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Thanks so much for tuning into
the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.

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We're excited today to feature
an episode with Chris Grimm, Dr.

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Mike Twitchel and Matt Walker.

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And thank you so much to our
sponsor for this episode,

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planet d d s Let me hand it right away
to Matt Walker to get us started with a

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little bit more contracts
and introductions.

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Great. Thanks so much. Hi everyone.

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Thank you for tuning in to the
Becker's Healthcare Podcast.

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My name is Matt Walker.

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I'm the Chief Customer Officer at
Planet d d s Planet DDS is a cloud-based

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software solution provider for dental
practices. And today I'm joined by Dr.

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Mike Twitchel, chief Clinical
Officer, and Chris Grim,

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chief Information Officer
from Family Dental Health.

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Family Dental Health is a 33 location, uh,

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dental service organization and
growing based in South Carolina.

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So at this point, I'll uh, turn it
over to Dr. Twill for introductions.

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Hey, yeah. My name is Mike Twitch. Um,

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I graduated dental school in 2006 and
was one of the founding doctors of

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Family Dental Health and, uh,

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practiced until around 2017 and
stepped out a full-time practice to,

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uh, manage our clinical operations.

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And so I have my hands in
a lot of different pies and
work with our doctors and

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mentoring and recruiting and
all kinds of that kind of thing.

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Great. And how about you, Chris? Yeah.

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My name is Chris Grim.

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I'm the Chief Technology Officer
actually at the Family Dental Health.

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I joined Family Dental Health
in June of last year in 2022,

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uh, after working for a
large D s O in the Midwest.

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And then for a mid-level, uh, dental
supplier, uh, based out of Florida.

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Uh, I, I'm currently, uh,

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overseeing all the technology operations,
the revenue cycle management teams,

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and the, uh, data teams
at Family Dental Health.

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Fantastic. Well, thanks. Thanks for
your time guys. And, and today we're,

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we're here to talk about something
that's near and dear to my heart.

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Really important aspect
of the journey for,

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for dental practices as
they migrate to the cloud.

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So we'll explore how DSSO leaders can
ensure a smooth process in doing that,

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in moving to a cloud-based solution to
help manage the dental practice and the

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growth that you guys are going
through. Um, so for the listener,

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we'll get to hear from both Mike and Chris
about how they researched cloud-based

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practice management solutions,
uh, what they're implementation,

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conversion and user training
experience was like.

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So that entire onboarding experience
and any advice that they have for

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DSOs and leaders of DSOs as they
explore potential solutions and role the

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platform out systemwide to
help scale the organization.

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So how about we start with
you, Chris, in terms of, uh,

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maybe sharing a little bit more
about why Family Dental Health began

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looking for a, a cloud-based
practice management solution and,

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and the environment that you were in,
uh, that you were operating in at,

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at the time you, you started that process.

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Sure. Uh, so when I met Rob
and, and Twitch back in,

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gosh, early 2016, 17 along in there,

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uh, they were starting to grow their
practice and I was working with a,

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a large D s O outta Louisville. And
one of the things that we stressed to,

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um, some of, some of the, the
companies who came to us asking for,

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for assistance or for advice was that
you have to have access to your data

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and your data has to be consistent.
There has to be a way to, to, uh,

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clean that up and,

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and mash it with your accounting data
and with your purchasing and everything

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else. And, and I think they
took that to heart. Uh,

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and so when they started shopping for a
cloud-based solution, I think that was,

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uh, one of the things that they
were looking for at that time.

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They were on several different solutions
at the same time where they had been

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acquiring practices. Uh,

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so they were on Dentrix and Open Dental
and Eaglesoft and a couple of other, uh,

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random practice management systems.

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And they were finding that number one,
supporting that was almost impossible.

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Uh, training people to move from one
office to the other was almost impossible.

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Revenue cycle management,
you, you couldn't, you know,

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you had five different variations
of that. Uh, there the data wasn't,

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uh, consistent.

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So they were looking for one single
source solution to be able to, um, to,

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to be able to grow upon. Uh,
and when Rob contacted me,

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or actually when I contacted
Rob in June of 2022, um,

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that was the first thing that,

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that he wanted to talk about was that
they had already started negotiating or

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looking and, and demoing several
vendors. Uh, and, you know,

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so they already knew those benefits.
They just needed assistance in, you know,

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how to make that selection
and, and that, so, um,

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for us it was kind of a, uh,
a natural trans transition.

