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According to "Dr. Wo" Wm. Randol Womack, DDS, Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

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Transfer Cases


Wm. Randol Womack, DDS
Editorial Director,
Orthotown Magazine		 As we embrace the digital age in office management, how do we extend this to other aspects of our daily practice? This week, several patient transfer issues happened at my office. In reviewing our transfer protocol it came to my attention that we were not utilizing all that is available to us. I visited the AAO Web site and I searched for "transfer." This brought up an extensive list of available forms and documents. A few selections that stood out included "Patient Transfer in Active Treatment" and "Patient Transfer in Retention" in both PDF and Word formats. Whereas, the PDF form has to be printed and then filled in by hand, the interesting thing I found was that the Word format allows you to fill in the transfer information and then save it. This saves time and increases legibility (at least where my handwriting is concerned). Both forms have a "patient release" area at the bottom that must be signed by the parent or adult patient. The Word document transfer form can be printed after the information is inserted so that the doctor as well as the parent or adult patient can sign the release form.
  Digital transfer forms can be managed in a variety of ways. They can be printed and mailed, faxed, handed to the patient or scanned (with the doctor's and the parent's/adult patient's signatures) back into your management system and then e-mailed to the next doctor.

Another valuable document available on my search was, "Guidelines on Patient Situations" (Council on Orthodontic Practice, 1999). This is not a new document but I was surprised at how many of the details I had not committed to memory. I have printed this document and we have incorporated it into our office procedure manual and I would advise each of you to at least access this document and review it in detail. It has some specific guidelines about transferring a patient as well as: "Patient Records, Terminating the Doctor/Patient Relationship & Divorce and Custody Issues."

We have had several patients leave the area and a few who have moved into our area who are in the middle of Invisalign treatments. In addition to the information applicable on the AAO transfer form, a fax form from Align Technology must be signed by both the transferring doctor and the accepting doctor. This is necessary for Align to move the virtual treatment information (ClinCheck) from one doctor's VIP Web site to the other doctor's VIP Web site. One needs to contact Align Clinical Support (888-822-5446) for assistance with this process. Some of the complexities of Invisalign treatment that arise in transferring include: how many aligners are completed and how many stages are left? Are the aligners fitting and teeth tracking? If not, is a mid-course correction needed. If it is needed, who will initiate this — the original doctor or the transfer doctor? If stages are yet to be completed, do you give the rest of the aligners to the patient or do you mail them to the new doctor? Is case refinement going to be needed? What about retention — will the new doctor charge for retainers? What about the financial arrangements — are payments up to date? If not, how do you manage this when it comes to the remainder of the unused aligners? Did the patient pay up-front — and, if so, is a refund due to the patient or should a check be sent to the new doctor?

Needless to say, transfer patients of all varieties can carry a lot of "baggage" with them when they leave (or arrive in) your office. Good communication with parents or adult patients is strongly recommended, prior to and during the transfer process, to avoid the nightmares that have been generated in the past by not clarifying all the details of this untimely disturbance in treatment. My recommendation: dot all the "i's" and cross all the "t's" before the unwanted problems associated with transfers arise.
Orthotown Magazine
November 2025
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