In a broadly reaching, company-wide effort across 53 offices in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington Willamette Dental Group is moving forward with a chartless office initiative that will digitize, remove and recycle a total 46 tons of patient paper charts and x-ray films by the year 2020. This effort has been long in development, starting in 2012 with a move to Electronic Dental Records, followed by significant efforts to improve technology infrastructure. The move to digitize patient records supports several goals – including being good environmental stewards, as well as serving a strategic company goal for achieving the Quadruple Aim, a healthcare model that balances better patient health, better care, lower cost, and engaged oral health providers.
Kristen Simmons, RDH, MHA, and Chief Operations Officer at the dental practice states, “By setting and meeting our goal of chartless offices, we increase office efficiency, security, and access to complete patient records at a moment’s notice.” Simmons continues, “I’m also very excited to further embrace our environmental stewardship efforts, which include the recent completion of a project that removed several tons of annual lead film waste by converting to digital radiography, as well as winning a Green Business Award from Washington County, Oregon.”
Awarded to the Tualatin Office located at 17130 SW Upper Boones Ferry Road in Portland, Oregon in 2017, the Washington County Oregon Green Business Award recognizes county business who make efforts in sustainable practices of green purchasing, sustainable materials management, toxics reduction, and social responsibility. For more information on the Washington County Oregon Green Business Award visit: https://www.co.washington.or.us/HHS/SWR/GreenBusiness.
