Interview With Dr. Bobbi Stanley: Owner of Stanley Dentistry & YAPI User

We spoke with Dr. Bobbi Stanley, owner of Stanley Dentistry in Cary, North Carolina. In 2017, Dr. Bobbi Stanley and Stanley Dentistry were voted Western Wake's Best Dentist by Cary Magazine.

In this interview, Dr. Stanley explains why she decided to use YAPI at Stanley Dentistry, and how it has benefited her practice. She discusses how YAPI has all of the features that other patient communication systems have, but also includes less common features, such as paperless forms and intra-office communications. Since Stanley Dentistry has a large office space with 11 operatories, Dr. Stanley found that YAPI's intra-office communication capabilities helped streamline her practice, and enabled her to provide a more personalized experience for her patients.

Hi Dr. Stanley, nice to meet you. Can you introduce yourself and your practice?

My name is Dr. Bobbi Stanley, and I'm the owner of Stanley Dentistry. We have been in practice since 1995, and I have been practicing since 1993. Our practice currently has 21 employees, including 3 doctors: myself, my husband, and an associate. We each focus in a different area of dentistry about which we are passionate. In the past, we have had 2 locations, but we decided to drop the 2nd location since we wanted to focus on our patients, and give them all of our attention. We currently have one location.

At Stanley Dentistry, we pride ourselves on using on the latest technology and highest quality materials.

What made you decide that you needed software to help facilitate intra-office communications?

For about 10 years, we had a wall system with lights. The wall system was mounted on the wall in the operatories, and whenever a message would need to be communicated, a light would flash on the wall. However, we decided we didn't want lights to flash in front of patients, since it reduces the overall patient experience. Even though our office sees many patients at once, we want each patient to feel like they're the only patient in the office. We don't want them to feel like the doctor's mind is somewhere else when they're being treated. Especially as our practice began seeing more and more patients, it became increasingly important to us that we use software instead of the wall system. This is why we started using a system called YAPI.

How did you learn about YAPI?

I don't exactly remember how we learned about YAPI. It's less well-known than other communication systems, but it's been great and I've been telling my colleagues about it.

How do you and your staff use YAPI around the office?

We use YAPI for both intra-office communication, as well as for patient communications.

In the office, our front desk uses YAPI on an iPad, and the dentists use it on a computer in the treatment room. For intra-office communication, the most frequent type of communication that we need to have is communication between the doctor and the front desk. For example, the front desk needs to let the doctor know that a patient has arrived, or that the doctor is needed in the operatory. When either of these things happen, the front desk can send a message through YAPI to the doctor, and a popup will display that lets the doctor know that they have a message. This is far more discreet than having a flashing light on the wall-mounted system -- the patient is unaware that the doctor has a message.

We also use YAPI's reports extensively to monitor our practice efficiency. YAPI keeps track of when patients arrive at the front desk, when they get seated, when they get seen by the dentist, and when they leave. One of my pet peeves is to have our patients waiting; we want our patients to be treated promptly. By monitoring these metrics, we're able to identify any inefficiencies in our pipeline, and it helps me manage my team.

We use YAPI for patient communications as well, by sending them appointment reminders. The system integrates with Dentrix, so it will text patients reminders about upcoming appointments, and lets the patient send appointment confirmations. When the patient confirms, this information gets sent to our practice management system.

Have you used other patient communication systems in the past? If so, how does YAPI compare?

We've used SmileReminder (Solutionreach) in the past, and it worked well for us. But YAPI gives us roughly all of the functionality we wanted from SmileReminder in terms of patient communications, but has all of the intra-office communication capabilities that we couldn't get with SmileReminder. YAPI is the only communication system we use now.

How has intra-office communication software benefited your practice?

In addition to making our patients feel more special, it has helped us with efficiency. We have 11 operatories, and our office is a large space. If you want to locate where an individual is, it helps you find them and saves the front desk from having to get up and walk around in order to look for doctors or patients. No one needs to leave their station in order to communicate information.

What can be improved about YAPI?

When improvements come to mind, we ask them and they address it almost immediately. For example, when we wanted them to implement our consent forms, we asked them to customize it so that patients could just check off boxes. They did this almost immediately. This is one of the benefits of them being a smaller company, as compared to someone like SmileReminder.

What practice management software do you use? Does YAPI integrate with it?

We use Dentrix, and have been using it for 15+ years. YAPI integrates with Dentrix, so when YAPI sends appointment reminders and patients confirm, the confirmation is sent to our practice management system. YAPI will also let you know if a patient is running late, even if the patient didn't call to let you know.

Do you think YAPI is a worthwhile investment? Would you recommend it to others?

The monthly fee is minimal for what you get, and it's well worth it. You will appear more professional with your patients, and your practice will be far more efficient.

About YAPI

YAPI is a comprehensive dental software system designed to help practices streamline their workflow and operate more efficiently. Many users like YAPI's convenient paperless features, which enable patients to fill out forms on an iPad and digitally transmit this information to your practice management system. YAPI also offers a variety of other powerful features, including patient recall, automated appointment reminders, and intra-office communication capabilities.

To learn more about YAPI, you can visit their site here.