86: Interview with The New ADSO President Emmet Scott — The 5 Principles To Revolutionize The DSO Industry

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When I was working as an associate right out of school, I never imagined I could own these many practices with this amount of support. So thank you.

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of DSO Secrets. I'm your fearless host, Emmett Scott, and today I want to tell you a little story. My cfo, Ken Kaufman, came to me and said, emmett, congratulations on being now president of the Adso. You really need to get out there and get on some podcasts. And I'll tell you one that's got a great listening base that you need to be on. I was like, ken, I'm more than willing. And he says, well, it's called DSO Secrets. So I'm going to hand off today for Ken Kaufman. I'd like to introduce as our host of DSO Secrets. So thank you, Ken, for having me on.

Oh, absolutely. Outstanding. And I'd like to introduce our guest today, the regular host of DSO Secrets, and now the new president of Adso. And, Emmett, I appreciate you being willing to do this. I believe that we can all benefit from kind of hearing about what your experience has been so far and thinking about where you want to go. But before I get into all that, I just, I have to know because this came as a surprise to everybody who knows you and that works with you on a day to day basis. So how did this whole Adso president thing happen? How did this come about?

So, yeah, I ended up with a group text message that came from who I consider very high powered, very respected CEOs in this space. And they said, we want to talk to you. And that's just one of those ones where you say, okay, I'm going to schedule some time for that. And they were just super gracious and they said, we've really appreciated the comments you've made in executive committee and other support that you've given to the DSO industry. And if we nominated you, would you be willing to be president? So I just thought, wow, that's so kind. I went back to my executive team and said, hey, if this is something I take on, do you feel like you guys can fill in the gaps. And everybody was super supportive. And so they threw my hat in the ring and pretty soon I was Adso president.

It's an incredible story and clearly, let me back up to this and say we've known each other for 15 years on a personal level, on a business level, different projects and different things. And, you know, you've always been somebody who shows up and looks around and says, how can I add value? So clearly, as you got involved with Adso, you were being you, which is, how can I try to add value? And the thing that I've appreciated the most about our relationship is, and we've been in a lot of settings together, you've always been somebody who can see a really big vision around things and get the big picture and bigger, in fact, than anybody else in the room, generally speaking, at least from my experience. And so as you're starting off, because this is a three year term that you've committed to with the Adso and there's a lot of work to do, a lot of things I'm sure you're thinking about, but I would love to hear you explain what your vision is for. Where is this going to go? You have this Adso platform and, and you're constantly thinking about, how can I add value and how can I grow things and bring everybody along with me? Never, never to the exclusion of any, anyone, anybody who wants to come along. You want to have them come with you. Could you maybe talk through that vision and what your kind of main priorities are as you're, as you're starting out in this three year tenure?

Well, thank you first of all for the compliments layered in. And yeah, having known each other for a while, you do know me well. I often say I'm a little bit jaded because I came into this industry with my best friend since the age of two and trying to support and help him in growing the impact he wanted to have with his dental practices. And I say I'm jaded because now I just see everybody as my best friend trying to help. So launching DSO Secrets podcast and Facebook page, all of that was just like, okay, how do we all work together? My involvement with deo, Dentist entrepreneur organization, I mean, these are the emerging groups that are trying to figure this out. Tried to be as generous, you know, have them come see what we're doing, et cetera, tried to be involved in social media, just seeing what people's concerns, their questions are. So you're right. As soon as this all kind of came down, I stood back and I said, based on all those conversations I've had, what is it that the industry really needs? What is it that everybody's really wanting and clamoring at, like, on a personal level, like, we're humans, right? Not even just the dentistry level, but tied in as humans. What are we looking for? And I'll tell you, number one, came really fast and easy, as did 2, 3, 4, and that is that we want alignment in the industry. I think we're done with. With all of the contention, we're done with the misalignment that's been going on too long. It's not serving the patient or, frankly, the clinicians well. So I think we wanna see every dental organization that's seeking to support clinicians that are providing amazing quality patient care. We wanna all get aligned. We wanna see supported dentists, hygienists, and really every other dental team member with the really, like, the resources to stand locked arm in arm, to kind of be ready for the future. So we have to get on the same page. I think everybody's interested in that. Like, take our egos, throw it behind. So that one is number one. And I'm most excited about that because I think with alignment, you can accomplish anything, no question.

