Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Vimal Bhatnagar, Chief Operating Officer at Empire Dental Arts

Transcript

Vimal Bhatnagar, Chief Operating Officer at Empire Dental Arts · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Vimo, but Nger,
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  chief Operating Officer of Empire Dental Arts. Vimo,
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  it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Thank you, Laura. It's a pleasure to be with you.
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  Now. I'm excited for our conversation today.
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  I know the dental industry is so much happening in a lot of buzz around where
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  things are headed and in technology as well as, you know,
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  the different dental space and making sure people have care that they need.
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  But before we dive into my questions,
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  could you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background?
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  Yeah, absolutely. So, um, I, uh, I,
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  I'm currently a Chief Operating Officer at Empire Dental Arts. Um,
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  and I got my start in dentistry in 2009.
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  So I had really no intention of going and been in dentistry, uh,
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  in the beginning. But, um, I, uh, started to, um,
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  I actually started working with a friend of mine out in Colorado, um, at, uh,
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  peak Dental Services. And, um,
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  initially kind of thinking it was gonna be a combination. I,
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  I have a legal background of sort of legal and operational,
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  but it actually shifted a lot more to the operational side of dental,
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  and I just loved it. Um, and, uh,
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  helped that organization at its very start, kind of, you know, progressed from,
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  you know, a couple practices from a single practice to a couple practices. And,
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  um, and then from then on, um,
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  I ended up moving back to the Cleveland area where I currently am, and, uh,
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  started to work for a few of the, uh, DSOs here, uh,
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  dental service organizations. And then, um,
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  eventually in 2018 made my shift over to, uh, empire Dental.
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  Oh, that's amazing. And, and definitely I could imagine that background.
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  You know,
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  over the years you've seen a lot of different changes in the industry and, um,
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  exciting that, that you're able to take them into your current role. And,
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  you know, I know we're in a, a unique place in healthcare right now. Um,
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  just given that what we've been through during the pandemic and now, you know,
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  some of the after effects of that. Um,
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  so what are some of the biggest issues that you're following right now?
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  What's really a top of mind for you?
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  So, you know, being a leader in the dental field is really no easy task. Uh,
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  I think there's a lot of, uh, aspects that I think we're,
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  it's really important to keep eye our eye on, especially post pandemic.
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  You mentioned such, such things as, um, the,
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  the technology changes in our industry. And I think for me,
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  I think that's one of the biggest things that I'm,
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  I'm trying to keep track of and I, and I think are really exciting. Um,
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  things like 3D printing for dental prosthetics,
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  things like dentures and stuff like that, AI is a big thing. Um,
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  digital imaging. Um, and I think what's what's really important is that,
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  you know, is an issue for us right now is to keep track of those. Um,
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  I think they can, all of those things are, are hugely important,
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  are making major inroads in our, in our industry,
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  and I can certainly make a big difference in patient outcomes. And, you know,
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  and generally speaking about patients, I think another issue I'm just really,
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  you know, keeping track of is, um, just, you know, how, how their,
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  um, sophistication has changed over time. Uh, you know, there's,
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  there people are more informed,
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  there's more opportunities to get information about, you know,
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  treatment options. And I think that's, that's all a very good thing. Um, and as,
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  and as people go along, they expect better things like transparent pricing, um,
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  convenience scheduling, and more personalized care.
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  And I think as leaders in the industry,
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  we just have to make sure that we're adapting to these changes and to continue
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  to improve, um, on their experiences. Um,
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  another big thing I think for, for me, especially, I think,
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  and I think it can't be,
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  you can't have any conversation about issues in the healthcare industry or in
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  the dental industry without talking about it, is, um, the tight labor market.
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  Um, you know, we are having a very tough time,
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  and I think it's across the board and with my colleagues and finding, you know,
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  finding and, and keeping qualified talent. Um, and, you know,
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  I think what,
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  what this is stimulating is much more conversations about creating more
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  supportive work environment, um,
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  where there's plenty of opport opportunities for professional development. Um,
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  and then I think, you know, uh, really, you know, a couple other things,
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  I think, you know, one of the things that we always can't forget,
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  and it's always part of business,
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  but I think it's become particularly important over the past couple years,
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  is the value of financial management. Um, costs are on the rise.
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  I think they're, they're affecting all of us in so many different ways.
