"People Service Organizations" - A New Blueprint for DSOs (feat. Dr. Dipesh Patel)

Dr. Dipesh Patel, founder and CEO of Blueprint Smiles, joins the "Dental Domination Podcast" to discuss what he calls "People Service Organizations (PSOs)" and how they differ from traditional Dental Support Organizations (DSOs). He emphasizes the importance of creating a positive work culture and environment where work doesn't feel like work for both the dental team and the patients. Dr. Patel also highlights the shift in what associates are looking for today, including work-life balance and flexibility. In this wide-ranging conversation with host Dan Brian of DentalScapes, he shares how Blueprint Smiles focuses on hiring for personality and training for skill, and how they balance the pressure for production with creating a fulfilling work experience. This is a must-listen episode for any dentist owner considering starting or joining a DSO, as well as dentists and dental professionals interested in pursuing a career in DSOs. Don't miss the show notes to learn more about Blueprint Smiles and connect with Dr. Patel. Learn more in the show notes.

Transcript

0:01

All right, all right, all right. Welcome back to the Dental Domination Podcast. My name is Dan Brian I'm the co -founder of DentalScapes, but if you've listened before, you all know that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm really excited to dig into a topic that's certainly highly relevant in today's dental environment. And I'm here to talk with a special guest, Dr. Dipesh Patel. And he is a former practicing dentist, so watch out. He knows how to use sharp things. but he's also the founder and CEO of a really cool company that's making moves in Northern Atlanta, Blueprint Smiles. So a DSO, but before you, make any assumptions about that term, I want to tell you Dr. Patel is doing really interesting things in the industry and, actually is sort of flipping the script on, what a traditional DSO is and and talks about people services organizations. So that's just sort of a teaser for what we're gonna get into here in just a few minutes. But Dr. Patel, I wanna first welcome you to the show. Thank you so much for taking the time and dropping by. What can you tell folks about yourself, your background? How did you get into this crazy journey? Yeah, it has been a crazy journey. So I graduated in 2012 from Nova Southeastern. I bought my first practice accidentally, as I say, in 2013, four or five months out of school. And so my claim to fame was I was a negative millionaire at the age of 26. Looking back, I can laugh about it right now. It was not fun times then. So with student loan debt that we can kind of get into with new doctors coming out of school, I had that been there, done that, and then buying a practice that I probably shouldn't have But that kind of led me down this journey of creating this group that looks like what it is today. I would fully show you guys that was never the plan to create the group. I never thought 10 years later I'd be completely out of the chair. It just happened kind of accidentally and kind of by need and on purpose. So that's kind of my origin story. Yeah, well, I love the concept. love the name Blueprint Smiles, and I think that that speaks to sort of the mission that you've set out to accomplish. And so I'd like to talk about that a little bit. Can you tell listeners sort of what you mean when, you know, I've seen on your website even, can you tell folks what you mean when you say people services organizations and how that that may contrast some to preconceived notions of DSOs and what they're all about? Yeah. So a DSO is a dental service organization, if everybody's heard it, or a dental support organization. And so there's one, we kind of switched into people service organization is the reason why we kind of started the group or why the reason why I ended up starting my first practice or buying my first practice. So I was working at a traditional DSO, won't say names, because I think they all have their pros and cons, but I was working at one that hired me right out of school, told me all the things they were going to support me with. And then I jumped into a practice by myself. Support wasn't there. I lasted about four months because the support still didn't come. So being young and naive at 26, I was like, I'll just do this by myself. What's the worst that could happen? Well, that's a whole nother story about all the bad that happened. I jumped into it by myself since I had no background, barely practicing, no family dentists, no backing of that regard. So I kind of had to figure it out myself. But when we actually started forming the group, it was actually me and my best friend. who I convinced to buy his first practice as well, is Dr. Ravi Patel, he's actually my co -founder. And when he was working at a DSO, things weren't working out the same for him. They weren't supporting him the same way he thought that they would be supporting him. So I convinced him to leave that gig and buy his first practice. And fast forward a year after that, we realized that the people that we kept talking to were each other trying to figure this out. We said, what if we just do this together? I'm sure other people are going to be in our boat, but what if we have a little spin on it? So we knew what the DSOs were doing really well, right? So they have things at scale to compete in the environment for supplies, labs, things of that nature. then, but the things that private practices do really well where they have the autonomy, they have the work lifetime part, you know, the eight to five schedule, Monday, Thursday, maybe every other Friday. And a lot of DSOs don't do that. So we said, what if we blend both