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As we were growing from a,

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a group of affiliated
practices to a true D S O,

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we realized that we needed to have a
solution in place that that allowed us to,

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to, um, efficiently access that data.

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Excellent. And, and as you move
to that mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um,

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kind of single platform across the group,
uh, I guess this question's more for,

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for you Mike, um, from your per, from
your per perspective as a clinician,

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what were some of the things that you
were looking for when evaluating, uh,

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potential practice management solutions?

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Well, I, we do use, um,
like Chris was saying,

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we use data for a lot of things,
not only business practices, but,

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but clinical practices
as well. And so, uh,

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I would piggyback on
that and say that our,

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our main non-negotiable
was direct access to,

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to the database.

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And a lot of conversations with vendors
were almost over before they began

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because they didn't offer that.
And so we started there. Um,

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but then after that, just utter
stability was, was a, was a big deal. Uh,

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like Chris was saying, we had, we
had several different platforms,

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all of them on different, um,
update schedules, all of them, uh,

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being supported. Uh, some
okay, some not so good.

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And some were having issues with
updates they had rolled out. And,

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and ultimately a platform that a, that
a dental offices uses should work.

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I mean, a period like
there shouldn't be, um,

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you shouldn't have to dance around.
Will this update create instability?

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Um, it needs to work when you need it to
all the time. And that sounds kind of,

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I don't know, basic, but it,
it's really important. Um,

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updates and downtime should be
well communicated. You know,

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every software has issues now and again,

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but that needs to be the exception and
not the rule. And, and, um, you know, we,

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we checked with some long-term
users of the software, um,

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had some conversations with,
with different customers,

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and that was a big checkbox. Um,
and like Chris was saying, as,

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as we have expanded operations
and grown is, is the,

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the solution had to be scalable,
reasonably pain free, uh,

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meaning that the practice, and it
shouldn't be an act of Congress to, uh,

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add another practice
to your database. And,

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and Deon checked that box as well. Um,

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I also was a big fan and am still a
very big fan of, of how Deon handles,

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uh,

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updates instead of one giant update
every couple years that shuts the

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system down for a couple of days. And
there's a, is a big deal. You know, they,

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they take direct feedback
from users and create

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a roadmap. The roadmap is, is
very reasonably transparent.

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You can see where the software
is going, and they're,

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they're looking to continuously
improve the software. And,

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and that's a big deal. Like the,

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the fact that I can log oncon right now
and see where the software's going and

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see those subjects, um, suggestions
and add my, uh, opinion to it, um,

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it was a big deal for us.

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Great. Um, thanks for that
perspective. Uh, you know,

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you guys have both mentioned
things like stability, scalability,

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direct access to the
database, so, so Chris,

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any other must haves?
And in addition to that,

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what kinds of questions did you ask
vendors when you were looking, uh,

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at different solutions?

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Um, of course the data, but after
that it was interop interoperability.

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I wanted to make sure that the automation
layers that I needed to add on,

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uh, were gonna work with this system.
Uh, I wanted to make sure that, you know,

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my marketing, my online scheduling,
my patient engagement services, um,

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as well as any type of reporting, uh,

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if I need to do a cash
management application that's
pushing deposits, you know,

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and, and, and feeding back into, uh,

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dcon or for revenue cycle
management, for automated posting,

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for insurance verification, all that,

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I'd looked at all of those
type solutions inside that

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as a total package, uh, to make sure
that we weren't leaving anything out.

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Uh, and the one that that came up on
top obviously was, was, uh, decon. Um,

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and then, you know, after that,
of course, security, uh, you know,

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researching any recent security breaches,

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making sure that there weren't
anything out there as far as persistent

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vulnerabilities and things like that, uh,

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that would show up on my radar and cause
us issues, you know, down the road.

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And then, um, talking to,

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honestly talking to some of the other
third parties and seeing who they liked

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working with, uh, who was,
who was the, you know,

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the most innovative practice management
group out there and that type thing.

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Y you know, and building
on that, you know,

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you've both worked with obviously a
variety of vendors over the years.

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What are some of the things you like
and dislike when working with vendors?

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What do you look for?
What do you try to avoid?