So what do you think? That's a mindset. This is a one by one, how do you think through. What's the biggest constraint to trying to drive this alignment with an industry that's a 120, $130 billion industry, hundreds of thousands of dentists, and then all of the equipment manufacturers and suppliers and vendors and business people trying to help support and all of the infrastructure around it, what's the biggest constraint you see around that?

So I think we get distracted. I mean, this is just common relationship issues. We get distracted. But when we ask ourselves at the core principle, what are we most interested in? You did a good job, King. Because that actually leads me into point two for me, which is the clinicians need to be our customer, and every dentist should have the right to choose the size and type of team that they want. I mean, the argument that having a team and having support, having a bigger team, somehow lowers autonomy is outdated and ridiculous. Every great performer, every great athlete, I don't care if they're out there on the floor by themselves. You know, they're swinging the golf club by themselves. They have a team behind them. So I think where we're all aligned, and there's a couple points that we're actually all on the same page, which are way more important than these other points, and that is that clinicians should be able to have their autonomy. And that includes being able to choose whatever level of support team that they want. I mean, the reality is someone juggling 10 balls cannot provide better clinical care than someone who has a team that's doing that. I mean, a single practice owner knows

that having a great practice manager, great

treatment coordinator, great hygienist helps a ton in patient care. So I just want to jump to the second one, which is we've got to increase patient access and patient care. I've said this oftentimes that the Data coming from HPI over at ADA, the health policy institute, says that 35% of people are going to the dentist regularly.

That's a 35% penetration rate.

And I always give the contrast.

Cell phones have 120% penetration rate. Now, we're probably never going to be cell phones, but all of us can agree that 35% is miserable.

If we can work together to get

that to 70%, we've doubled the entire industry.

We have states right now where 90%

of the counties are below average from

a dentist to patient ratio. Right.

Compared to the rest of America. We can all agree that those patients

should have access to care.

So I think as we work together on those main tenants, you know, dentists should be able to choose whatever support team they want. Patients should have access, and we've got to get better. The reality is today, people aren't saying, do I go to this dentist or that dentist? People are saying, do I go to this dentist or do I shop on Amazon? Do I go to this dentist or do I run over to Target? Do I go to this dentist or

do I go to the water park?

Do I go to this dentist or do I go to the movie theater? And we've actually seen a bump for many dentists in patient flow recently because the distractions got taken away. But we can't be lulled into that. We've got to step in and say, do you know really where we're competing as an industry with the distractions of everything else people can spend their time and money on? And we've got to step up and in providing more convenience to patients and more convenience, frankly, to clinicians as well. They need more support than ever. All of those who went through this COVID 19, which is all of us today, know that having a team helped with all the noise that was happening so fast. So I think that those are critical. So, number one, you know, I'd say we've got to have industry alignment Number two, team support.

Clinicians need support, and number three, patient access. So those are the first three we've got to nail down, and then we can start getting strategic.

So this is a fascinating concept. If only a third of Americans are going to the dentist or utilizing dental services on some level, and you're talking about doubling it, what do you think causes that? Why do only a third of people go to the dentist? And how do we overcome whatever it is that's making that happen in your mind? And I'm talking about as an industry at large.

Yeah. I mean, we've got to know what we're really competing with for these customers. And again, it's not one another. The reality is all of us feel overwhelmed by all the opportunity and options that we have in America. And we are blessed to be here and to have that level of abundance. Twenty years ago, we didn't really have the Internet to the degree. I mean, it was in 1995 that it really started to launch. Thank you, Steve Jobs. I love my iPhone. But it is probably one of the biggest competitors to dentistry in so many facets because it gives me something else to do than go to the dentist. So if we are not competing to, you know, on the grassroots level, if we're not figuring out how to be creative and innovative to really connect with our patients and start to crowd out, we've got to show them that oral health, that the oral systemic link for health is critical. Which kind of brings me to point number four. And this is where it starts getting into innovation, Ken, which is we've got to integrate dentistry into the larger healthcare. We've kind of been the cousin on the side, and I don't think we need to be. It's really been our own mindset at Adso. We're saying healthcare begins with a smile. So I believe dentists need the power, the option to diagnose more broadly in healthcare. And I think the first step to that is diagnostic testing. I mean, can you imagine where we'd be today in America if every dentist had the option? Wouldn't have to, but they had the power to do COVID 19 testing, whether it's the antibody or for the antigen itself, whatever it might be, if they had that option? First of all, what would that do for America? What would be the army of healthcare workers that we would have in America? If you think about, if you lined up all healthcare providers, dentists see the public more than any other healthcare providers. We've had total collapse and other provider industries. And so it's left Dentistry as the one having the most contact. What do we want to do with that? Right. Do we want to be able to provide vaccines? I would imagine in the next six months having dentists able to provide vaccines if they want to would be very helpful to the American public. They're already going in. There's a connection, there's tons of material now coming out. And I want to push this out to the general public, to our legislators, so they can get more educated on where science is going, where healthcare is going, of that oral systemic link and what the opportunities are there. So I would love to see us at the top of the stack. I would love to see us doing