of them together? and truly just focus on the things that were lacking for us, which was the DSO focusing on us. They weren't doing that. They didn't support us as a clinician. So we decided to create a DSO or a group, but our sheer focus would be on our people. And that it starts with our dentists, but it goes all the way through to every position in our office. So we openly say we're a people service organization. My job is to take care of our people, which take care of our patients. I don't take care of our patients anymore. And you know, we believe we take care of our people the right way. They will naturally be happier in their work and life. And if those things are doing well, they'll be thriving. And that's our model that you see here is work, life, thrive. We don't believe in balance. And that's kind of where the concept of people service organization was kind of created from. We believed that if we focused on our people the right way, they will take care of our patients. And as a result, the whole circle will that will work out the way it needs to. Love it, love it. And you know, another thing that I caught on your website that I, it just really resonated with me and it's in line with what you just said is that, you know, 14 members at Blueprint Smiles, you wanted to create an environment it sounds like where work does not feel like work. And I love the flip side of that for patients where dentistry does not feel like dentistry. So what do mean by that when it comes to the, excuse me, what do you mean by that when it comes to the patient experience specifically? Yeah. So when I was in the chair, the things that I remembered the most were the days that like I had the best team. So what I mean by that is I was happy there, my hygienist, my front, everyone got along. The culture was great. Right. And as a result, I remember when we were getting along, everybody wanted to come to work. If I showed up on time, everybody gave their best. And I would have patients go, Hey, I don't mean this by any disrespect. You guys don't seem like a dental office or a medical office. I go, sorry, what do you mean by that? is like we don't go to many places where it seems like everyone's getting along. Everybody's laughing and playing and enjoying their time at work. I know you guys are delivering great service at the end of the day because they've been there for a while. And that's kind of where it kind of came from. We realized that productivity, there's books on like happiness and productivity. And I think there's a lot of medical studies, happiness done in medical environments. Clinicians and teams diagnose at a higher rate with more accuracy when they're happier. So what if we created that environment at work where it was more of an escape from home, not, I must go to work. It's, want to go to work. I enjoy my colleagues. It's a great time over there. When you do that, then the productivity increases and patients feel that. They feel an environment where everybody wants to work there and everybody wants to help the end result, which is the patient. Yeah, I was gonna say, mean, culture permeates everything right down to the patient experience. And I would venture to guess, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm going to be. I would imagine that you're seeing that kind of culture and that kind of environment and the focus you've placed on it reflected in your treatment acceptance rates as well. Absolutely. It's hard to quantify because the culture was building over time, right? But if I look at when we first started, let's say 2015, and look at the same offices we had then to now, our true acceptance rate is astronomically higher, right? Our same day case conversion is higher, and that means your teammates are wanting to do the case conversion, right? So the only reason that happens is you don't have a Sally or John on the side saying, hey, maybe you should wait. Right? They're going, Hey doc, let's just get this done today. The patients here, they want to get it done. It's okay if we went into lunch a little bit. Right? And you're building that culture because they're about taking care of people at the same time. And ultimately I think that happens if, I hate to call us admin, but the leaders of the organization take care of them. If they feel like they're taking care of, guess what? They do a phenomenal job taking care of who they're supposed to take care of. Yes, sir. You know, now it's interesting culture is and I'm an evangelist for it. I mean, I think culture ultimately is responsible for probably 90 % of outcomes in business in general. But, you know, as as new practices come on board with you all, how do you how do you, I guess, propagate or make that culture consistent across these various practices that you partner with? Yeah. So, full, full transparency. We, we are first couple of practices for acquisitions. Everything else in between where's De Novos where we're building this. And we're kind of getting back into the acquisition game a little bit right now. And the reason why we went down the De Novo path is when you're integrating somebody else's office into your organization, it can be a little tough, especially on the cultural front. They had their own culture. You have your own culture and that has to mesh. Right. So, but what we have a, you know, hard stance on is. We have our set of core values that we truly believe in. So when we take over an office, we're very transparent with them to say, these are the things we truly believe in. And you don't have to hear from me, go to any one of our seven locations and you can talk to any one person. I will give you the entire roster. Here's everyone's cell phone number, reach out to anyone so you know it's not just coming