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I think the, um, lemme piggyback on
something Chris said, and I think it's,

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it's really important when you're
shopping for something like a practice

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management software,

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before you get into vendor
asking questions and things like,

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you really have to understand your
organization, like Chris was saying,

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you have to understand what you're
looking for in a software and sort of gut

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check yourself on that. What
are your non-negotiables?

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What are things that matter
to you that you have to have?

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And that can't be a super long list
cuz there's nothing out there that's

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perfect, right? But you gotta
pick a few things that say, Hey,

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this is super important to us.

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And because then it becomes a nice
apples to apples comparisons across

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software is that you, you have now
a a way I can, I can rule this out,

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this doesn't do this or
whatever, versus, you know,

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if all you're looking for is, you know,

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font size and how my clinical notes go
in, if that's all you're concerned about,

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it's easy to get lost in
those details. Um, and,

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and what a Salesforce will show you versus
what you really are looking for. But,

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but after that, you know,

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I think the most important
thing for us in this process and

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and with any vendor, not
just software vendors,

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is responsiveness and communication.
And, and that works both ways.

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The organization has to be
very responsive as well. Um,

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there's a ton of back and forth that
go that goes on in this kind of a

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relationship and these kind of projects
of, of converting, uh, offices over. Um,

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and both the practice and the, and
the vendor have to be all in. Um,

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you have to be able to set a
time to set aside time to answer

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those calls and, uh, do the, um,

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all the steps that sometimes are
tedious and, and take time. But,

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but to do that well, um,

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you have to be focused on it and it
can't be just something that you try to

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squeeze in in the last 15 minutes
of a day or something like that.

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And I would add that a vendor, again,
all all vendors to a dental, uh,

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organization should be patient.
These are big decisions.

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The bigger your organization, the
bigger this decision is, and you,

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you need to be able to ask lots
of questions, have demos. Um,

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like I initially screened a
a lot of the software, uh,

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by myself or with Chris.
And then from there,

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once one seen promising,

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then we scheduled a second demo with
a different group of people to get

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different perspectives and, um,

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asked different questions
that we came up with and,

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and they brought some things up that
ruled some of the other softwares out.

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Yeah, there's so much there, um, that,

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that is useful for anybody who's gonna
go through this process. You, you know,

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you mentioned the, the big decision that,

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that this represented for the
organization and it, it seems,

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it seems to be that, you
know, a major pain point,

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whether real or perceived is the process
of implementing the new solution,

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going through the conversion
process, training all the users.

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And I would say that a lot of d
s o leaders have, uh, you know,

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a high perception of the risk
of moving to a new solution. Um,

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so much so that sometimes it's easier
just to kind of stick with what you got

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and, and stay the course. Um,

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so at a minimum there's a lot of change
management associated with it. So,

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so Chris, you know,

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what advice do you have for D s O
leaders that are still uncertain

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about moving to the cloud? Whether
that's the right move for them?

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Uh, yeah, you know, I, I think with any
software solution implementation there,

221
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there's the, the change management
becomes a problem, right? Because people,

222
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people don't want to change usually.
Uh, so it has to make sense for them.

223
00:13:05,710 --> 00:13:09,420
Uh, and we were very lucky w with our
team that our team was very motivated,

224
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and so it was easy to connect the dots
and kind of show them what's in it for

225
00:13:12,660 --> 00:13:15,340
them. Um, and I think the most,

226
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I think for most DSOs the
tipping point is, is, you know,

227
00:13:19,260 --> 00:13:23,020
comes when you're trying to
manage centralized services and,

228
00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:27,300
and start beginning to realize that
connecting those offices is a chore. Uh,

229
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it is getting way over complicated.
Uh, it becomes much less secure.

230
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Um, by moving to the cloud,
we are able to simplify it,

231
00:13:36,860 --> 00:13:38,980
mitigate some data loss risks, uh,

232
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more easily facilitate those
centralized services, um,

233
00:13:43,470 --> 00:13:48,060
re reduce, um, you know, the,
the, the attack surface for,

234
00:13:48,060 --> 00:13:52,700
for our security. Um, and so when
we looked at those risks, uh,

235
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when we looked at the
risk that, you know, from,

236
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from potential loss of productivity,
maybe a slowdown of collections, the,

237
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the investment in training and education
time, the end results far outweighed,

238
00:14:03,790 --> 00:14:08,540
uh, any potential loss there.
Uh, at least for us it did. Um,

239
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:10,540
and I think, you know, if,

240
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if I were advising another D S O
to take a look at this and, and,

241
00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:18,260
and to make that decision, I think
honestly training and education is,

242
00:14:18,270 --> 00:14:21,060
is the single biggest mitigation point.