diagnostic testing, being able to go into some of these rural towns, these hard hit towns and be able to do diabetes testing earlier on. I mean, frankly, everybody wins from that. Most importantly, the patient wins, right? But even the health insurance providers, if

they can catch this stuff early and

if they can help with the patient early on and the community wins. So anyway, it's something that, that I've seen, we just have to step into. And I'll just tell one quick story. The executive director at Adso, when all of this has been happening, one of the things as many know, is you had to get if you wanted an N95 mask, if your state mandated it or your board did, et cetera. One of the things that OSHA said is you've got to get it fitted by a medical provider. And so, you know, by the request of a lot of dentists, our executive director goes to the CDC and says, how are we supposed to accomplish this? How do you want this organized? And the CDC responds, oh, we thought dentists were healthcare providers. So it's one of those a little bit of slap in the face of like, we have a seat of the table, are we going to pull the chair out and sit down and realize

it's actually at the head of the table, Right? And that's where I'd love to see this industry go. So that's, that's kind of point number four.

That's, it's a powerful, it's a powerful thought process. I regularly ask people, who do you see more often, your primary care physician or your dentist? The interesting thing is over half the time people say, I don't have a primary care physician. I go to the urgent care center and I just see whichever doctors there. But in almost every circumstance they can tell me the name of their dentist. Now it may have been 10 years since they've been, or five years or maybe it was Just last week. But it's interesting the relationship have that connection.

And here's what's great. Dentists doing diagnostic testing is going to help primary care. Right? Because if dentists are doing this testing, catching this information because they have a more regular cadence and as I said, I still think it's pitiful. I think we have so much more opportunity, it just happens to be the best in health care. Right. So we're kind of the best of the worst at this point. But if we can get that diagnostic testing, if we can find out this information, we can push that back over to primary care and then they can take it from there. So all it would do was expand our ability to get ahead and be more and more healthcare preventative oriented and less sick care, waiting too long, not knowing what's going on, oriented, which I know. Again, you asked how are we going to bring industry alignment? I don't think there's anything on these points that someone says that's ridiculous. Dentists shouldn't be able to choose their own support. Patients don't need access, health integration. Why would we ever want to do that and help the American public? So, I mean, these are things that when it doesn't even take much for everyone to say, yeah, of course we're aligned on that. Okay, well then let's work through the details. Let's make sure that we have alignment to take this all the way through the legislative process and really help America.

That's, you know, and one thing I've always appreciated about you is you approach every problem from an abundance mindset. This isn't about taking anything off the table for anybody in terms of being more integrated into the healthcare system or getting the whole healthcare system more integrated in general. I love how even your perspective is, again, this isn't taking anything from anybody. This is an abundance mindset. There's more than enough opportunity for everybody.

Always be appreciative of Dan Sullivan, who is a great entrepreneur, coach and mentor. And he said the only natural resource on earth is the human brain. Says oil was something that stuck to a camel's foot until a human brain figured out a better use for it. And I think that there's abundance everywhere in the resources we have and the people we have. And if we just think differently. Right. All of us have had paradigm shifts in our life. The tough thing with paradigm shifts is we have to believe something we previously didn't believe. So we all need to be open and humble to those things. But when those happen, it's almost like you're Unlocking a safe. And you're right, Ken, there's like so much more opportunity. Instead of clamoring over, you know, this piece of something, or why not just create a larger pie so that everyone can kind of feast off of it, right? And really provide great care. It really comes down to what does the customer need? And let's go after that. Which really brings me to my fifth and final point. And that is the future is coming, whether we like it or not. You know, it's just not something that we can stop. And it hasn't been private equity. It hasn't been DSO structures that driven this consolidation. It's driven by complexity. It's driven by clinicians wanting to have more convenience, more support. They have to pull this in, and they need that. They want that. And part of the reason they need it is because the patients are demanding more convenience. So I say the future is coming. It's got a big bumper sticker on it, and it says convenience. And really, we can step out of this conversation around the dental industry and just look at ourselves as customers, right? And how often are we like, what do you mean that restaurant doesn't deliver? You know, what do you mean it's going to take two days for my Amazon delivery? If they could get it to one, I'd switch over to that one, right? So all of us are entitled individuals that love the convenience that capitalism drives. The problem is for dentistry is that our brains don't say, well, here's the convenience I want from this industry, but over here, I'm okay living in the past, right? And so all of us have felt that pressure. If we kind of switch back into the dentistry hat that those customers are saying, wait, I can do this on Amazon, I can schedule this, I can

