Open Dental integration

The Open Dental connection is dental-only. It links attributed website Patients to appointment outcomes through a practice-authorized, read-only integration. HVAC, landscaping, salons, restaurants, and generic medical clinics do not see this connection.

It answers whether a website inquiry later completed a visit in Open Dental. Match the primary Patient contact (not the guardian). CRM Patient is not an Open Dental patient id. It does not replace Open Dental, NexHealth, or Weave, and the staff Patients inbox is not a patient portal. A website login for appointments and invoices is a separate feature: Website logins.

The implementation and automated integration coverage are available, and the read path plus lead-attribution flow have been verified against the public Open Dental test API. Developer portal / Read All access and the sandbox license are granted for NurtureSite; the factory developer key is configured. Hosted-test Customer key proof (if not yet created) and the first live-practice connection are still pending.

Dual calendar

Website bookings (new-patient consults, deposits) use the NurtureSite calendar. Open Dental remains the practice schedule of record. Front desk copies website bookings into Open Dental until a paying design partner funds writeback.

What the integration does

• Matches the primary Patient contact by email, phone, or email then phone through the NurtureSite factory broker.
• Reads patient and appointment records needed to determine booked/completed outcomes.
• Returns completed attributed outcomes to the originating site so a PMS appointment completed trigger can start a CRM automation.
• Does not create or update patients or appointments in the current phase (read-only product).

Pricing and pass-through

• Read-only attribution (current product): Open Dental does not charge for read-only GET / basic API account access. NurtureSite does not add a separate Open Dental fee for read-only connections.
• Optional writeback (not enabled in product today): Open Dental bills write API tiers per practice location per month (published ladder includes approximately $15 / $30 / $35 depending on methods). If NurtureSite later offers write features for your practice, those vendor API fees are passed through when you enable them — they are not absorbed into the base NurtureSite plan.
• You authorize only the connection you configure. Do not share Open Dental credentials outside your practice admins and NurtureSite’s encrypted factory storage.

Data handling

• The practice must authorize the connection.
• Open Dental credentials and connection metadata are application-encrypted in the NurtureSite factory.
• Factory MySQL retains only keyed-hash patient and appointment references plus appointment timing/status for 90 days.
• Raw PMS patient and appointment identifiers are not retained.
• Clinical notes, charts, diagnoses, treatment details, and other clinical/chart data are not requested or retained.
• PMS credentials and PMS outcome records are never stored in the client-site database.

These controls reduce the amount and sensitivity of retained data. They do not by themselves constitute HIPAA compliance or certification, SOC 2 certification, or a representation that a BAA is available. HIPAA mode in automations is consent gating (email/SMS/invoice/webhook need recorded PHI communication consent). It is not a BAA.

CRM automation behavior

Add an Open Dental patient match node to a flow and choose its match input. The node appears in the automation builder on dental sites (or after Open Dental is connected). The node calls the factory broker and then continues to its next connected node. It does not branch on the immediate match result.

Use the PMS appointment completed trigger for flows that should react to completed attributed outcomes. Dental sites can add paused starters (thank-you, review ask, recall task) from CRM → Automations. Email steps stay HIPAA-mode consent-gated and must not include clinical content.

In HIPAA mode, the Open Dental lookup remains available as an internal operation; external email, SMS, invoice, and webhook nodes separately require recorded PHI communication consent.

Before a live connection

NurtureSite staff must complete the live-practice runbook: document practice authorization, prove the read path against the hosted test database, use one authorized test lead, verify containment and purge behavior, and agree on rollback. Do not send production credentials by email or support ticket.