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  As you know, I'm sure you know, Laura,
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  and I think it's important for us to get a firm grasp on our budgeting,
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  understand the ins and outs of insurance reimbursements, and really, uh, do a,
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  a better job than I think we've,
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  we've done maybe historically in managing our expenses effectively.
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  And then finally, I think, you know, uh, an issue that I,
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  I I'm particularly interested in,
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  I think it's going to have a lot of effect on how we do dentistry in the future.
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  Um, Beyonce, some of the technology things that I discussed earlier is just, um,
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  the,
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  the increasing understanding of the connection between oral health and systemic
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  health. Um, it's, it's becoming much more clear. And I think that, um, we,
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  if we say abreast of these findings, I think we're gonna have a lot of,
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  of better opportunities to incorporate this knowledge into our practices and
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  really educate our patients about it.
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  Absolutely. I think that's a great point. And you have such a,
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  a great list of things to keep an eye on, you know, and I,
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  I definitely wanna dig deeper just into a couple of the different themes you
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  talked about. Um, especially, you know, as you were just mentioning,
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  the increasing awareness of the connection between overall health and oral
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  health.
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  And then you talked as well about more informed patients and wanting more
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  personalized care. I can imagine that integration, um,
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  o of the dental healthcare into overall healthcare is just something that,
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  you know, obviously, uh, at a a broader level, you know,
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  it takes time to make changes and policy changes and those kinds of things,
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  but mm-hmm. , how are you connecting with patients in really, uh,
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  you know, bringing that to light and, and what can, I guess, uh,
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  dental groups do, even on the individual level to, um,
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  really just stress the importance of oral health and, um, make connections, um,
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  within their community to, to foster better care for patients overall?
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  Yeah, absolutely. No, that's a great question. I, you know, I think,
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  I think one of the things that, from a business perspective, I,
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  I can start with at least, is I think it's important that we understand that,
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  you know, relationships are key to how we continue to, you know,
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  grow our practices and, you know, build, build you our patient bases.
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  Um, because, you know, as, as, as you mentioned, you know, pa patients are,
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  are looking for, for more information.
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  And I think the more that we can be able to, to prioritize education, um,
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  and,
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  and I think not just educating our patients to how dentistry operates or how
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  their specific treatment plan might be to affect them, it's also, uh,
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  how we educate our providers, um, and our team members,
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  what are the things that we're putting behind them to help them get more, more,
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  um, you know, more abreast of the changes in the, in the industry, um, but also,
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  uh, and particularly some of those clinical changes so that they can be more
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  confident in communicating that information to patients. Um,
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  I also think too that, that for patients, you know,
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  they're looking for convenience. You know, we, we, we talk about, um,
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  a lot about, about, you know, how to get patients scheduled.
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  And I think for all these dental practices out there,
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  I think they have to start to look at ways that they can improve the convenience
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  of scheduling. Um, we, we are, you know,
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  prioritizing things like online scheduling, um, over and above,
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  say the traditional call calling and scheduling at our offices.
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  And it's mainly because that's what most people do for everything else, right?
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  I mean, all of our lives is pretty much, you know, oriented towards the, the,
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  the, the quick and easy ability to do things through online systems.
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  And so I think dental practices that can adapt to that more easily are ones that
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  are going to just, you know, sort of adhere more to patient needs. Um,
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  and then I also think that, you know, for dental practices,
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  because we have a shifting market, and you know,
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  as I kind of talked a little bit about some of the financial needs of, of the,
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  of the industry, I think we have to also be, be really conscientious about, um,
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  about keeping patients in our practices.
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  So developing loyalty programs, uh, membership programs, you know,
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  there's a lot of organizations out there that can help support, uh,
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  dental practices in doing that all are,
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  are key and important just to help patients feel that, you know, they've,
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  when they've joined your practice,
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  that they're continuing to make the right choice for their care for now and,
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  and in the future.
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  Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. You know, and I,
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  I really appreciate you talking through that because it's just such an important
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  part and shift,
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  I know in the industry to think differently about connecting with patients. And,
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  um, like you,
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  you were talking about how to keep them in their practices and keeping them
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  engaged and, and really, um,
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  overall prioritizing how you can educate them and, and,
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  uh, you know, have better healthcare overall. So I,
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  I think the next question I have is what are you most excited about and what
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  makes you nervous? I know we've talked through a few different points here that,
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  um, are, are kind of positives as well as,
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  as aspects of the industry that are a little bit more challenging right now.
