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Hey there, dental professionals and industry enthusiasts.

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Picture this. It's October, and you're in the

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middle of one of the most transformative

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experiences of your career. You're at the Becker's

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fall future of dentistry roundtable in the vibrant

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city of Chicago, fresh off an incredible 3

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days at the Hyatt Regency. Imagine yourself inspired

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and invigorated after attending captivating keynote sessions by

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none other than the legendary boxing world champion

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and CEO, Lila Elite, and the extraordinary professional

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basketball player, Caitlin Clark. See yourself engaged in

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lively discussions, exchanging ideas, and collecting a stack

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of business cards from fellow dental experts and

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potential partners. You've networked with over 350

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attendees and learned from more than 80 speakers

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who are at the forefront of dental innovation.

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You sat in on educational

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sessions exploring topics that elevate dental care as

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a critical element of whole person health. You've

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witnessed firsthand how digital technology is revolutionizing

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patient outcomes

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and how both large DSOs and independent practices

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are flourishing.

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Get ready to transform your career and don't

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miss out on this incredible opportunity. The Becker's

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fall future of dentistry roundtable is from October

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30th to November 1, 2024.

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Get registered by going to beckersdental.com

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and clicking on the events page.

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Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.

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I'm Mariah Muhammad, writer and moderator with Becker's

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Healthcare, and I'm thrilled to have with me

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today doctor Bradley Dykstra, founder, CEO, and clinical

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director at My Smiles Dental Group. Doctor, welcome

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to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. We're very excited

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to have you join us today. To get

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us started, would you mind please introducing yourself

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and telling us a bit about your background?

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I'm doctor Bradley Dykstra,

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a dentist in Western Michigan, Greater Grand Rapids

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area.

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And way back when I graduated in 78,

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I started a from scratch in a little

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town called Hudsonville at the time, which has

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actually grown a lot the last

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number of years.

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And

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from that first practice in 1978,

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I worked clinically

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for 42 years as a general practitioner,

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and I have not worked at the care

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for the last 4 years.

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And over the last 12 years, I had

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a different vision of

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the rest of my career. So

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we've added

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we've got grown practices

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into 7 locations in the last 12 years,

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so that's what's taking my time now, which

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I love.

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And our organization,

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My Smiles Dental Group, again, is all in

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the Greater Grand Rapids area within 30 to

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40 miles of Central Grand Rapids.

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And many of our

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services

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are centralized,

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and we are definitely

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funded and dentist owned. No

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outside money other than from my bank.

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Wonderful. Wonderful.

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Thank you so much for sharing that background,

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doctor. So the first question I really wanted

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to ask you is, what are the biggest

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issues you're following in dental right now?

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Alright. Well, I I looked at your questions.

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The biggest issue is what I'm most

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excited and concerned about, and they kind of,

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to me, flow together.

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So I'll start

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with

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the biggest issues that I am watching, but

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I consider these

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the exciting issues.

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And that's the way

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AI is continually

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making inroads

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into dentistry.

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Only in the clinical area

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where

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we can have better diagnostics, better treatment acceptance

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because of how great the better treatment acceptance

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because of how great the

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AI is for radiography.

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But, also,

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when we get to the whole CRM process

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or insurance verification,

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patient communication,

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What AI is able to do in those

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areas, we're just, I feel,

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just beginning

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at the surface level and I think it

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will

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continue to grow to help

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to help us, I think, do a better

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job with our patients

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and communication,

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to remove a lot of mundane tasks for

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all of our team members so they can

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spend more quality time with the patients, and

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I'm just really, really, really excited to see

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where that's all going.

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So that's what I'm actually most excited about.

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And for decades, I've been sort of on

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the leading edge of technology.

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So I love technology,

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but not for technology's

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sake, but how it really

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helps the patients and

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how it helps the team members

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removing stuff that really isn't all that important

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that something else can do.

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And then when we get

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to, again, the other things that

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I am

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following,

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which I am not which I guess I

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would really say I'm more concerned about,

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And one of them happens to be just

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the continual

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low insurance reimbursement rates. They don't seem to

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be going up nearly as fast as

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our costs are going up. So that's something

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I'm very closely monitoring, but I'm concerned about.

