with a company that actually listens to its customers.

We expect an urgent response.

Several times on Friday i was promised a call back, with an update….did that happen. Nope. 

Shocking service. 

I think we should all be considering to cancel our Subscriptions, and move to competitors who actually listen to their customers. 

Dentally are a complete joke. 

Hi all

I'm Duncan, Director of Product & Technology for Dentally.

Thank you all for taking the time to share your feedback - we appreciate this new clinical notes flow may take time to get used to, but we also understand there may be things we can do to improve it further so appreciate all the insight and detail you can provide.

The team and I are very happy to have a call with anybody who'd like to provide feedback which we will use to continue to improve this feature. Please indicate your interest below and we can arrange this.

​@Dr Raj 7, I understand you have since spoken to our Support team who I hope have been able to help with your questions, but for anyone else reading this thread, we can confirm that, from a medico-legal standpoint, there is no risk with the new clinical notes workflow, and a full audit trail remains available.

Thank you again for providing your insight and helping us to continue to improve Dentally.

Hi,

I'm afraid I have to agree with all the above comments. I don't see how having to write notes in a side panel is an improvement when note- taking is the primary task being carried out, and should therefore be front and centre on the screen.

In addition, unless I'm mistaken, when an appointment contains multiple treatments/ actions, it is no longer possible to add notes against each individual item. Instead, all notes have to be entered as one overall note, which is far less practical.

Since these changes were implemented, I have also been unable to add a new or edit my existing “note templates”. We have raised this with customer support but have not yet received a response. I suspect they may be dealing with a significant volume of enquiries at the moment..

I do feel that the feedback being provided by users should be taken seriously, with strong consideration towards reverting to the previous layout. Dental teams are generally good at adapting to new software, equipment and ways of working. When concerns are being raised, it suggests that there are real issues having a genuine impact on day- to- day workflows. Please do take time to consider all the above comments at a central level.  

Hi, 

I understand consolidation of the notes can be useful However, I am disappointed that this was introduced seemingly without consulting the community. For upcoming appointments I would often put notes in for extra things I would be doing into the treatment items for NV. This is now not possible. I would be very grateful if there was an ability to add appointment level notes for yourself for the next visit that appear as the old notes did, inline with treatment. so you don't need to go into multiple different tabs to see what you need to do. We Also used the item level notes for referral information for our hygienist and Endo, this is now not possible to write a prescription to a colleague that appears easily for them to see. They now have to go into a separate tab. A

appointment level notes for NV that appeared in the main central area, so you can give yourself notes for what you are meant to be doing NV is needed. 

Hi ​@Siegfried and ​@CDental,

Thank you both for taking the time to share your feedback. We genuinely appreciate the detailed examples you’ve provided and understand the concerns being raised around day-to-day workflows.

We wanted to provide some context on how these changes were developed. Over the last three months, we’ve been working closely with over 20 practices as part of a beta programme, gathering feedback, observing workflows, and refining the experience before wider release. Whilst this helped shaped the solution, we recognise that every practice works differently, and the feedback being shared in this thread highlights important use cases that we need to consider further.

Regarding the move to the notes sidebar, the intention was to make it easier for clinicians to access relevant patient information while writing notes. This was driven by feedback from users who wanted to be able to view information such as the perio chart, BPE, treatment details and other clinical context without having to close their note or switch between tabs. We appreciate that while this approach has addressed challenges for some users, it may not support every workflow as effectively as we’d hoped.

The points you’ve raised around appointment preparation, item-level notes, referral information, and being able to quickly see notes associated with planned treatment are useful feedback for us. We understand how these workflows support communication between clinicians and help practitioners prepare for upcoming visits, and we’re actively reviewing this feedback as we look at ways to improve the experience.

On the note templates point, we recently identified and resolved an issue affecting personal templates for some users. However, from your description, it sounds like there may be a separate issue relating to creating or editing templates that we’d like to investigate further. @CDental I can see you’re also in conversation with support regarding template notes.

We’re continuing to review all of the feedback being shared by the community and are already discussing potential improvements based on what we’re hearing. If you or anyone else would be interested, we’d love to arrange a discovery call to better understand your workflows and ensure your specific use cases are considered as we evaluate future enhancements.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your feedback and help us improve the product

Completely agree with this. It is clunky and has more than doubled the time taken to complete paperwork. 

Also completely agree it is a massive loss not being able to search by tooth any more. I wonder if many clinicians were consulted/used a beta version of this prior to implementation as it really isn’t sensible or intuitive. ​​​​​​

Hi Amy

I realise you are not planning to revert but the new system is unusable. It is inaccurate and extremely hard to make and review clinical notes accurately. It also does not show notes when clinical notes are printed off. I have explained this numerous times to customer services as I need a solution now, not feedback to be considered. It is not usable. 

Mat

Thanks ​@Mat - Amy is going to reach out to you (if she hasn’t already) to invite you to a feedback call, so please look out for a message from her or directly from the support team