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  So just love to hear your thoughts on what's exciting and what makes you
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  nervous.
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  Oh, absolutely. So, you know, honestly, the most exciting thing for me is ai.
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  Um, I think that, you know,
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  I think AI holds a tremendous amount of potential for our industry. I mean,
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  you know, we've got things such as improved diagnostics. I mean,
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  if you think about it, you know, for a long time, you know, you get x-rays,
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  you're coming into the office, and, and now we have the, the capacity,
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  and I know there's a lot of organizations out there with a lot of really
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  powerful technology to be able to not only, you know, di diagnose,
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  but also to help to create personalized treatment plans. Um, and I think that's,
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  that is extremely important. And I think, you know,
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  also AI brings things like predictive analytics. Um, you know, are we able to,
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  you know, look at the progression of,
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  of somebody's oral health issues over time, that helps us to really help, uh,
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  to prioritize preventative care and better interventions to help slow the
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  progression of disease, um, efficiency and automation's another big part of it.
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  I mean, if you think about, um, how, you know, as I mentioned earlier,
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  online scheduling, things like that,
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  when we were able to help to automate routine tasks,
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  such appointment as appointments,
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  scheduling and patient reminders and things like of that nature,
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  it really does free up more time for our office, our, our,
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  our dental professionals to focus on patient care. Um,
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  and so I think that's all, all gonna be a really big piece of it,
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  and it's certainly, you know, very exciting. I mean,
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  and I think I touched on a little bit, you know,
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  education and training is all gonna be another aspect of it. Um,
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  and then of course, you know, how we, how we utilize that for, uh,
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  things like teledentistry, um, you know, how do we, how do we, how do we,
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  you know, utilize the services,
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  services that AI could potentially provide that would allow for that to be a
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  much more meaningful experience for patients. Um, but you know,
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  all that being said,
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  whats the most exciting thing for dentistry is probably the thing that makes me
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  the most nervous . Um, you know, and I think, you know,
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  I think AI holds a great amount of promise,
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  but it's also important to consider some of the ethic,
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  ethical and privacy considerations that I, I think are,
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  are gonna be continuing to become more prevalent in our industry. And, um,
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  you know, and I think that those things are, you know,
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  one thing about AI that we can appreciate and,
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  and love is all the things I mentioned. Um, but I also think that there's,
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  there's questions about certainly, you know, security pri patient privacy,
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  um, you know, whether there's accuracy and bias in some of the,
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  some of the information that comes out in AI models. And then I think it's, uh,
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  you know, dependence and technology, um, you know, the over-reliance on this,
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  uh, could be, you know, uh, could,
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  could I think sometimes take away the intu intuitive aspects of, of,
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  of dental professional, the, the work of dental professionals. And certainly,
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  you know, that does bring up the, the question of job displacement,
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  which I know, um, I think that could is, is, is a real thing. Um,
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  but I do think that, uh, in, in our field it's probably not as, as considerable,
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  considerable for the clinical team, but I think for, you know, other,
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  other team members that could certainly be a consideration. Um, I think that,
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  you know, those, those certainly make us all nervous. I mean,
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  because I think that one thing that people associate with when they come to a
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  dental practice is not just the dentist they see, but the team around them. Uh,
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  so I think that, you know, uh,
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  while I don't think any of these concerns are insurmountable, I do think that,
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  you know, as, uh, as, as, uh, as exciting as they all are, we have to be,
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  you know, conscientious of how we can use them, you know,
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  ethically and fairly and, and, and in, in a way that's beneficial to, you know,
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  patients and your, uh, dental team alike.
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  Absolutely. I think that's a really great point, and definitely, um,
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  something to, to think through on the artificial intelligence side. Always,
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  you know, a lot of positives in terms of being able to pinpoint, um,
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  areas that, you know,
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  could be of an issue down the line and really do more preventative care as well
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  as more, um, precise care. But then too, you know, , the,
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  the issues or the challenges, um, certainly are,
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  are apparent across the industry.
