Dental Deep Dive

Part two of a conversation with Mike White, CPA, Principal with CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP). Mike works with DSOs around the country to help them improve financial outcomes and profitability. In this second part of our conversation, Mike shares his recommendations for how dental organizations can benchmark their financial standing, red flags to watch out for, as well as how and when practices should be evaluating their financial data. He also answers questions about when certain business roles should be outsourced or brought in-house. 

In this episode, we ask

 - 00:58   What do you recommend to DSOs when it comes to benchmarking P&Ls?

 - 03:28   How often should dental leaders be looking at the financial metrics of their business?

 - 07:44   What red flags should dental teams be sure to watch out for when examining their financial reports?

 - 13:14   What do you recommend for DSOs when it comes to deciding what job functions to keep in-house and when to look at outsourcing?

Resources

 - CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, www.claconnect.com/directory/w/white-mike

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise helps dental organizations optimize accounting processes, including collections and reporting, to support their goals for greater financial sustainability. To learn more about Dentrix Enterprise, visit www.dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

Part one of a conversation with Mike White, CPA, principal with CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP). Mike offers expert insights for dental organizations looking to improve their profitability. In part one of this two-part conversation, we discuss current financial trends in the dental industry, how practices should be using their practice management software to improve their financial outlook, as well as where organizations should be centralizing functions across practice locations.

In this episode, we ask

 - 02:48   In what areas do you see dental groups needing the most financial support and expertise?

 - 07:15   What are the trends you are seeing in the dental industry as we head into this new year?

 - 09:56   What are you seeing as far as consolidation within DSOs?

 - 12:34   How can practices better use tools within their practice management systems to improve financial performance?

 - 18:26   What do you recommend DSOs centralize within their organizations?

Resources

 - CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, www.claconnect.com/directory/w/white-mike

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise can help your dental practice scale and grow with tools to track and manage your financial goals. It also can be integrated with tools like Jarvis Analytics to further increase insights into the financial health of your organization. Learn more at www.dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

A conversation with international speaker, author and consultant Janet Hagerman. Janet is a DSO development expert helping dental groups establish an empowering culture and foundation for scalability. She is the author of “Selling Dentistry – Ethically, Elegantly, Effectively” and her communication systems help regional DSO managers empower their practices to double their case acceptance and utilize KPIs to accelerate peak performance. During the episode, Janet shares her expert insights and strategies for improving case acceptance for all locations across a dental business.

In this episode, we ask

 - 01:20   What are you hearing about most right now when it comes to trends in the dental industry?

 - 05:14   When it comes recent challenges with keeping employees and avoiding burnout, what are you seeing successful organizations doing?

 - 07:29   How are you seeing improving case acceptance evolve? And how does it impact a practice's success and patient care?

 - 13:16   Where do you think practices struggle most with case acceptance?

 - 16:45   What is a healthy case acceptance rate? How can practices benchmark to know if they are doing well or have opportunities to improve?

 - 19:51   What other best practices would you recommend to help practices improve case acceptance?

 - 24:15   What are the top things you would recommend practices start doing now to improve their case acceptance?

Resources

 - Visit www.janethagerman.com or email [email protected] for complimentary resources.

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise is a powerful practice management platform that allows dental organizations not only to centralize operations but also standardize their approach to dentistry. Successful practices can use Dentrix Enterprise to manage treatment planning and cases. To learn more about how Dentrix Enterprise can help standardize and accelerate case acceptance in your organization, visit www.dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

A discussion with Melissa Marquez, Chief Operating Officer with Jarvis Analytics. With more than 20 years in dental, including a variety of DSO leadership roles, Melissa is an industry expert who is helping dental leaders to improve their businesses through data. Melissa shares best practices for tracking and utilizing analytics data within a dental organization. She also discusses what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) practices should be looking at and how to unify goals across locations.

In this episode, we ask

 - 04:58   What can you tell us about Jarvis Analytics and how you’re helping practices find success?

 - 08:35   Why should dental practices track analytics?

 - 10:27   What would you say are the most significant pain points for practices when it comes to how KPIs are measured and how data is presented?

 - 12:01   What do you think is the most important metric, or set of KPIs, for measuring success for a DSO?

 - 14:06   What best practices would you share for managing multiple practice locations?