243
00:14:21,470 --> 00:14:23,500
If you can go in and do
the change management,

244
00:14:23,500 --> 00:14:27,580
if you can go in and train the teams
properly from the start and have

245
00:14:27,950 --> 00:14:32,820
skilled person or skilled people ready
that are there to help with the staff,

246
00:14:32,820 --> 00:14:36,060
you know, to support them on day
one, have them in the office,

247
00:14:36,060 --> 00:14:39,980
have people in the support office ready,
uh, to support the office on day one,

248
00:14:39,980 --> 00:14:43,660
you can reduce a lot of
that potential loss by,

249
00:14:43,670 --> 00:14:47,860
by just being there and having them
ready. Um, and at least that's what,

250
00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:49,100
you know, kind of worked for us.

251
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:54,970
Yeah, great advice, um, great advice
on the, on the training in particular.

252
00:14:55,460 --> 00:14:58,450
Um, a related question for you, Mike. Um,

253
00:14:58,450 --> 00:15:02,810
how would you define a successful
implementation conversion and training

254
00:15:02,810 --> 00:15:04,330
process? And, and as part of that,

255
00:15:04,420 --> 00:15:09,330
is there kind of a logical order
of operations that you guys leaned

256
00:15:09,330 --> 00:15:09,490
on?

257
00:15:09,490 --> 00:15:14,410
Like where do you start in terms of de
novo versus not or size of practice,

258
00:15:14,410 --> 00:15:15,243
et cetera?

259
00:15:16,050 --> 00:15:16,883
I think the,

260
00:15:18,050 --> 00:15:22,140
ultimately a successful implementation
of something of this scale,

261
00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:27,540
you measure it in how little it
impacted your normal day-to-day

262
00:15:27,700 --> 00:15:30,820
workflows, right? And,
and make no mistake,

263
00:15:31,020 --> 00:15:34,340
it will disrupt workloads like,
it, it, it'll, it'll slow you down.

264
00:15:34,340 --> 00:15:38,260
It'll cause some stress. So you can't
avoid that. It's, it's unavoidable. Uh,

265
00:15:38,260 --> 00:15:41,820
and, and every aspect of a dental
practice is affected by this,

266
00:15:41,820 --> 00:15:46,180
from treatment planning, from
hygiene to collections to, uh,

267
00:15:46,620 --> 00:15:50,380
RCM and, and insurance management. I
mean, everything is, is touched by it,

268
00:15:50,380 --> 00:15:53,140
right? So planning upfront,

269
00:15:53,140 --> 00:15:55,980
spending a lot of time working
through the details is just super,

270
00:15:55,980 --> 00:16:00,700
super important. Uh, and, and I
can't echo what Chris said more is,

271
00:16:00,830 --> 00:16:05,540
is we found it extremely
important and beneficial

272
00:16:05,550 --> 00:16:10,220
to have people on site, um, as
we brought practices online.

273
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,460
And we did not try to do
that remotely. Oh, we,

274
00:16:13,460 --> 00:16:16,340
we tried to overkill it is
probably a good way to say it. And,

275
00:16:16,340 --> 00:16:21,100
and I think there's tons of different
ways of getting from point A to to point

276
00:16:21,100 --> 00:16:24,380
Z on this, like different
orders of operations. And
we checked them all out. We,

277
00:16:24,380 --> 00:16:27,020
we played scenarios and,

278
00:16:27,020 --> 00:16:29,580
and what's right for your
group will depend on your,

279
00:16:29,580 --> 00:16:33,580
your resources and priorities and what
you're trying to accomplish and how fast

280
00:16:33,580 --> 00:16:37,060
sometimes you may not have time. We
had time as a, an ally on our side.

281
00:16:37,060 --> 00:16:39,060
It wasn't something that we were, we,

282
00:16:39,060 --> 00:16:41,900
we had to get it done by
any specific time, you know,

283
00:16:41,900 --> 00:16:44,300
so we looked at trying to do
everything at once, even like,

284
00:16:44,300 --> 00:16:46,700
what does it look like to do
everything at once? And ultimately, we,

285
00:16:46,700 --> 00:16:49,100
we kept running up the, the training, um,

286
00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:51,860
the training side of that for
us was gonna be a big problem.