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  So it'll be interesting to see how the technology develops and,
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  and really incorporates into, um, the dental setting now. Uh,
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  we've talked through some of the big changes in, in dentistry,
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  whether it's looking at the consumerism aspect, tight labor market, um,
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  as well as the financial insurance reimbursement
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  space as well. So when you think through where the industry is headed,
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  what will most effective leaders need in order to be successful over the next
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  two to three years? Um,
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  would love to hear your perspective on any additional skills or, um, you know,
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  what really they'll have to be thinking through as they're leading large, uh,
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  teams within their practice as well as organization-wide.
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  Yeah, no, I think it's a great question, and I think, um,
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  I think the first thing that effective healthcare leaders is gonna need that
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  what they're, what we're gonna need is adaptability. Um,
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  as we kind of talked about earlier where, you know,
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  this industry has made so many shifts and changes over the last few years. Um,
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  I talked at length about ai. I mean, that's,
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  that's a sort of a revolutionizing thing for every aspect of our life,
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  let alone our industry. I think that as, as, um, as healthcare leaders,
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  we have to be extremely adaptable and can, and, and, you know, see,
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  kind of go with the flow in some ways. You know, look at how policy changes,
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  technologies, and patient needs all are going to help,
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  help to affect and to strengthen our businesses. Um, and, uh,
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  you know, I also think that, you know, healthcare leaders to be effective,
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  we have to, you know, you know, embrace the technology. Like I said,
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  we have to also look about, look at, uh,
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  at big data and analytics because I think it's, it's, it's, it's available.
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  Um, and in my space particular,
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  it's been particularly available to larger organizations,
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  but now that we've had sort of, you know, just a change in, in the, uh,
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  and technology development over time and, and access to it, um,
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  we definitely have more opportunities for smaller organizations,
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  smaller practices to get the benefit of using things like data and analytics.
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  So I think that the, that's one thing that's gonna be extremely important.
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  I also think that, you know, we,
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  we have to recognize at the heart of what we do is patient care. Um, you know,
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  we, as business people, sometimes we get focused a lot on the, the,
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  the clear and, and, and, you know,
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  most important issues on the business side about, uh, you know,
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  leveraging technologies, managing financial, pe, the financial piece. But, uh,
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  we all have to recognize that, you know, it's the patients that, um, that,
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  that make our businesses and break them. Um,
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  so we have to be very conscientious of their needs and certainly, um,
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  in how we can provide care that's individually tailored to those, um, to,
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  to this, to those patients and what they're looking for. In addition,
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  I think that, you know, healthcare professionals now, uh,
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  and the leaders need to, and I think in our, in our space too,
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  need to have a stronger focus on prevention. Uh,
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  I think preventative treatments are making, uh, a much,
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  much larger headway in, in all, in all facets of facets of healthcare,
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  including my own and including the dental, dental space. And so I think that,
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  you know,
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  bringing preventative and wellness initiatives is gonna be really key and
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  important if we want to kind of, you know, see, again,
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  adapt through this next couple years.
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  And I think also just keeping abreast of all the different regulations and
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  policy changes that are gonna happen, um, you know, I think that, you know,
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  we sometimes think that things don't ever change in our industries,
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  and I think dental can again, be one of those,
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  those fields that sometimes has that, that, um, that can, can, can have that,
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  that, that, that feeling. But, um, when I,
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  when we look at how things are going to, you know, adapt over time,
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  we have to be just really conscientious of those kind of things,
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  like policy changes. And of course, you know, you know, as always, as a,
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  as a business leader, you always have to think about, you know, um,
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  about making important and ethical decision making. Um,
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  healthcare always involves complex issues, and I think we have to be able to,
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  to, you know, pursue those, explore them and, and be care,
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  be prepared to make some tough decision, tough decisions. But I, but you know,
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  in the end, I think, you know, the future's always gonna be,
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  be full of surprises. Um, but I do think that those are some key aspects of how,
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  uh, a business leader, um,
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  and any leader in this industry can start to look towards the future and I think
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  be the most effective they can be in the next few years.
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  Absolutely. I think that makes a lot of sense. You know,
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  and I really appreciate you talking through the, that space because, um, it,
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  it is challenging to be a leader today,
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  but certainly being prepared as much as possible and understanding, um,
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  really what it takes to bring folks in and understanding the impact
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  they're making on the community is so important. So vial,
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  thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a fun and interesting discussion,
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
• 18:29
  Oh, my pleasure, Laura. Thanks so much. Have a great day. Bye.