It is so important for leaders at the top of organizations to keep learning,
stay sharp, grow their networks,
help our audience better do this in a more simplified, personalized,
and meaningful way. Becker's Healthcare has launched my b h c,
it's your trusted Becker's healthcare experience and more with content,
connections, events and learning opportunities.
Join the community free of charge@www.my dot becker's hospital
review.com and we'll see you there.
This is Riz Hatton with the Becker's Dental Pothe. So podcast,
I'm thrilled to be joined today by Bernice Ky,
owner of Wrigley Dental. Bernice, thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Just to start us off here,
could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?
Yeah, so I am Dr. Bernice Polski.
I am from Chicago and my practice is in Chicago.
I went to Marquette University, uh,
for undergrad and dental school and graduated in oh nine.
Did a GPR residency in Chicago and then
worked for various offices.
I was doing a lot of moonlighting during the residency.
Then I worked for several different types of practices. Uh,
one practice I stayed for for a couple of years was,
I called it like an everything practice, so they did fee for service,
we're part of all insurances, did Medicaid, so kind of,
kind of got the gamut of everything and then realized what I kind of wanted as
my own. And I ended up buying, uh,
an existing office in a really amazing neighborhood in Chicago
and opened in 2012
and kind of took a, a deep dive in into general dentistry,
and I've been practicing since.
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing. My first question for you is,
what are the biggest issues you're following in dental today?
I think a big part of it is the, the labor market.
The staff pay has skyrocketed,
especially here in Chicago since Covid and just seeing where it's
going. Um, that's a one huge part of it. Also,
just the conglomeration of corporations buying off dental,
dental offices and just the DSO private equity spaces. Very interesting.
And following, following both of those things.
Very interesting. So looking towards the future of dentistry,
what are you most excited about and what makes you nervous?
I would say what makes me most excited about is dentistry in
general.
There's so much that we're learning about the connection between the mouth and
systemic health,
and that we're able to make such a big impact on a
person's health working through the mouth. And I, that's,
that's what excites me the most in dentistry is just learning more about the
total impact that we can have on a, on a human body.
As far as what makes me nervous,
I would say the, the workforce. Um,
I am seeing a change in the,
especially since Covid, the, the type of staff that we're attracting,
but the ones that aren't coming back to the workforce,
I think there's a lot of flexibility in working from home and other types of
career paths out there right now,
especially for the new members of the workforce.
And I think it's becoming more challenging to,
to have that within dentistry, because in dentistry we're very hands-on.
We can't have people work from home usually,
and there's a lot of people that want more vacation,
more pay, um, and I think it's becoming really challenging to,
to acclimate the new people coming from into the, into the workforce.
And I think that's becoming, it's,
and it makes me a little nervous as far as where,
where we're headed with the amount of staff or the,
the types of staff that, that we need, especially in a,
in a busy urban city.
Interesting. And so do you see these workforce challenges, um,
getting better or worse over the next five years?
No,
right now they're just very challenging because there's a huge jump that I've
seen in pay for hygiene, for assistant, for, for, for office staff,
for actually every position.
There's been a substantial increase in pay,
and I feel that the,
the workers are becoming more demanding that they want more pay,
they want more flexibility in their, in their jobs.
They want more vacation time, they wanna work less. Um,
and I'm seeing so many different trends that they're,
there's a lot of almost like threatening to leave unless they get what they
want. And I'm,
I'm very interested to see where it's going in the next couple years because
it's already at a, at a very high price, especially, I mean, we're,
I'm talking about in the city in Chicago, so we're at, you know,
some hygienists are getting paid 50 plus dollars an hour and,
and the front and back staff are getting paid 30 plus dollars an hour,
and this is almost double what we were seeing when I first entered the
workforce. So it's, it's not necessarily worse or,
or better if this really depends on the revenue that's coming in that affects
us,
but I think it's just interesting to see what's going on and it does make me a
little nervous to, uh, to see this trajectory.
Fascinating. Thank you.
So what will the most effective healthcare leaders need to be successful in the
next two to three years?
I think a big part is to understand the business of dentistry and how to manage
employees and how to manage a dental office.
And I think it's a new terrain that we're dealing with.
So with this newer workforce coming into the market,
we need to figure out how to manage them.
And it's something that we're not taught in dental school.
We're not taught to be a business owner.
We're not taught to be even a business leader. We're taught to do dentistry.
And so in order to be a, an effective healthcare leader,
I think we really need to have more of this business background education.
Interesting. And Bernice, thank you so much for your fascinating insights today.
I really look forward to connecting with you again in the future.
Thank you. Thank you very much.