do this through this industry, or why

can't I do it with you? And here's the worst part. It's not even that they're going to go to another dentist, because at least they would be getting health care. If none of the dentists do it, they simply opt out of the industry altogether and they go back to playing Candy Crush, watching Netflix, buying stuff on

Amazon or any other.

So we've got to have an abundance mindset. We've got to have a future mindset. I warn people that are focused even on the DSO structure that if I use this analogy, that the DSO structure

maybe is comparable to the Walmart structure as these mom and pop shopping grocery stores started to consolidate to Walmart. You have to know if that's there, that Amazon's Coming next, I would encourage everyone to get less focused on that and more on a servant leadership mindset overall. What is the customer demanding and where do we need to go there? I think those five things are going to be my north stars for the next three years. I'd love to see at the end of this three year term that we have industry alignment, if we could be locked arm in arm, if executive orders come out, if different government changes happen, if we're all aligned together, even bringing the hygienist, bringing everyone on. We've seen what that divide does and it's not good for anybody. Make sure everybody's in the communication loop and we're all marching together, getting our self interests really aligned on team support, clinical support, patient access, and let's start integrating into healthcare so we can be

prepared for the future.

So that's what I'm excited about. Thank you for asking me about this candidate. You can tell I'm passionate about it. You know, I've had so much opportunity just being in all the different dental spaces, seeing the individual dentists. And I'll tell the individual dentist, you do not need to be a dso. If you want that team of support, that's awesome. You can get it through consultants, you can get it through, you know, a network like deo, right? Get a mastermind. Your net worth is going to be related to your network or. Right? So make sure you have a team around you. But most important, if you're bringing value to your clinicians, that is, if you've hired an associate, they expect you to support them. You might want to have a DSO mindset. From that point, they expect their computer to be working, they expect patients to come in, they expect the front desk to be hired.

Right?

All of those responsibilities. As soon as you hire an associate, you have DSO type responsibilities. But I would say to that individual practice, just make sure you're taking care of your customers, make sure you're taking care of the associate, make sure you're taking care of the patients and you'll be fine for the future.

So let me ask this, and this is, I'm putting the hat on of the listeners. We interact with the listeners to this podcast all the time on the DSO Secrets Facebook page and again, invite everybody to come and join there and join in the conversation. So if I'm listening to this and I'm hearing this and I'm thinking, I like Emmett's vision, I like where this is going. But Adso, it's too big, it's too corporate, it's too Far removed. It's not where I fit. Or that. How can they jump in and participate in this vision you've got? And what's the vision around how Adso can potentially accommodate somebody who's got two or three practices and maybe wasn't on the Adso type of list before?

So here's good news. We've already launched new memberships to be part of Adso because we totally believe that we've got to expand the tent. And so we now have emerging and associate memberships so that people can come in, get access, you know, rub shoulders, understand what kind of best practices have been figured out on the business side and utilize those to whatever degree they need for their communities. So that's something. You're right, Ken. That's been needed for a long time. You know, we're going to do a lot of work to help people understand that DSO is a mindset, not a business structure, not a legal structure. It's a dental support organization. Right. So that's where we need to play, is always just below the clinicians, making sure that we're supporting them along the way. If we do that, everybody succeeds. So, yeah, we're really excited to expand that tent out. So if you have a DSO mindset, I'd really encourage you to check out Adso. We're gonna continue to upgrade Access so that we can make it more convenient so you can do it online, those kinds of things. So we've got a lot of work ahead of us. But for those who are interested, know that that's coming.

Well, I really appreciate that. I love it, actually, because as I was thinking about these five things of alignment and focusing on that, you know, the clinical support element, the patient access, health integration, and then preparing for this future of everyone expecting more and more convenience to come at them. I was thinking about, okay, how does Adso fulfill that mission and drive that alignment and help the whole industry get to that point? So I love the fact that you're expanding the tent. You're expanding the borders, I should say, of the tent and inviting more and more in.

I think.

I think that's absolutely critical to driving the alignment.

