Wow! We just got back from the CDA meeting. It was a great meeting! And of course, fun to take the kids to Disneyland!

We have been traveling to a lot of great meetings from Oregon to Minnesota. We sure heard a lot of buzz from everyone loving the Dental R.A.T. but also loving how it helps the offices to stay green and paperless. We heard that it was going to be mandatory by the year 2014 for dental offices to be paperless. So, of course I wanted to do a little research.

In April 2004, the Bush administration set a 10-year goal of creating personal electronic health records for most Americans that could be accessed and added to by physicians and other health practitioners with the patient’s authorization. It is called- The National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII). So by the year 2014 all offices (including dental) will be mandated to have electronic patient records. I guess its time to learn all the ins and outs of the technology available to us!

“By computerizing health records, we can avoid dangerous medical mistakes, reduce costs and improve care”. These words in President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address from Jan. 20, 2004,1 were the first step in making computerizing the health care system in the United States a widely recognized national priority.

And, of course by being paperless offices we will obviously be “green”. So, no more charts, insurance forms, perio charts, and the Dental R.A.T. even gets rid of that old blue/red pencilJ I say “hurray to that!”