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Another one along the same vein is not

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only are the insurance companies I don't wanna

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bash them. They're doing their job, but

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they don't pay all that well, and

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it seems it takes longer and longer and

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longer to get new doctors credentialed.

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That's just something that I've observed, and

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it is

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concerning to me.

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And, of course, we all know

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wage inflation

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has

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been very prevalent in the last few years,

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and that along with the shortage of clinical

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providers,

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in my case, from dentist to hygienist to

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assistants.

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And I think right now, dentists actually are

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toughest

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thing to be concerned with because

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the apparent trend looks like the next few

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years will have more dentists retiring than joining

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the workforce. So, again, I'm observing that, watching

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that. It's something that

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I'm concerned about.

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And

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also

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and this is a more general trend, but

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I think

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every year or certainly every decade,

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dentistry is viewed

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more and more as a commodity,

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which

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I don't really believe it is, but especially

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for our younger generations they are really I

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think viewing it

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that way.

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And then another trend again that I really

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like and excited about though

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is

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the integration of healthcare

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and dental care

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is actually coming together

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more quickly.

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I think as dentists revised known that now

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the whole medical world is

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starting to understand that and I think patients

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are starting to understand how their oral health

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actually affects

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their overall health.

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So that's kind of what I'm excited about

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and what makes me nervous.

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Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you so much for

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sharing all of that great, great detail.

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It definitely makes a lot of sense. There

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are so many different issues and solutions going

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on right now, especially with AI. I feel

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like every person I talk to in the

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health care space is always talking about AI,

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which is you know, it can be really

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exciting.

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Before I let you go, the last thing

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I really wanted to ask you is, what

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will the most effective health care leaders need

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in order to be in the next 2

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to 3 years, do you think?

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Oh, I've got

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I've got a nice little list,

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but number 1

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is

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stay calm.

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Don't get overly excited. Don't make any rash

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decisions.

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Just stay calm

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and stay in your bubble. And by that,

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I mean,

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stay focused on the things that you have

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some influence

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or control over or on.

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And what's ever out of your control, like

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the elections or tax rates, whatever,

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that's all out of your control.

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Just

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just deal with whatever is. Stay calm. Don't

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don't spend all your time worrying about that.

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And, also, I think it's very, very important

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every year

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in light of everything that I've mentioned before.

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We need to be really, really financially

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astute

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and understand

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our numbers, our financial numbers, our KPIs,

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and especially understand cash flow.

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Because if you run out of cash, you're

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kind of in big trouble. So, you know,

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really understanding your numbers, what

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what are the drivers that help profitability,

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what are the

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profitability

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drainers,

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so really focus on that.

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And, also, it's really, really important, I think,

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more so now than ever

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to really invest in onboarding and training team

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members. And,

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like, we have at least a 2 week

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onboarding process before we let them go into

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their position at all.

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And then continual training

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and investing in your team members is really

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important.

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Be willing to invest in technology. Look at

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it carefully, but

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if we don't invest in technology, pretty soon

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we'll find ourselves

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just out of the loop and not able

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to be

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to keep up or

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compete, I guess. I don't like the word

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competition, but

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if we totally ignore technology and don't use

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it, we will be left in the dust.

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And finally and probably most important

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is make culture

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a priority.

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And culture is hard to define. It's

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hard

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to make it really great,

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but I think we need to focus on

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culture

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with our team members because our culture with

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our team members determines how we

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work with our patients,

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and it makes a huge difference. So just

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always make

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have in the back of our mind with

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everything we do, where does culture fit in.

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And I'm also a very strong believer that

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we need strong core values,

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a very clear mission and vision statement,

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and we need to visit those things often

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and make all of our decisions really based

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on our core values and be true to

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who we are. That was kind of my

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my list. I'm sorry if that was a

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little long. But No. No. Not at all.

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Thank you so much for giving us all

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those great points and for those final thoughts,

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doctor. This has definitely been very informative discussion.

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So, again, I wanna thank you so much

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for coming on Becker's HealthCare, and I look

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forward to connecting with you again soon.

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Okay. Well, it's my pleasure as always, and

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you also have a great day. You too.

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Thank you.