This is Laura Dirdle with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
doctor Kartik Nathani, who's the owner and practicing
dentist at Napa Family Dental of Albuquerque. Doctor
Nathani, it's a pleasure to have you on
the podcast today.
Good morning, Laura. Thank you for having me.
Absolutely. Now I'm looking forward to our discussion
because I know so many things are happening
in the dental industry right now, and, certainly,
it's just a unique time, to be in
in dental. But before we dive in, I'm
wondering, could you tell us a little bit
more about yourself and your background?
Yes. Absolutely. Thank you for asking. So, my
name is Kartik Gantani.
I'm a practicing dentist, in New Mexico.
It's been 10 years or so since I've
graduated.
Let's see. I was raised in New Jersey
to my dental school there, which was
a great experience in my opinion, to my
residency there, which was an even better experience,
and relocated to New Mexico.
And, since the last 10 years within the
last 10 years, I've practiced in urban settings.
We're very rural, suburban,
DSOs.
I've practiced in my own practice now for
a few years. So kinda seen,
a lot of the landscape and it's all
it's it's exciting to see how things go
with the future with dentistry.
Absolutely. That that's great to hear. And, you
know,
leads us right into our first question. What
are some of the biggest issues that you're
following in the dental industry today? What's really
top of mind for you as you think
of your practice and how the industry has
trended overall?
You know, I think there's there are so
many issues that come up in dentistry just
whether you're an associate or a practice owner
or even in academia.
But I think to me, the main concern
right now that I have is
staffing
issues, but not only that, the distribution of
dental health care providers.
And, of course, you know, everyone has staffing
issues. It's it's not just our industry.
But what worries me more specifically to our
industry and or maybe in health care
is the distribution
of
health care providers. We have
so many underserved areas where there's a high
need,
and
yet,
more and more new grads are sticking to
areas where
it's already saturated,
which,
can become a health care access issue to
the public.
And, of course, if you're thinking about from
a business perspective, then if you're if you're
in an area where you're
competing
with, you know, a high number of similar
professionals,
or in a high cost of living area,
then you're really doing yourself a disservice. So
in my opinion, I think the issue that
worries me the most currently
is the the distribution of health care providers
in dentistry.
Absolutely. And that makes a lot of sense.
You know, when you think about,
that access to care issue and certainly
look at different areas that maybe don't have
the right,
or enough dental
professionals there to serve the patient population,
how do you see those spaces evolving? You
know, what do you see as the future
for some of these areas,
especially nonurban areas that, you know, really do
need additional dental support for their communities?
Well, you know, I don't know,
the right answer. Obviously, this this is a
very personal choice for where someone wants to
practice, but
the trend, I think, is that over time,
people are finding
it it,
worth it to go to more underserved areas.
And I'm hoping that the trend continues
where, you know, in time, there's a reliable
factor
of being able to provide health care to
underserved communities.
And in a way that's,
not entirely profit driven,
but perhaps
more in line with the patient's best interest.
So that's what I'm I'm hoping for, and
I think the trend
over time is that
whether it's public
health centers, federally qualified health centers, Indian Health
Services, VA,
or private equity groups now looking at DSOs
that are more
rural based.
There are ways to curtail this issue,
that are that seem to be becoming more
and more predictable.
In the long run, I still think you'll
have issues.
I think the hardest part here is just
finding
good providers,
good doctors, hygienist assistants.
And I I think that's if that's taken
care of, which,
you know, seems to be heading in the
right direction,
then more people will have access to to
health, like, health care they need.
Absolutely. That's, you know, really great to hear.
And I know the other
issue you mentioned was looking at the workforce,
and and staffing issues. That was something that
so many different organizations, whether in dental and
health care or,
you know, outside of those spaces are really
trying to figure out and troubleshoot right now.
From your perspective, is there anything that you've
done at at Napa Family that, you know,
has really been,
successful in either recruiting or retaining staff?
You know, we currently, I'm, I'm focused on
my main office, but at our highest
both rate, we were at 3 locations, and
and that was a little bit
more unique because we were able
to perhaps hire someone from,
let's say, the Albuquerque area and then have
them
help us out in more rural areas by
having,
commute stipend, for example.
And I think by having,
you know, these little fringe benefits such as,
a stipend for commuting to rural areas or
in
for associate doctors being giving them a
a stipend for travel, you know, that and
being a little bit more lenient with vacation
days.
Adding these benefits
seems to sweeten the deal,
and, of course, paying competitively helps a lot
as well.
And
in in my opinion, the people that may
want to relocate
or be willing to work in in a
safe area,
they
will think that the salary is important, of
course, but
adding benefits, especially for doctors,
is
super beneficial.
You know, a lot of the
saturated areas may not be able to provide
that.
