Updated 7/18/2019

When you want to review the contacts you’ve had with a patient, you can see this information from the Office Journal display window. However, this information will only be as accurate as the records you keep in your office. As a general rule, you should document every phone conversation you have in the Office Journal, even if you are just leaving a voicemail message.

This information is especially useful when handling billing disputes. For example, if a patient claims they were never notified they had an overdue balance before their account was sent to collections, you can review their Office Journal to identify the contacts you’ve had with them regarding their balance.

To view contacts for a patient or family in the Office Journal:

1. From any Dentrix module, click the Office Journal button.
   The Office Journal launches with the current patient displayed.
2. To switch to a different patient, click the Select Patient button and choose a patient. Information is displayed in the following ways:
   • Journal List: The Journal List displays a comprehensive list of contact made between your office and your patients. The list can be viewed by patient, family, or for a specific provider or staff member.
   • Show Info Panel: When the Show Info panel is turned on, you can see more detail on a selected journal entry.
   • Sort Order: Entries are sorted chronologically. When the Office Journal is opened, any entry with today’s date is highlighted. Entries with a date before today are shown below today’s entry.
3. A plus (+) next to a date means there is more than one contact for that date. Click the Expand button (+) next to a date to list all the contacts for that date.
   Note: You can also expand the list by double-clicking the date.
4. If it is not already open, click the Show Info button to activate the Show Info panel.
5. Select an individual contact entry to view the details of the contact in the Show Info panel.

You can limit the kinds of contacts shown in the Office Journal (calls, billing statements, letters, etc.) by clicking View > Filters. Select the Journal Entry Types you’d like to include, and click OK.

For information on using the Office Journal to document patient contact, see the Adding Office Journal Entries Manually topic in Dentrix Help.