Scaling with a Fast Growing DSO
Challenge
Marquee Dental Partners is a fast-growing dental service organization in the southeast. With numerous offices in several states, Marquee needed to find a solution that provided a global view of practice operations, fully integrated practice management tools, centralized reporting and easy accessibility. Marquee was originally using an antiquated desktop practice management solution and wanted to eliminate the hosting and maintenance costs associated with on-premises servers.
Outcomes
- Moved from an antiquated practice management software to the cloud-based Denticon software.
- Received excellent on-site training and support to rollout Denticon.
- Better decision making based on company-wide data.
- Centralization
- Eliminating servers allowed Marquee to reinvest the savings into additional clinical initiatives.
Scaling with Denticon
Marquee Dental Partners is a leading and fast-growing dental service organization headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and operates 43 practices (and counting) across five states: Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida and Arkansas. Founded in 2015, Marquee has grown rapidly in the past few years by building de novos and by adding new partnerships, dental service offerings, revenue and patients.
Changing Needs of a Fast-Growing DSO
Marquee excels at providing centralized operational, administrative and support services allowing dentists to focus on care delivery while maintaining clinical autonomy. Marquee supports dental office partners with marketing, advertising, HR, purchasing and operational leadership.
Moving to the Denticon Cloud
As the pace of acquisitions/partnerships accelerated, the need developed to transition all offices to a modern practice management software. Denticon provided a cloud-based, more robust and centralized practice management solution.
“We decided to go with Denticon for 3 reasons:
- It is a cloud-based practice management software
- We listened to the doctors and hygienists we support. This is the system they wanted
- When you consider the costs associated with maintaining so many servers and local data storage devices as well as the upkeep of the many software systems we had across offices, switching to Denticon provided us a modern practice management system at a lower cost.” said Fred Ward, Chief Executive Officer of Marquee.
“Our version of the ‘DSO of the future’ focuses on providing enhancements and investments around doctors, hygienists and staff, so they can deliver outstanding and predictable clinical outcomes and provide an exceptional patient experience,” said Ward. Switching to Denticon created another opportunity for Marquee to reinvest in the clinical teams they support. “We saved money by using Denticon, and in so doing, we were able to reinvest that money into the clinical capability of dentists and hygienists we support,” explained Ward.
Data [in Denticon] gives us facts to support the clinical investments we’ve made at Marquee. The clinical feedback and coaching that’s provided to doctors and hygienists has come from the facts that clinical leaders get from our reporting systems. – Fred Ward, CEO of Marquee Dental Partners
Test Driving Denticon
Although Ward himself favored a move to a cloud-based solution, he wanted input from the actual users. “I will tell you that the most important piece involved in our decision was the user-friendliness to the doctors and the hygienists,” explained Ward
“Whatever we choose, they had to embrace it, love it and be advocates for it,” said Ward. With that in mind, Marquee vetted seven different practice management software options and narrowed the choices to two. Then, over a two-week period, Marquee had a subset of dentists and hygienists try out the software in what they called “the sandbox.” Ward credits the doctors and hygienists for choosing Denticon.
At the end of the two-week period, each of the two platforms had a chance to present their software to the providers. “I asked what the doctors and hygienists wanted, and eight out of the nine doctors chose Denticon, seven out of eight hygienists chose Denticon,” said Ward.
Excellent Support and Training with Denticon
“What I was most pleased with was, first and resoundingly, doctors and hygienists wanted Denticon. Secondly, Denticon provided the support and high-touch training we needed. They were there when we needed them, which was critical to a successful rollout and an immediate adaptation to the new software.” explained Ward.
“Lastly, Denticon was cloud-based, unlike the other platform we considered,” he added.
Empowering the DSO’s of the Future
As more dentists and even specialists are forming DSOs, they recognize the obvious benefits of being able to scale. DSOs of the future leverage technology to provide better outcomes for patients, reduce costs and streamline practice management.
“We believe healthcare is local, so we stay away from centralizing so much that it removes the personalized local feel that only great teams can provide,” said Ward. “We look to the future by investing in technology and clinical capabilities while leaving clinical autonomy to each doctor.”
Better Patient Care and Better Clinical Outcomes
By gathering data across numerous practices, DSOs can leverage this information to make better business decisions while enabling dentists to make even better clinical decisions.
“Data gives us facts to support the clinical investments we’ve made at Marquee. The clinical feedback and coaching that’s provided to doctors and hygienists has come from the facts that clinical leaders get from our reporting systems,” said Ward. “We want to solve for the right things and make sure we’re making decisions based on accurate data,” he concluded.