Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Richard A. Huot, DDS, Chief Executive Officer at Beachside Dental Consultants

Transcript

Richard A. Huot, DDS, Chief Executive Officer at Beachside Dental Consultants · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Riz Hatton with the Becker's Dental Po Soul Podcast.
• 0:04
  I'm thrilled to be joined today by Dr. Richard Hewitt,
• 0:08
  c e o of Beachside Dental Consultants. Dr. Hewitt,
• 0:11
  thank you so much for being here today.
• 0:14
  It's a pleasure to be with you, Riz. Thank you.
• 0:17
  Now,
• 0:18
  could you start off by just introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your
• 0:21
  background?
• 0:24
  Sure. So, uh, after graduating from dental school, uh,
• 0:28
  of which my senior year, the, uh,
• 0:30
  prime interest rate was 18 and half percent. Uh,
• 0:35
  I actually had a direct commission into the Air Force for three years following
• 0:39
  graduation. So my first assignment assignments were in, uh,
• 0:44
  a one year in Korea, and then two years Arizona.
• 0:48
  After I separated from the Air Force, I had a,
• 0:50
  started a scratch practice in my hometown in, uh, southern Maine,
• 0:55
  and did that for nine years before moving to Florida and, uh,
• 0:59
  buying an established practice there.
• 1:02
  So I practiced in Florida from 94 to 2008,
• 1:06
  and I continued on practicing. However,
• 1:09
  I started my consulting company right around that time and started, uh,
• 1:14
  doing that as an addition to, uh, part-time,
• 1:19
  um, clinical dental work.
• 1:21
  And I found that I really enjoyed that advising people, uh,
• 1:24
  mainly on the operations of their practice. From then on,
• 1:29
  I moved on to doing other, uh,
• 1:33
  similar type of work,
• 1:35
  and recently I was named Chief Development Officer for Val,
• 1:39
  which is an AI assisted software firm, uh,
• 1:43
  startup firm that we're working with right now.
• 1:48
  Fantastic, thank you. So my first question for you is,
• 1:52
  what are the biggest issues you're following in dental today?
• 1:57
  Okay, so there are several, uh, and they're all related in a sense.
• 2:02
  Um, I mean the, the workforce,
• 2:05
  the dental workforce is changing very rapidly as it is for other types of,
• 2:10
  of jobs, but mainly in dental field. Uh,
• 2:13
  you have a large amount of young dentists that are going, uh,
• 2:18
  not traditional.
• 2:19
  The traditional track was to go into something like the military or
• 2:24
  government work at first or, or private practice.
• 2:27
  And what you're seeing now is an increasingly a larger amount graduation up to
• 2:32
  about 30% that are trying out the DSO world Dental Service
• 2:37
  organizations.
• 2:38
  And most of them are starting their career working for one of those firms.
• 2:43
  And those can be found around the country. And in some areas of the country,
• 2:48
  uh, such as Arizona and Florida and Texas,
• 2:50
  there are more DSOs than there are in other states.
• 2:54
  So depending on where you graduate and depending on where you set up practice,
• 2:58
  a lot of practitioners are doing that. The, uh,
• 3:02
  the other item is, you know,
• 3:04
  you're seeing a lot more technology and also including, uh,
• 3:08
  the type of AI that I'm working on,
• 3:12
  but you see a lot of technology in terms of delivering dental care.
• 3:16
  Uh, digital scanning, uh,
• 3:19
  digital radiographs have been around since the early two thousands,
• 3:24
  and that that has progressed to a digital workforce,
• 3:28
  a dig digital, uh, work environment. And, uh,
• 3:34
  so that has also had an intense pressure on
• 3:39
  changing the delivery of care.
• 3:43
  Interesting. Thank you.
• 3:45
  So what are you most excited about and what makes you nervous when thinking
• 3:50
  about dental?