from me and it's not fluff, right? I'm not just pinpointing you to the doctor or the assistant that's been with us forever. I'm gonna let them have their entire Rolodex to go, Why did you stick around here? Where did you come from? What worked really well at this location? Why should we buy into this? That being said, we are going to integrate that because we have a culture within a culture. You have your office culture and then you have the organizational culture. And since our teammates all kind of know each other, even from the locations, they have to feel the same thing across the board. So we do it step by step, but it's almost like we rehire with our core values again. Every single individual and some of them work out and they stick with us forever and some go this doesn't fit us and we're okay And we're fine with that and saying that's okay, right? Just because we believe in it doesn't mean you have to and then we set set ways because we ultimately don't want people in an organization that aren't happy either right and just because you don't agree with us Doesn't mean you should be happy elsewhere Yeah, and it's interesting when you talk about hiring. mean, there's so many philosophies there, but you know, we had a guest on this show a few episodes back and he works in dental staffing and he was talking about hiring backward and how, you know, skillset skills. Those are teachable. Culture is not something that is necessarily easy to move in one direction or another. People have that attitude or they don't. And that's a very difficult thing to mold over time. So it sounds like, you know, when you set out to hire staff, you're really looking for that cultural fit up front. Absolutely. We actually say in our position, we hire for personality and we train for skill. we've, we've been able to create our whole LMS system and we every then that's learning management system for anybody that doesn't know that term, but we've been able to create that for every position as if they're brand new right out of dental school, brand new right out assisting school or no assisting background, brand new out of hygiene school. So we don't take the idea of we're going to teach somebody who's had 10 years of experience. We're taking the idea of we're teaching somebody who was me coming right out of school. Right. And if we already have that foundation, then it becomes really easy. We feel really comfortable. We can take any single person that's willing to learn that as a right personality to get the skill set. Right. We have that in place, which then if you have that, it makes it really easy because we only hire based on personality. Right. So if you look at our interview questions, the first 10 have nothing to do with skill set. The first 10 are all core value base. So we have. Five core values, we 10 questions based on those core values. And if anybody that we're going to interview in the past, future, I'm saying, this is how we interview you, right? We're going to ask you questions. We're grading you on core values. If you hit those core values, I think we have it at a score of 50, you can have a one to five objective score, right? Or subjective score on it. You have to hit a 40. If you don't hit a 40 on those core values through these questions, you could be the best clinician in the world. with the best skill set and you won't be somebody in our organization. Yeah, yeah, I think it's spot on and the right approach and you know speaking of hiring I want to get back to this something you said at the very beginning You know you reference burnout and you referenced sort of this traditional the stereotype of you know going to work for a DSO and high production long hours Fast moving environment You know, it's it can be really taxing on someone, especially, I think, a new dentist right out of dental school. And so we were just talking about hiring. When you think about associates today who are considering a role within a DSO or are weighing that maybe against private practice, What are associates looking for today that you see on your end versus what were they looking for in the past and how are you meeting that challenge? Yeah, if I go back 10 years ago or 12 plus years ago when I started, most of my classmates were looking for, I was looking for working five, maybe six days a week. I really didn't care, right? I cared more about my production, my student loans. fast forward, I'm not saying that was a good or bad approach. I think it's a generational approach to some degree, right? And I think the new associates coming out, they're more inclined with their inner worth. to some degree. They go, this doesn't define me just because I have a DMD or DDS. That's not who I'm all about. I'm also about X, Y, and Z. Family time, vacation, purposes beyond dentistry. So with that shift, I've seen more associates coming out of school now that are looking for more flexibility to support their lifestyle. Some aren't looking for ownership anymore. They go, hey, if I'm buying something, I may have to stick in that city forever. I'm still trying to figure out where I want to live and what I want to do. So we are seeing a shift in those regards. Ultimately, what we're seeing is most of them want a good work schedule. You know, they don't want early days, late days, every Friday, weekends. Luckily, we kind of cater towards that. That happened accidentally, by the way. We're Monday to Thursday, eight to five, and every other Friday, eight to one. That only happened because that's what I wanted. Right? So when me and my business partner are like, this is what we like, everybody must love this, let's just do the same thing for everybody. Right? So that's what we started offering. So for the associates that are coming