Principle includes a Lab Job Tracker to help Practices manage and monitor all laboratory work in one place. By using Labs and Lab Jobs together, your team can easily keep track of cases sent to external laboratories, monitor progress, and ensure jobs are never lost or forgotten.
Contents:
Labs
The Labs page acts like an address book for all the Labs your Practice works with. This is where you can store and manage the details of each lab you send work to, such as crowns, splints, dentures, implants, retainers, and other fabricated appliances.
From the Labs page, you can:
Store lab names and contact information
Create and manage Lab Job Types
View all Lab Jobs associated with a specific lab
Filter Lab Jobs by status
Record interactions with labs
Create specific contacts for each lab
Send emails or leave call logs directly from the Lab record
View the interaction history for a lab
Once a Lab has been created, it becomes available when creating Lab Jobs throughout Principle.
How to Create a Lab
Click the Create Lab button in the top right corner.
Enter in the Name of the lab
Optionally enter the Address of the lab.
Enter the phone and/or email
Click the Add New Lab button to save this lab contact.
You can edit lab details by clicking on the name of the saved lab, and clicking the 'Edit' icon.
After you've created the Lab, you'll need to add specific Lab Job types:
Click on the Lab Job Types.
Click Create Lab Job Type.
Write the name of the job, the cost and click create.
Do this for as many lab types as the lab has.
Adding Members at the Lab
In the Contacts tab, Click the Create Member button.
Enter the Name of the individual member of the lab you have selected
Enter in one or more of the following fields: email, address, phone
If you have the information, you can include job title and mobile phone number.
Click the Create button to save the Member contact.
This will also be saved in the Contact tab\
Lab Jobs
The Lab Jobs page is a centralised location where your Practice can track the full lifecycle of a Lab Job from creation through to completion.
This helps Practices monitor outstanding work, track due dates, and ensure cases are returned from the Lab on time.
You can create a Lab Job through:
The Lab Jobs page.
By clicking Lab Jobs inside of a specific Lab.
In the Appointment Workflow.
We'll start by clicking into the Lab Jobs page on the main menu, but you can easily follow the same steps by creating a new lab job inside of your lab's page.
1) In the main menu, click Lab Jobs.
2) Click Create Lab Job in the top right corner and a dialogue box will appear.
3) Select the Patient from the drop-down menu.
4) Once a patient has been selected, if there is an existing appointment, select it from the Appointment drop-down menu. By selecting the Appointment, this will create a scheduling alert if the lab job does not arrive in time.
5) Select the Lab you are using from the drop-down menu.
6) Select the Job Type from the drop-down menu
7) The Cost field will fill automatically as it is configured to the Lab Job type. You can edit the cost if needed.
8) Select a Due Date for the lab job to come back. This is optional, however, highly recommended if there is no appointment booked.
9) You can choose to add in any details about the lab job in the Add Job Details field. This could include shades, thickness of material used, special adjustments.
10) Click Create to save the lab job.
Creating a lab job in the appointment
1) In the appointment workflow find Today's Appointment heading in the right hand sidebar.
2) Click on the 3 vertical dots and choose add lab job
Dispatching & Receiving Labs
The Lab Job is now in the 'Sending' status. Once you have sent off the paperwork to the lab, update the job to 'Sent.' When you have received the lab job back, update the status to 'Received.'
You will get an alert if the lab job has not been received prior to the patient's appointment or prior to the due date of the job.
Note: You'll need to update the status of the lab job as it moves through its life cycle.
Contacts
Think of the Contacts page like the address book for any non-patient contacts.
This can be for all professional associates including suppliers, catering companies, florists, and more.
Creating a contact:
Click Contacts in the main menu
Click Create Contact button in the top right corner.
Enter in the Name of the contact or business
Enter in the email, address and/or phone number.
Optionally enter in the Job Title of the contact.
Optionally enter the Mobile Number of the contact.
Click Create to save this contact.
You can edit contact details by clicking on the name of the saved contact, and clicking the Edit button.
Using Contacts
Once a contact is created you can click on their name to open up their profile:
Use Principle to SMS or Email any contacts directly from their profile, there is also a notepad to record any notes relevant to that contact. Type '@' to mention any staff members or patients in the note and leave a link to their profile.
If this contact is a business with multiple members, you can add them individually in the Members Tab.
The History Tab shows an outline of all of your notes and communication with that contact.
Using Contacts allows you to have all of your communication with your professional contacts in one place without leaving Principle.
⏭️Next up: Module 8 : Conversations & Team Chats