Building trust and credibility with dental practice partners is a critical part of leading a DSO, and will be a core focus for PepperPointe Partnerships' new COO, Christy Englehart.
Ms. Englehart recently joined PepperPointe after previously serving as COO of Smile Brands, one of the largest DSOs in the U.S.
PepperPointe Partnerships supports more than 130 practice locations in Kentucky, New York and Virginia.
Ms. Englehart recently spoke with Becker's to discuss her new role and the trends she is following in the industry.
Editor's note: These responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What made you interested in joining PepperPointe Partnerships?
Christy Englehart: One of the primary reasons is the low turnover of both providers and team members. Currently, in the sector, you see an average of 20 to 25% doctor turnover, and this is incredibly costly to a business. It also deters patients when there's a constant change in their provider. The landscape of recruitment of providers has changed dramatically over the last four years. Retention is really key to growth and patient satisfaction and because of the model, we see very little turnover at PepperPointe with our partners and that's something that was very attractive to me.
Q: How does PepperPointe stand out from other DSOs?
CE: It's the only model in the DSO sector that is doctor-owned without private equity sponsorship. That's really why they stand out. I think the model is going to continue to attract general dentists, orthodontists [and] pediatric specialists who really want to utilize our services but continue to operate their practices under their same name or their same brand. Patients don't even know that we as the management company are there to help support them in all these various areas. It's truly their practice.
Q: How do you think your role will differ working with a smaller organization compared to Smile Brands?
CE: With a smaller DSO, decisions regarding initiatives and organic growth opportunities can move much quicker versus a larger DSO [that] requires layers of approvals. I like to move fast. I want my team to move fast and with a smaller DSO, we can get a lot more accomplished just because it's natural because of the size. It also allows me the opportunity to be in the field with our operations leaders, meeting our providers and our teams. Building trust and credibility with our partners is so important. We need to be present with our partners and our teams in the practices. This is the heartbeat of the business. With a larger DSO in my former role, I did a lot of administrative [work], a lot of different things related to operating the business but more from afar, so I'm super excited to have a smaller DSO where I can physically get out into the practices and learn about the teams, their doctors, their goals, their objectives, and to be able to assist them to ensure we meet or exceed those goals that they're setting for themselves in the practice.
Q: What goals do you have for your new role?
CE: We want to look at implementing more software applications to allow PepperPointe to scale and become more efficient. We want to continue to grow in our new markets and we need to make sure we have the systems in place to help us scale. One of the opportunities I see is with fixed assets, lease management and things like that in which we really need software to reduce the amount of manual labor that has to be done. So I do see us upgrading some systems that'll allow us to scale and just work more efficiently. I also think I'm going to continue to look at clinical opportunities to assist with clinical growth as we align with our partners. Dentistry is always changing and I want to make sure we are providing our partners with continuing education that allows them to grow their skill set.
One of the other areas in terms of my focus is just leadership development. It's very critical, and this has always been a strength of mine. I've taken many leaders with potential and assisted them with various areas of development, whether that's strategic thinking, conflict resolution, how to handle difficult conversations and just continued to identify opportunities for their individual roles and growth. That's super important to me. It's something I really enjoy and that I'm excited about. I've met some amazing leaders here who have such growth, such potential, that I'm looking forward to continuing to develop them in a leadership role.
Q: What trends are you following right now?
CE: Definitely [artificial intelligence]. AI is here to stay and I think that helps us to replace manual processes that we've done in our past. AI allows us to be more accurate with data and more efficient as we process, so I continue to follow the AI opportunities that are out there in the business. I would also say the recent attack on Change Healthcare. That's something that's becoming more common, so I'm continuing to look at those situations and how we can ensure we are protected and secure and that we have solid coverage in the area of cyber risk [and] insurance coverage. That's not something anybody thought of 10 or 15 years ago, but it's important today and it's forever changing. So that's definitely something too as it's becoming very concerning around healthcare.