out of school, be true to what you really want. Right? If you go, Hey, I'm still lacking some skillset, I need some mentorship. So ask the right questions. Ask if you're going to be an associate in an office, are you going to have some mentorship there? Or if you're going be an associate in a group or DSO, who all are? is involved in that process, right? You might have a doctor drill location and plus all the other associates that can help you out. But what technology do you offer? What CE do you offer? What's your way of getting new patients in the door, right? You can have all this and have new patients. I'd be asking those questions because I believe if you hit on those things correctly, then you'll naturally be happier. You'll naturally produce. And for the groups out there that are trying to figure this out, give them that because if they're happier, they're going to stick around. and they're going to produce well, which is going to help the business and help the associate at the same time. It's a win -win if you look at it that way. Yeah. Now you're a dentist yourself. You are, you know, focused. It sounds like, and I think rightly so on work life balance and creating, you know, a fulfilling environment where folks can, you know, take home more than a paycheck. They're taking home the fulfillment, the, the self meaning that, that they're really looking for. And I think you're right. I think that is a generational thing. I think we're seeing a definite shift there. At the same time, you are a CEO and you're focused on the bottom line as well. You have to be. So how are you balancing the pressure for production and for growing revenue while simultaneously seeking to put these guardrails up to protect your team? How are you doing that? Because that's sort of the secret sauce of any business. Yeah, so for us, that's where the name blueprint came from, right? So a blueprint to us is a blueprint for systems and operations that can help everyone thrive. That's actually where it came from, right? So my job as a CEO is I could still put these guardrails on, but what if we eliminated waste in our office so the associate wasn't doing work that they don't need to be doing? There wasn't time lapse because the front didn't check in somebody correctly or present treatment correctly. What if we kind of got rid of a lot of those elements in your system so that at the end of the day, the associate doesn't have to put in extra hours. They're just more efficient in the hours they're in. And I think that's where great systems, great processes, great training, what makes a great technology can help counteract the time that we might be missing. So I think that's what we've done really well in our organization. We knew our associates average 33 hours a week, right? Typically people are averaging 40 plus sometimes. So we're losing seven plus clinical hours a week per provider. That includes hygienists and doctors. So if you're doing that, how do you make up that? So we actually took the philosophy from our Atlanta favorite chain Chick -fil -A, right? We go, Chick -fil -A is one of the most, if not the most profitable fast food chain right now in the U .S. and they are open 52 days less than every single other person. How did they figure that out? It was all. training system processes, they figured out a way to make that work and go, if we do that, then they'll be more productive. And kind of the same philosophy we kind of took. So you got your staff saying my pleasure at every waking moment. No, we don't have them say that. They are polite, but we haven't incorporated the entire Chick -fil -A formula in there. love it. I think it's super smart. And it's exciting. It's cool to see someone making moves in the dental space, moving in a direction that I think is very needed and not necessarily being well served by every organization out there. So I applaud. what you've done and it's really impressive to watch. To that end, as we wrap up here, let's say there are dentists out there who are interested in what they're hearing. What's the best way to connect with you, Dr. Patel? What's the best way to connect with Blueprint and where should folks go from here? Yeah, a couple ways to connect with Blueprint is you go to our website blueprintsmiles.com. There's a contact form right there. If submit it, comes right to us directly with regards to whatever position you're in or if you're trying to affiliate with us or I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. So it's my name, Depeche Patel or Blueprint Smiles, can find either or on LinkedIn, message me. I'll most likely respond back on there as well. Awesome. Well, sounds good. Dr. Patel, can't thank you enough for joining today. I would love to have you back to discuss, you know, in a little bit more detail, even some of the topics that we've gotten in here today. So many opportunities that are ripe for further conversation. But Dr. Patel, I again, I applaud what you've done. I'm excited about the new model that you're building and I just can't wait to see what's next for Blueprint Smiles and I have no doubt we'll be reading articles in dental magazines and that in the future about what you guys are doing. So thank you so much for joining. Thank you all for listening today. I really appreciate it. If you enjoyed what you heard, please take just two seconds and leave us a rating or a review even on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your shows. Really appreciate it. is the best way for us to reach other dentists, other dental professionals, and help as many folks as we can. So Thank you so much for listening. Thank you, Dr. Patel. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Dan. I'm ready to be here. All right, take care, man.