• 3:53
  I think I'm excited as far as technology's concerned and how it's gonna change
• 3:57
  dentistry,
• 3:58
  dentistry changed a lot when I was practicing full-time and
• 4:03
  most of the, most of the, uh, improvements made my life easier,
• 4:08
  whether it was impressions, materials, et cetera. Uh,
• 4:12
  all that stuff really helped in making, you know, the practice of dentistry,
• 4:17
  uh, uh, more pleasurable to do and less stressful for the patient.
• 4:22
  However, I think, I think, uh, part of it makes me excited.
• 4:26
  Another part makes me nervous is the amount of technology and the cost of it is
• 4:31
  getting to the point where your average practitioner,
• 4:35
  solo practitioner can't keep up with it. Uh,
• 4:38
  the cost is the technology costs are too much for one dentist to
• 4:43
  bear. So you, you,
• 4:45
  you're getting a natural congregation of consolidation of
• 4:49
  practices only because one dentist can't afford to purchase all
• 4:54
  these, uh, high tech items. So you're seeing that part. Uh,
• 4:59
  the part that makes me nervous is the workforce. Uh,
• 5:01
  we're living in a post covid world. We have fully, uh,
• 5:06
  9% of the dental hygienist workforce that never came back to work
• 5:11
  after covid. And a lot of those, uh, mostly women,
• 5:15
  a lot of those were in the retirement age bracket anyway, but, uh,
• 5:20
  a lot of them were either scared or just said it wasn't worth it anymore,
• 5:24
  or thinking about retiring anyway. And with the new,
• 5:28
  with the rules and the, and the, uh,
• 5:30
  the danger of acquiring the covid virus,
• 5:34
  a lot of them just decided to either switch, uh,
• 5:38
  careers or retire at that point. So that workforce, uh,
• 5:43
  problem has not, um, really solved itself. Uh,
• 5:48
  they most states, uh,
• 5:50
  in most areas of the country are needing, uh,
• 5:55
  uh, you know, dental positions are open, whether it's the dentist,
• 5:59
  the dental hygienists, the dental assistants, front office people.
• 6:02
  And we're also competing in a world where because of inflation,
• 6:07
  a lot of other people have moved on to other careers which offer either higher
• 6:11
  pay or more benefits.
• 6:15
  Interesting.
• 6:16
  So what will the most effective healthcare leaders need to be successful in the
• 6:21
  next two to three years?
• 6:25
  I think that if you wanna be a healthcare leader, especially, well,
• 6:28
  you have healthcare leaders and then you have healthcare managers,
• 6:32
  and those necessarily don't, those could be two different types of people.
• 6:36
  Healthcare leaders will have to balance the managing of dental practices
• 6:42
  and also directing where,
• 6:44
  where healthcare needs to be more effective. Uh,
• 6:48
  so your healthcare leaders could be anybody from, uh,
• 6:52
  people that work in large DSOs,
• 6:55
  people that work in organized dentistry like the American Bell Association
• 6:59
  Academy, the general dentistry, or also,
• 7:04
  you know, anybody that's in, in, in the industry.
• 7:08
  So if you have companies, the companies themselves that are,
• 7:12
  are traditional healthcare, uh,
• 7:15
  dental industry leaders such as the dental supply companies,
• 7:19
  equipment manufacturing,
• 7:21
  they will also have to look at what's the most
• 7:26
  ideal way to deliver their products, uh,
• 7:29
  to guide people and to more efficient,
• 7:33
  because the cost of healthcare has gone up, it's gone up on the medical side,
• 7:38
  and it will definitely go up on the dental side and has gone up
• 7:42
  just post covid only because of the amount of, of, uh,
• 7:48
  inflation that we see. And also just the cost of business has gone out.
• 7:53
  Cost of supplies, all sorts of other cost of benefits,
• 7:57
  cost of wages, all those will have to be managed in the next couple of years.
• 8:05
  Fascinating. Well, Dr. Hewitt,
• 8:07
  thank you so much for your insights today and I look forward to connecting with
• 8:11
  you again in the future.
• 8:13
  Thank you, Riz. I appreciate our.