 - 16:22   What would you say is the first metric a dental leader should check each day? Week? Month?

 - 18:12   What is the most common disconnect between a central office and the practice locations?

 - 22:45   What traps do dental leaders fall into when it comes to operational efficiencies?

Resources

 - www.jarvisanalytics.com

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise is a powerful practice management platform that allows DSOs and other dental organizations to centralize and standardize operational procedures in order to run all practice locations efficiently and effectively. Dentrix Enterprise can also integrate with technologies like Jarvis Analytics to further increase business capabilities. Learn more today at www.dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

A conversation with Mike Uretz, who is a nationally recognized dental software and dental EHR expert. Mike is the founder of both Dental Group Partners and DentalSoftwareAdvisor.com, and he is the dental software editor for Dental Products Report. In this episode, we welcome Mike back to the program to discuss the growing need for interoperability between dental and medical management systems. Mike shares the dual need he sees for software to strengthen a dental program’s clinical operations as well as connect with medical systems.

In this episode, we ask

 - 01:35   Since we last had you on the podcast, what have you seen happening with dental/medical interoperability?

 - 04:36   Are you seeing dental organizations being successful in their use of interoperability?

 - 06:34   How do you see medical and dental being different clinically, and how does that affect what these teams need in the software they use?

 - 12:56   What is the difference between system integration and true interoperable systems?

 - 15:44   How would you advise a dental director who is looking at a new software system? What would be the most important things for them to be aware of and what should they really be looking for?

 - 26:35   As regulations continue to be introduced, such as the 21st Century Cures Act, how do you think this will affect the adoption of greater dental/medical integration?

 - 28:49   If you were to give a dental director your top three pieces of advice on incorporating interoperability, what would that advice be?

Resources

 - https://dentalsoftwareadvisor.com/activity

 - Mike Uretz previously joined the Dental Deep Dive podcast in episodes 4 and 5.

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise is a powerful management system that allows dental organizations to standardize operations and improve efficiency. Dentrix Enterprise also has powerful features that allow it to interoperate with more than 40 medical systems. Learn more today at www.dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

A conversation with Dimitri Rabinovich. Dimitri is a Senior Product Manager for Henry Schein One who focuses on patient relationship management (PRM) and patient demand generation. Before joining Henry Schein One, he was an operations manager and a management consultant for several dental and medical practices in Washington State. With a background in health care and business management, Dimitri brings decades of experience to our conversation on PRM.

In this episode we ask

 - 02:30   What are the trends happening right now that are impacting PRM most?

 - 04:05   How do you look at the need for relationship management when it comes to health care?

 - 05:42   What differentiates an effective PRM solution from a manual communication strategy within a practice?

 - 07:21   What are some of the most common pain points practices have in relation to communication with patients?

 - 09:10   How are you seeing the most successful dental organizations use PRM to drive practice growth and provide better care for patients?

 - 14:33   What would you say to a practice that worries that using a PRM solution would eliminate the personal touch they have with patients?

 - 17:17   What are the best practices that organizations should start using today to better manage their relationships with their existing patients?

Resources

 - Henry Schein One patient communication tools: https://henryscheinone.com/solutions/group/patient-communication

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise is a powerful platform designed to help dental organizations grow and scale. To learn more about how Dentrix Enterprise can help optimize your dental business and integrate with patient relationship management software, visit dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

A conversation with Teresa Duncan, MS. Teresa is an author, speaker and consultant with over 20 years in dental. Her regular podcasts “Nobody Told Me That!” and “Chew on This” are helpful resources for dental leaders. In this podcast, Teresa shares insights into how dental leaders can get the most from their managers and staff. She also discusses how improving revenue cycle management and insurance workflows can benefit patients while improving the bottom line.

In this episode we ask

 - 01:24   What dental trends are you hearing about the most?

 - 04:23   What are the most common questions you’re asked with regards to making practices more successful?

 - 07:32   What can practices be doing to improve insurance management workflows?

 - 14:40   What advice do you have for dental teams when it comes to avoiding burnout?

 - 18:29   What are the top three things dental leaders and managers can be doing now to improve their practices?