287
00:16:51,860 --> 00:16:56,300
We didn't have the resources to train
every single office, every single team,

288
00:16:56,300 --> 00:17:01,060
essentially all at once. And so we
elected to break everything into pods,

289
00:17:01,230 --> 00:17:06,100
uh, containing two to four
practices. Um, typically doing, uh,

290
00:17:06,100 --> 00:17:10,460
converting them over and transitioning
them over every about, I don't know,

291
00:17:11,010 --> 00:17:13,820
four to six weeks,
something like that. Uh,

292
00:17:13,820 --> 00:17:16,340
sometimes it was a little
more frequently than that. Um,

293
00:17:16,470 --> 00:17:20,820
we chose to start with a
couple of de novos. They were,

294
00:17:20,820 --> 00:17:23,380
they were both practices had
been with us a little while,

295
00:17:23,380 --> 00:17:27,660
but we were not gonna convert their data.
Um, we were just starting from fresh.

296
00:17:28,230 --> 00:17:32,540
Uh, we thought it would be simpler to do
that, to start with. And honestly, we,

297
00:17:32,540 --> 00:17:37,460
that was a still a beta test
sort of mentality for us is

298
00:17:37,790 --> 00:17:41,180
if it didn't go well or we really didn't
like something about the software,

299
00:17:41,790 --> 00:17:44,700
we could still back up at that point.
And it wasn't, we weren't committed.

300
00:17:44,700 --> 00:17:48,380
We didn't upset everybody's Apple
card to, to do it. Um, and it,

301
00:17:48,380 --> 00:17:52,080
and it went really well. And, and
obviously we, six, seven months later,

302
00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:53,240
we had everybody converted over.

303
00:17:53,570 --> 00:17:58,320
We spent a lot of time talking
about the details of the practices

304
00:17:58,570 --> 00:18:03,280
as far as the order. Um, you mentioned
big practices, small practices, um,

305
00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:08,480
geographically where they were located
to be able to support them. Um, our, our,

306
00:18:08,570 --> 00:18:09,800
uh, management team,

307
00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:13,880
how we could make sure they were there
if they had engagements at different for

308
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:17,680
other non-related things, making
sure that they were available, um,

309
00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:19,920
vacations for the practices
and the doctors. I mean,

310
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:21,200
we looked at all kinds of things,

311
00:18:21,230 --> 00:18:24,840
even down to the personalities of
the teams and doctors. Um, you know,

312
00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:27,600
every practice has their
own own personality and,

313
00:18:27,820 --> 00:18:29,960
and their strengths and weaknesses. And,

314
00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:34,520
and so we tried to really put group
practices together that we could

315
00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:37,720
mitigate those and, and make
everything work together. Uh,

316
00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:42,720
and I think in intentionality, um, of,
of attention to detail is, is super,

317
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:43,760
super important.

318
00:18:44,620 --> 00:18:49,030
That that's a great checklist of, uh,
of factors to consider in the rollout.

319
00:18:49,030 --> 00:18:53,550
And, uh, uh, I, I think there's
many DSOs could learn a lot from,

320
00:18:53,550 --> 00:18:57,070
from that list. Uh, changing
gears just a little bit, Mike, um,

321
00:18:57,070 --> 00:18:59,990
from a clinical standpoint, if you,
if you fast forward to now, you know,

322
00:18:59,990 --> 00:19:03,950
you're using the software, you've
gone through that hard process, would,

323
00:19:03,950 --> 00:19:06,070
what would you say in terms of, you know,

324
00:19:06,070 --> 00:19:10,910
has that switch been worth it for
you to move to a cloud-based, uh,

325
00:19:10,910 --> 00:19:14,430
common system across all the
groups, uh, inclusive of imaging?

