I’d really like Dentally to review the functionality of the Short Notice List, particularly for practices that use zoning within their diaries.
We zone our books to protect capacity for different types of patients and treatments. For example, we may have a private zone reserved in the diary, but if that zone has not been filled five days in advance, we would normally open that time up so it can be filled from the Short Notice List.
This worked extremely well for us when we used SOE/Exact.
With Dentally, however, this does not appear to be possible. My understanding from the conversations we have had with various trainers and members of the Dentally team is that the zones effectively sit within the underlying diary set-up. Therefore, even if we remove or delete the zone from the visible diary, Dentally still recognises that time as having an active zone attached to it and the Short Notice List will not send patients into those appointments.
For us, this is not a minor inconvenience. It directly affects diary utilisation, the ability to fill short-notice gaps and ultimately practice revenue.
We have raised this issue over a number of months with several trainers and Dentally colleagues, but I am still waiting for an update on whether this functionality is going to be reviewed or changed.
I would really encourage Dentally to focus development on changes like this that improve day-to-day efficiency within practices.
It would also be useful to hear from other Dentally users: do you zone your diaries, and if so, how are you managing the Short Notice List when you want to release unused zoned capacity?
