V. Brian Gagliardi

Dentist V. Brian Gagliardi used to have 40-100 patient charts lying on his desk awaiting handwritten notes, says his wife, practice administrator Jo Anna Gagliardi, who shares that desk. "His desk was my desk and I didn't have a place to work," she explains. The reason those charts routinely piled up was that, "We're both one-finger typists," says Jo Anna, with the best intentions of typing up the notes, but because Brian knew how long it would take him to type them, the charts piled up.

Fortunately, about 10 weeks ago the Gagliardis implemented Dragon Naturally Speaking at their practice, Canandaigua Dental Health (www.canadaiguadentalhealth.com), and Brian's desk is now visible. "Now he speaks the notes right after each patient," says Jo Anna, making the information visible to everyone who logs into the electronic records system; previously hardcopy patient charts had to be retrieved to be read.

What is even more remarkable is the speed at which those notes are being completed – mere minutes. Speech recognition software has "90% better accuracy than my one-finger typing," says Jo Anna, who reiterates that there have been no issues with accuracy or terminology. So far there have been a total of three words she has had to add, all the others were built right in.

The Gagliardis use a desktop microphone or a headset, depending on which computer they happen to be using. And while Jo Anna uses speech recognition for almost everything, including routine correspondence, she's seen the biggest benefit from using it to write practice policies and procedures. What used to take her 60 minutes or more to write up a policy or procedure now takes her as little as two minutes.

"I used to dread writing policies and procedures. It hated it, it was so tedious!" she says. "I had a never-ending list of policies to write up, such as 'How to scan an x-ray into a digital database.' Now I can do a policy in two or three minutes," she says.

As for initial concerns about compatibility with their computerized charting system or other programs, there have been "no issues at all." In fact, Jo Anna has found that in addition to saving her considerable time, Dragon is also helping her get more organized, by being able to whip through her workload rapidly. "Everyone should use it," she says.