326
00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:17,910
Oh, for, for sure. Um, and there's,

327
00:19:17,910 --> 00:19:22,350
there's a lot of benefits to cloud-based
things that we already know, like in,

328
00:19:22,350 --> 00:19:26,590
in other areas of our lives, right?
I mean, it's ease of access. Um,

329
00:19:26,590 --> 00:19:29,270
minimal maintenance on the
dental practice side, the,

330
00:19:29,270 --> 00:19:33,030
the stability of the software
itself, you know, but being able,

331
00:19:33,230 --> 00:19:35,470
being able to access, uh,

332
00:19:35,470 --> 00:19:39,110
what you need from wherever you want. Um,

333
00:19:39,110 --> 00:19:41,630
and then I think diving even
a little deeper is, you know,

334
00:19:41,630 --> 00:19:46,430
DECOM specifically allows for a lot of
security controls on that as well. So,

335
00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:50,950
so, you know, our doctors can have
access to, to what they need, uh,

336
00:19:50,950 --> 00:19:51,590
when they need it,

337
00:19:51,590 --> 00:19:54,830
versus you may be a little
more restrictive from a
security standpoint for other

338
00:19:54,830 --> 00:19:59,310
team members. Um, and, and
that by that it sounds crazy,

339
00:19:59,310 --> 00:20:02,030
but that by itself has
been huge for our docs.

340
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:05,550
If your D S O has, you know,

341
00:20:05,790 --> 00:20:09,510
internal referrals moving
between practices and even,

342
00:20:09,510 --> 00:20:14,470
even just patients who relocate in the
same region and and visit a different one

343
00:20:14,470 --> 00:20:15,190
of your practices,

344
00:20:15,190 --> 00:20:20,190
having their chart follow them
and their x-rays follow them. Um,

345
00:20:20,190 --> 00:20:22,430
cuz there's plenty of other
softwares out there that have,

346
00:20:22,430 --> 00:20:26,670
have had charts that can follow
patients, but typically X-rays are,

347
00:20:26,770 --> 00:20:29,870
are stored on local servers and you
have to go to great lengths to make them

348
00:20:29,940 --> 00:20:33,510
viewable across practices and, uh,

349
00:20:33,510 --> 00:20:36,870
all of your imaging being able to follow
a patient chart wherever they go is,

350
00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:41,350
is huge. I think it's important to,
to note that on the clinical side,

351
00:20:41,350 --> 00:20:45,870
perio charting treatment planning
in all of our due diligence, I,

352
00:20:45,870 --> 00:20:48,280
I think most of the softwares
do a pretty good job with that.

353
00:20:48,430 --> 00:20:52,800
It's easy to get caught up on
a lot of those little details,

354
00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:56,320
especially from a, the
clinician side. Um, you know, I,

355
00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:58,760
I put that hat on and oh man,
I really like how this looks,

356
00:20:58,760 --> 00:20:59,960
or I really like how this works.

357
00:21:00,110 --> 00:21:03,000
That's where it goes back to that
knowing that list of non-negotiables.

358
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,640
What do you really focus on? What's really
important for URGO organization and,

359
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:10,360
and using that as your
standard, I think is is huge.

360
00:21:11,390 --> 00:21:15,390
Great. And Chris, um, want
you to jump in here. You know,

361
00:21:15,390 --> 00:21:20,110
you're part of a growing D S O I can
only imagine the complexities of managing

362
00:21:20,110 --> 00:21:22,470
IT and security for the
entire organization.

363
00:21:22,810 --> 00:21:27,630
How has standardizing with a single
cloud-based solution helped you and your

364
00:21:27,630 --> 00:21:28,463
team?

365
00:21:28,670 --> 00:21:33,100
Oh, this, this has been a, a tremendous
blessing for our IT staff, honestly,

366
00:21:33,390 --> 00:21:37,420
by eliminating a lot of the
complexity, uh, of our legacy system,

367
00:21:37,420 --> 00:21:42,220
eliminating offsite data centers, the
backup, the disaster recovery process,

368
00:21:42,790 --> 00:21:46,900
uh, removing the V P N connections from
centralized services, things like that,

369
00:21:47,220 --> 00:21:48,940
that our, our staff, you know,

370
00:21:48,940 --> 00:21:53,620
devoted a lot of time to maintaining
and updating and, and keeping,

371
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:55,580
you know, keeping going. It,

372
00:21:55,580 --> 00:22:00,180
it's freed them up to work on more
optimization projects, right? Uh, so,

373
00:22:00,180 --> 00:22:02,980
you know, the thing you remember is
you're, you're not gonna get rid of it,

374
00:22:02,980 --> 00:22:04,340
you're always gonna need it.

