As competition grows among DSOs, more weight will be put on how companies support their providers and keep patients at the focus.
Four DSO executives recently joined Becker’s “Dental + DSO Virtual Event” to discuss how emerging organizations are setting themselves apart from more established DSOs, as well as what their success will depend on.
Editor’s note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: How are newer DSOs and smaller groups differentiating themselves from some of the larger legacy players? What do these newcomers need to succeed?
Haim Haviv. Founder and CEO of Hudson Dental (New York City): I think being able to offer the doctors autonomy and really sticking to that. Offer them autonomy. Offer them the equity as a newer company or a company that’s establishing in an area. It is easier to do these things because you can be more flexible. You don’t have as many precedents in that area, and you can come and say, “Okay, this makes sense to do, and this is what we’ll offer you.” The other thing is being more patient-focused, understanding the demographics, and operating in a way [in which,] for better or for worse, you’re not set in your ways. There are pros and cons to that, but you’re not set in your ways as a new group or a group that is branching into a new demographic.
The last one is technology. When you go somewhere new, you [can] say, “Okay, how about I pilot that technology here, and then I can take it to the larger group.” … You have that freedom to adapt and adopt more technologies, and I think for new groups, that’s really helpful coming to a new area or just being brand new.
Jeremy Jonckheere. Vice President of Strategic Payer Partnerships at PDS Health (Henderson, Nev.): You’ve got to be great for dentists and great for patients to succeed. There are a lot more conversations happening about integrated systems and integrated health. You’ve got to have a scalable platform. I really appreciate that you try stuff in some areas, but you have to be able to grow and grow it across a platform to get all those economies of scale [and] to get the opportunities that are there … You see people coming in who are just trying to be acquired. You have to remember, healthcare is not retail. A lifetime patient is better than a new patient when you’re talking about long-term growth. So looking at the investment horizon of those new DSOs coming in is a big value indicator that we would look at or that we see changing. The groups that are doing it right [are] focused on patient experience [and] clinician experience with a strong health-oriented culture. That’s what makes these new groups potentially really strong.
Zach Cherry. Vice President of Operations at Heartland Dental (Effingham, Ill.): What makes us different is a combination of scale, but then individualized support. Doctors lead clinically, and then we provide resources to help them grow personally and professionally. So, these leadership opportunities we have are just as important, if not more important than some of the clinical skills they’re gaining. That’s not to say that one of the two are imbalanced. I think they’re equally important, but doctors tend to want to have that growth. I would say the same thing about the team members. If we don’t create opportunities also for the teams that support the providers, then we get into trouble because we know if we invest in the people, the doctors [and] the teams, they’ll be happy, but they’ll also do a really good job at supporting the community’s patient care wherever it is they live.
At the end of the day, it’s a people business, and not just the patients, but also the folks that work in the offices. They want personal growth. They want to further their careers. Doctors want to get better clinically. They want to get better relationships and [get better at] leading the team. There are a mix of things happening out there with DSOs emerging. We’re all talking about the same thing of doing it for the right reason, and I hope that trend continues.
Jeffrey DeBellis. COO at MAX Surgical Specialty Management (Hackensack, N.J.): We’re about two and a half years old, and I think we’re trying very hard to stay committed to our core value of being surgeon led. Having a co-CEO who’s a practicing oral surgeon, having three executive board members who are practicing oral surgeons, having a clinical advisory board made up of 17 different practicing oral surgeons, a chief medical officer, a chief clinical officer — all of whom work more than three, maybe four days a week in clinical practice, guiding the management organization around the clinical decisions and support they need to be successful — is, to us, a differentiator. All of those things are complemented by technology [and] by having a great core culture around the support staff that’s employed by the management company to support the surgeons. The organizations that are going to ultimately lead in their class or size or specialty are going to have significant influence from the providers themselves. In the end, to really be patient-focused, you have to involve the caregivers. For us, that’s really at the core of it.
