DeAnn McClain, COO of Heartland Dental, spoke with Becker's on Nov. 4 to discuss why she sees today's economic challenges as opportunities and how the DSO is navigating rising supply costs.
Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What is the biggest challenge Heartland is working to overcome?
DeAnn McClain: The economy and inflation is definitely something that's top of mind. It's definitely impacting everyone, especially in the dental industry, and across all industries in the United States. So it definitely has an impact here as well. We work hard to make sure that on behalf of our supported doctors, that we are doing everything that we can to help them manage through those challenges, whether it's with the labor market, or from a compensation standpoint on being competitive with wages and that sort of thing.
From a talent perspective, I would say that it's just as important that we find great team members and supported clinicians to join Heartland Dental as it is to retain our current team members. I've always said that I'm an accountant by education, but operations is definitely my passion. I understand income statements and balance sheets and our biggest asset is our people, and that's not showing up there. So it's always important for me to make sure that we retain as much as we recruit and we put enough emphasis on that, because it's definitely part of how we overcome those challenges.
Many people are not just changing jobs, but they're also changing careers. We've seen that as we came out of the pandemic, and it continues to happen. All in all, I think the dental industry is a great industry to be in. So it definitely allows us to have a compelling message to any team member that wants to join the dental industry, and we can definitely help them see that.
With all the challenges that we have, I do feel like we've done a good job and we continue to see growth within Heartland Dental. We are still planning a very robust pipeline of de novos, from scratch offices and affiliations, to join our family. Hiring doctors and teams and making sure that they're set up for success with proper operators is definitely still a challenge but nothing new. I don't actually see them as challenges as much as opportunities, because it's wonderful to be able to grow and we're still able to do that despite what's happening with the economy.
Q: How is Heartland navigating rising supply costs?
DM: We have a fantastic dedicated strategic sourcing team and we are really leaning in on the strength of our supported network. We know that as they work together, we have a stronger impact. So we've really been focusing on educating our supported doctors and team members on the benefits of how they can act together. Especially with supply, it helps our sourcing team be able to better negotiate, to constantly be focused on that area. It's an important priority that we navigate around inflation. I really consider this a big differentiator for us at Heartland — to be able to bring that to the table for our supported doctors. Big kudos to that team because I know they're working diligently day in and day out to make sure that they can minimize the inflation impacts as much as possible for our supported doctors.
Q: Do you have any advice for dental practices that may be struggling in this economy?
DM: The biggest recommendation or advice I would give them is to join a larger network to gain access to the resources and support that are virtually impossible to access as an independent practitioner.