375
00:22:04,610 --> 00:22:09,100
It's just now we're able to shift some
of those IT resources over to things that

376
00:22:09,130 --> 00:22:12,980
have been long, long, neglected, like,
you know, equipment refreshes, uh,

377
00:22:12,980 --> 00:22:17,580
being able to go in and, and do some
more, you know, phone drops or add, uh,

378
00:22:17,580 --> 00:22:19,180
add operatories or things like that.

379
00:22:19,180 --> 00:22:23,770
So it lets our IT team focus more on

380
00:22:24,750 --> 00:22:27,770
the rest of it and not
so much on servers and,

381
00:22:27,770 --> 00:22:29,810
and imaging equipment
and things like that.

382
00:22:29,860 --> 00:22:34,250
So it's been great for them for that.
Um, the one thing that, you know,

383
00:22:34,250 --> 00:22:36,970
as we plan our scaling
out and growing and,

384
00:22:36,970 --> 00:22:39,170
and adding additional
offices and things like that,

385
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:44,290
it's easier now to plan on how
many IT people I need because I,

386
00:22:44,290 --> 00:22:48,730
I don't need the expensive CIS
admins and people like that

387
00:22:48,970 --> 00:22:50,890
anymore to support servers and networks.

388
00:22:50,890 --> 00:22:54,290
I just need someone to do desktop
support and, you know, printers and,

389
00:22:54,290 --> 00:22:58,170
and routers and things like that. So
that much of it is a lot easier. Uh,

390
00:22:58,170 --> 00:23:00,970
and as well as the,
the data, uh, you know,

391
00:23:00,970 --> 00:23:05,730
data transfer from 16 different
sources now down to just,

392
00:23:05,730 --> 00:23:10,410
you know, accounting and our
p m s is much easier. Uh,

393
00:23:10,410 --> 00:23:14,890
so building those systems in, uh,
are are much less complicated,

394
00:23:15,180 --> 00:23:19,690
uh, much less likely to break, uh, much
easier to, to make sure that we're,

395
00:23:19,690 --> 00:23:24,250
we're maintaining the integrity of
that data and, and stuff like that.

396
00:23:24,250 --> 00:23:25,690
So yeah, absolutely. It's been,

397
00:23:25,690 --> 00:23:28,610
it is been a tremendous blessing
on both sides of it for this one.

398
00:23:29,090 --> 00:23:32,370
Great. Well, clo closing
question from me. Um,

399
00:23:32,510 --> 00:23:37,370
and I'd love to hear both of you chime
in on this, but, uh, any advice, uh,

400
00:23:37,370 --> 00:23:42,090
that you would share on how a D S
O leader can start the process of

401
00:23:42,290 --> 00:23:44,770
researching different solutions?
Uh, what, what's the best.

402
00:23:44,770 --> 00:23:49,660
Way to, uh, to launch into that? I think
understanding why you wanna switch,

403
00:23:49,790 --> 00:23:53,860
uh, you know, what do you hope to gain?
Is it cost savings? Is it security?

404
00:23:54,190 --> 00:23:57,740
Is it automation? Uh, things
like that. And then look,

405
00:23:57,740 --> 00:24:00,860
look for the solution that offers as
many of those things under one pane of

406
00:24:00,860 --> 00:24:02,060
glass as possible. Uh,

407
00:24:02,060 --> 00:24:04,980
I think that's one of the things we
liked was that we could get a lot of that

408
00:24:04,980 --> 00:24:08,140
wrapped up and not have to have
a lot of those third parties, uh,

409
00:24:08,140 --> 00:24:11,620
but then look at what third
parties you're left with and, and,

410
00:24:11,620 --> 00:24:16,180
and talk to those third parties
and see, you know, who they are,

411
00:24:16,980 --> 00:24:18,440
who they enjoy working with,

412
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,400
who do they feel like their product
works the best with. Uh, and so,

413
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:25,240
and you can learn a lot,
uh, from those vendors, uh,

414
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,600
and then talk to other dsso leaders
and not just focusing on, you know,

415
00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,880
top level leadership, uh, talk to the
people that are actually using the system,

416
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:36,160
talk to the practice managers, the
C clinicians, the support staff, uh,

417
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:40,200
talk to the IT teams. I think
you can learn a lot about, uh,

418
00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:42,800
the practice management systems
or solutions in that way as well.