Things like continuing education reimbursement,
like I mentioned before, travel stipend,
sign on and retention bonuses. All of those
little things can add up to make a
nice package.
In terms of recruiting,
you know, having a good,
a good recruitment strategy is very important. But
what worked for us mostly is
internal recruiting.
Having systems in place where
if an
employer if an employee refers
someone that they know and it ends up
working out, then they both get rewarded for
it. It's a little bit more difficult to
do for associate doctors, but for
auxiliary personnel, it worked out great.
That makes a lot of sense. And, you
know, thank you so much for sharing that.
I think, you know, it is really helpful
to think along those lines and understand, what's
meaningful for for doctors and staff members as
well. Now when looking to the future, what
are you most excited about, or what makes
you nervous?
You know, currently, the most excited for the
way technology is being incorporated into dentistry.
You know, we we know all about the
scanning and the 3 d printing and the,
photogrammetry,
all of the clinical stuff, but also
I'm more excited to find out how AI
and
advancing technology can help with the running of
business.
Clinical dentistry is great,
but
sometimes it's hard for
it to be adapted.
So for example,
3 d printing dentures and doing the same
day conversions can be challenging for a lot
of practices.
But
in terms of running a business, things like
better AI assisted,
marketing,
better AI assisted
front office duties, such as insurance verification,
patient intake,
AR.
Those things can really make a big impact
on a on a small or or even
a large business
if adapted correctly
while not driving up the costs of of
entry
too much. You know, for example, right now,
we
are beta testing this amazing
AI powered kind of a do it all
program, which started out by being a marketing
question of who's calling, what are they calling,
and what's happening with the patient.
And now it's turning into
a very smart,
AI receptionist.
And it's and a chatbot, which is not
just,
exciting, but it's also important
to
incorporate into your practice because what if you
have someone else sick?
Or what if, a lot of your patients
are asking very similar questions
which can be easily answered
on the phone with it is with a
nice,
human sounding
natural sounding AI receptionist.
So as we beta test these products into
my practice, I noticed that it takes a
big burden off my team.
And it may not be perfect, but any
burden lifted is is a is a blessing
most of the days. Right?
What am I more nervous about? Yeah. I
think times
are are changing. They they have been changing
for the last few years pretty pretty rapidly.
I don't think there's anything in particular that
makes me more nervous than
the overall commodification of our profession.
You know, it's already difficult to get patients
to go to the dentist, the general population
to go to the dentist, whether it's an
access access issue by being rural or just
the perception. You know, people sometimes don't go.
And my concern is that
as the insurance reimbursement landscape changes, as
marketing landscape changes, as
dentistry itself evolves,
my biggest fear is that it becomes
commodity.
And that would be very unfair because
what we're doing now
is on the we're on the
forefront of a lot of things that
would have been taken for granted.
And I'm afraid that if we don't address
these issues, they'll be taken for granted again.
I'll give you a simple example.
Dentists and sleep apnea
has become more and more evolved recently.
And
now you're in a position to help save
someone's life or make their life better or
someone of of their loved ones' lives better.
But if we continue to become a commodity,
then I'm afraid that we may lose that,
that provenance, that
cutting edge that we're trying to develop.
And so that's what makes me the most
nervous. And then you can dissect that into
other things such as insurance and
marketing and public perception and
x, y, and z. But I think overall,
it's a commodification of the profession that makes
me the most nervous.
That's really fascinating to hear. And, certainly, you
know,
I know dentistry plays such an important role
as you mentioned in the overall health of
a person in so many different ways that
it can truly be,
a challenge if people aren't keeping up with
their,
their oral hygiene and and dental health. So,
really, really interesting from perspective and and definitely
something to keep an eye out for. You
know, when you look at the next 2
to 3 years or so,
anything that you think is important for effective
health care leaders to be successful overall, especially
as some of these landscape changes and,
things continue to evolve?
Yeah. I think, any effective leader, whether it's
one practice or multiple locations or, you know,
whatever you're doing,
you've gotta be able to adapt.
I think that's gonna be the most important
thing, maybe
more important for the next 2 to 3
years, but just in general.
Being able to adapt,
change with the situation,
keep up with the times, embrace new technology,
you know, figure out
some leaky spots in your pocket and and
try to try to solve the issues as
you go, but be adaptable
and
don't let your ego get into it.
It's completely okay to have to,
change the way you're running your business
to keep up with the times, especially if
they're not really under your control anyway.
So I think being adaptable will be the
most important thing in my opinion, you know,
for for any good leader in the next
couple years.
Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Doctor
Antani, thank you so much for joining us
on the podcast today. This has been really
a fascinating discussion, and I look forward to
connecting with you again soon. Oh, thank you
so much for having me, Laura.