The success of DSOs over the next few years is expected to come down to three things: technology, patient care and provider satisfaction.
Four DSO executives recently joined Becker’s “Dental + DSO Virtual Event” to discuss what’s next for the DSO field and the top drivers of success.
Editor’s note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What will DSOs need to be successful in the next two to three years?
Jeremy Jonckheere. Vice President of Strategic Payer Partnerships at PDS Health (Henderson, Nev.): For us, we’re going to continue to expand integration with medical data [and] whole healthcare. That becomes more and more commonplace. The second is better and more adoption of chairside and point-of-care diagnostics. The use of saliva is a really powerful window into your overall health, and we’re just at the beginning of adoption there. Beyond that, everything happens at the practice level. If I was coming into the business today, I’d be looking at the team I was partnering with and the tech stack there, and those two things would figure out whether I’m going to be successful or not in the long run.
Zach Cherry. Vice President of Operations at Heartland Dental (Effingham, Ill.): We’re looking at every area where we can reduce friction and free up time for patient care. That means we have to prioritize automation, AI integration [and] workforce enablement. To give an example, whether it’s claim processing to try to do it better and faster or more efficient clinical workflows, we want to increase efficiency in the office so the teams and the providers are laser focused on patient care. To Jeremy’s point, it’s also to create an environment where the teams want to stay and work a long period of time. You want them to be there long term. When you have a well-oiled, hardworking team that sticks around, that’s even better for the provider to want to stick around long term. All of these enhancements we’re working on have the ultimate goal to make the patient experience better.
Jeffrey DeBellis. COO at MAX Surgical Specialty Management (Hackensack, N.J.): For us at MAX, it’s really all about executing on the mission, ensuring our surgeons are served and supported so they can deliver the optimal patient experience. I don’t think it has to be complicated. Let’s go out and execute on our investment thesis and find great partners who are like-minded and want to step forward and be great surgeon leaders, continue to execute on all the stuff we’ve already discussed relative to just running great, local practice brands in their markets so you continue to build reputation and brand equity in all those places [and] recruit and retain amazing surgeons. For us at our scale, those are really important things, and any DSO, no matter who they’re supporting, if they follow that blueprint relative to what they’re interested in doing — whether it’s multi-specialty, whether it’s pure [general dentistry,] whether it’s perio — focus on supporting the providers, build great systems, have a great team and execute on the investment thesis. It sounds simple, but it gets complicated as you go. If they can just continue to block out the noise and be really focused on the organizational mission, they’ll all get there. That’s been proven.
Haim Haviv. Founder and CEO of Hudson Dental (New York City): It’s all about patient care. We want to be there for the patients, where they want to be [and] how they want to be served. If that means we have to automate our marketing, or we have to automate our phone system so every phone call is being answered, if that means we have to invest more in our teams so they are happy [and] make the patients happy, if that means the patients want to be seen for multi-specialty in a GP office and have a one-stop shop, we do it for them. That’s the main thing we focus on, and that’s the mission. We know that when we do that and we are good with the patients, they are good to us, and they stay with us and they send their friends to us. Our providers are happy, which leads to a beneficial relationship for both parties. It’s all about patient care and our providers.