419
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,690
Yeah, I, I would, uh, and I think
Chris touched on this to start with,

420
00:24:47,690 --> 00:24:50,290
is going back to those
non-negotiables. I think that's,

421
00:24:50,290 --> 00:24:52,610
that's your starting place is you
have to understand, like he said,

422
00:24:52,610 --> 00:24:56,810
why you're doing it, um, and
understand what you have to have. Um,

423
00:24:56,810 --> 00:25:00,770
and it that helps you compare
softwares with an objective basis. But,

424
00:25:00,770 --> 00:25:02,410
but it's key to not
make that list too long.

425
00:25:02,410 --> 00:25:04,330
There's not a single
perfect software out there.

426
00:25:04,710 --> 00:25:08,930
And then I would say start with
only a small group of people.

427
00:25:09,110 --> 00:25:13,050
You read as much as you can online watch
videos and typical stuff, Google it,

428
00:25:13,050 --> 00:25:16,930
YouTube, everything, and demo
everything you can get your hand on,

429
00:25:16,930 --> 00:25:20,810
hands on and, and then focus
on those non-negotiables.

430
00:25:20,810 --> 00:25:24,370
And you begin to get that
list smaller and smaller.

431
00:25:24,630 --> 00:25:28,810
And then as that list smaller, you
start involving other perspectives.

432
00:25:28,810 --> 00:25:32,610
Like tri said, get, get other folks
in your organization, um, get,

433
00:25:32,610 --> 00:25:35,690
get people that are in the practices,
get hygienists, get assistance,

434
00:25:35,690 --> 00:25:38,770
get doctors, um, and then, you know, it,

435
00:25:38,770 --> 00:25:43,090
it really helps to find some references
on the outside of the organization that

436
00:25:43,090 --> 00:25:46,330
can, can help you with that and help
you with their decision process.

437
00:25:46,330 --> 00:25:49,490
It was very reassuring when we,
when we touch base with, uh,

438
00:25:49,500 --> 00:25:50,850
another group and they,

439
00:25:50,850 --> 00:25:54,330
they had narrowed it down to the
exact same two softwares that we had,

440
00:25:54,330 --> 00:25:57,050
and they were able to tell
us why they went with Decon.

441
00:25:57,050 --> 00:25:58,570
And it made a lot of sense. And,

442
00:25:58,570 --> 00:26:03,490
and that was very reassuring for our group
standpoint to sort of had ended up in

443
00:26:03,490 --> 00:26:05,690
the same place. And so,
you know, the, it's,

444
00:26:06,070 --> 00:26:10,290
you just wanna make sure you do your
due diligence and, and it's way, way,

445
00:26:10,290 --> 00:26:14,530
way better to, to go through a
project this when project like this,

446
00:26:14,530 --> 00:26:16,930
when you can do it and,

447
00:26:16,930 --> 00:26:20,770
and can take your time rather than you're
forced to do it on a timeframe and you

448
00:26:20,770 --> 00:26:23,970
have to make a decision, you
know, in 30 days or whatever. We,

449
00:26:24,070 --> 00:26:28,810
the entire process start to finish
from due diligence to all offices

450
00:26:28,810 --> 00:26:32,530
converted and, and moved on to Decon,
which took us about a year. Uh,

451
00:26:32,530 --> 00:26:36,130
it was about three or four months of due
diligence and then about eight months

452
00:26:36,140 --> 00:26:40,810
we took to, to move everybody
over and doing it that way was,

453
00:26:40,810 --> 00:26:43,240
it was still stressful, but it
was not nearly what it, it could.

454
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:44,073
Have been.

455
00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:47,840
Great. Well guys, I've really,
uh, enjoyed this conversation.

456
00:26:48,030 --> 00:26:51,000
I want to thank you for your
time. Uh, so I wanna thank, um,

457
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,360
both Chris Grim and Dr. Mike
Twitchel of Family Dental Health.

458
00:26:55,770 --> 00:26:58,200
Uh, I'm Matt Walker with Planet d d s.

459
00:26:58,450 --> 00:27:02,160
If you'd like to learn more about
cloud solutions from planet d dds,

460
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,240
including Decon, which we've
been talking about, uh,

461
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:09,440
after imaging or cloud nine,
please visit, uh, our website,

462
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,320
planet dds.com. And, uh,
thanks again for listening.

463
00:27:13,100 --> 00:27:16,140
Thank you all three so much for
sharing your insights with us.

464
00:27:16,140 --> 00:27:18,980
And thanks again to planet d d
s for sponsoring the episode.