Resources

 - www.OdysseyMgmt.com

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise provides solutions to help dental organizations improve and optimize the efficiency of their revenue cycle management processes. From claims to billing to payments, Dentrix Enterprise offers specialized tools to support your needs. Learn more at dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

A discussion with Dr. Ethan Kerns, Chief Dental Officer for Salud Family Health Centers, which is the state of Colorado’s largest dental department in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Dr. Kerns is also President-Elect for NNOHA, the National Network for Oral Health Access. In this episode, Dr. Kerns offers insights into how dental programs like his can make improvements within their FQHC to significantly benefit both providers and patients. He also discusses the work that NNOHA is doing to help dental professionals and increase overall access to dental care.

In this episode we ask

 - 01:31   What hot topics and industry trends are you seeing most right now?

 - 05:38   What can you tell us about NNOHA and the work they do?

 - 07:40   Where are you seeing NNOHA make the biggest impact?

 - 10:20   What are some of the biggest challenges you are seeing for dental clinics right now and what are successful clinics doing to help overcome those challenges?

 - 12:04   With some dental programs facing challenges in filling staff positions post COVID, what resources does NNOHA offer to help with these challenges?

 - 15:11   What are you seeing successful dental programs doing well that maybe other programs aren’t focused on?

Resources

 - NNOHA Website – www.nnoha.org

 - NNOHA Workforce Resources – https://nnoha.org/ohi-toolkit/option-2-currently-offers-on-site-dental-services/expansion-addition-of-off-site-direct-services/workforce-resources/

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise is a robust management software that provides tools and technology to help CHCs and FQHCs optimize organizational efficiency with a preferred, dental-specific workflow. Dentrix Enterprise is also interoperable with more than 40 different medical systems. Learn more at dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

A conversation with Jamie Westfall, Henry Schein One. Jamie brings over ten years of experience as a Certified Trainer with a proven record of helping dental teams experience success. In this episode, she shares her expert insights into how dental programs can apply best practices across locations through their organizational workflows, and how making workflow improvements can positively impact overall patient outcomes.

In this episode we ask

 - 01:49   What dental industry hot topics are you hearing about the most?

 - 06:45   What impacts have you seen for practices that have the right dental workflows in place?

 - 10:40   What key areas do teams need to focus on when evaluating the effectiveness of their current workflows?

 - 12:14   What are some ways to help improve team accountability for adopting and implementing workflows?

 - 14:56   How does the technology that a dental organization implements impact the effectiveness of their workflows?

 - 21:17   What can dental programs do today to make improvements in their current workflows?

Resources

 - Episode 9, Jamie Westfall – Best Practices for Staff Onboarding

 - Episode 17, Michelle Strange – Teledentistry

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise provides tools and technology to help dental organizations optimize and streamline their centralization processes. The Dentrix Enterprise team offers specialized Workflow Analysis services to help you analyze and improve practice workflows. Learn more at dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive

A discussion with Michelle Strange, MSDH, RDH. Michelle has over 20 years of experience in numerous roles in dentistry. She is the cofounder of the popular podcast, A Tale of Two Hygienists; cofounder of both Level Up Infection Prevention and TriviaDent; and the client success manager for MouthWatch. And she still finds time to work as a practicing dental hygienist! In this episode, she shares her expert insights into best practices in the use of teledentistry in improving overall patient outcomes.

In this episode we ask

 - 03:24   What are the hot topics you’re seeing in the dental industry right now?

 - 07:23   How have you seen teledentistry evolve over the past year?

 - 09:25   Of the aspects of teledentistry that came about because of the pandemic, which will remain important to practices going forward?

 - 12:55   What would you tell practices that haven’t adopted teledentistry yet about how it can benefit them?

 - 15:38   How can different dental organization types, from DSOs to Community Health Centers, be utilizing teledentistry for their specific needs?

 - 23:11   What have you seen practices do well, as far as change management for patients and providers goes, when adopting teledentistry?

Resources

 - Michelle Strange – [email protected]

 - Podcast – www.ataleoftwohygienists.com

This episode is sponsored by Dentrix Enterprise. Dentrix Enterprise helps dental programs manage the complexities of their unique organizations while improving practice efficiency and productivity. Get dental technology solutions designed to fit your specific needs and improve patient outcomes. Learn more at dentrixenterprise.com/dentaldeepdive