Yeah. I think you could almost take my five points and even talk through them around expansion. I'd love to see over the next three years, we've expanded membership in Adso to include more organizations. There's going to be, like I said, lots of organizational types that are going to come to try to support clinicians better, to support patients better. So we've got to be better and better as an association. Here's the part where Adso is always going to have a part to play. It requires a business structure to execute well on clinical care. It's just the realities of the world we live in. And so we want to do the best we can to help with those innovations. We're seeing some incredible technologies coming down. You know, I just saw demos around X ray, AIs and so forth. So there's always going to be this business side where we need support at a regulatory level, we need support even at our practice level. I'd say the other thing is we've got to expand the number of people accessing care. We've got to get 35% to 70% and just double the entire industry for everyone and be able to compete against those distractions. We've got to expand the understanding of the role, the larger role that oral systemic care brings to the body. We're right on the cusp of that and we can do these. I think if we do those three things of expansion, Expand Adso, include more people, expand the number of people accessing care, expand the understanding of that systemic link, then we'll actually expand and improve the healthcare of America. It's amazing to be a part of where we can have that kind of impact. Like these are once in a lifetime opportunities. So I would say if you're saying, I'm a dentist, I'm a tooth doctor, that's all I want to be and do, then you're probably not living up to where we're thinking about going. Right? I think if you're a clinician, you say, I want a team behind me, I'm going to lead the way, I've got a vision, I want to integrate into healthcare. I think I could have more impact with the people I'm seeing. Get put a team behind me to follow what I'm doing, then that's where we're here to help you.

Yeah, that's one thing. You know, having participated in Adso for many years now myself, the way that it's opened up my mind and expanded the way that I think about things, the way I understand the industry. Anytime I have a new team member now, I make sure they're going to conferences and they're engaged in those kind of things. And then what happens is, is it means that the teams that I'm building are more and more empowered to more effectively support the doctors. And then obviously the doctors then work their magic.

Everything patient facing and Adso, I see it continue to be an incubator for More and more innovative solutions. I think there's clinicians out there who are going to say, I didn't like this part of how the DSOs of the 2000s or the 2000s were, or the 2015s, but I've got an idea to bring support that will be different. You know, we're doing that with ndp, the first open source dso. Right. So I think it's going to be an incubator for so many different ways to support clinicians so that those clinicians can provide better care. I think it's going to be fun to watch and you're going to want to be a part of it so you can see where the future is going to be. Cause again, those humans are going to continue to figure out how do we bring more convenience to the end customer and to the patient.

You know, I just, I want to finish on this thought. When I was the president, CFO of the Nomad business, the CEO and initial founder of that business that I obviously knew well and we worked very closely together, he was very interested in joining all the associations in dentistry, you know, so ADA and a bunch of other associations and participating. And I questioned him on it once. I said, why? Like what, why are we doing this? Is it really valuable or not? And he said something that was game changing for me. He said, ken, are we going to be participants in the industry or are we going to be leaders in the industry? The reason we get involved in these things is because we want to be part of the voice and part of driving. He didn't say it this way, but it's what he intended. It was to drive this industry alignment and help uplift everybody that's participating in the industry and create more and more opportunity, more and more value. And I think, I mean, if I was to again describe you just as an individual, but also the five points that you've kind of gone through here with your vision, it's all about expanding this horizon, creating more opportunity and trying to drive and help the entire industry be better for the sake of everyone involved in the ecosystem. Not, not trying to take advantage of any one individual or one group or anything else. It's how do we make it better for everybody in the entire ecosystem.

So yeah, everybody's going to have something really awesome to contribute. I mean, even the way we're talking about the dental industry doesn't give it credit for all the different lines of care that sit underneath that dental umbrella. Right there are those doing amazing work with geriatric patients and they're innovating like crazy there. There's some on the other swing that's doing amazing things with pediatric Medicaid patients. We've got to be able to be behind them and support whatever their needs are to solve really complex problems. Now with COVID 19, all this technology, regulation, change of government, the human component of HR and all of those things like we need to be behind them so that they can execute on that clinical care innovation that they want to bring. So I think it's very exciting if you think, well it's done, it's already baked, the story is going to happen a certain way and there's nothing I can do, then you're just not been in the right rooms. You've been on the wrong Facebook sites because there's a lot of green field and a lot of opportunity in this space to take it to the next level. Got to get past that. The past is in the past. It is changing. I understand that feeling of loss that can happen with any kind of change. But if you can turn around and see the future, it is going to be even brighter than the past. For those who want to write it, I love it.

I think we have got to end it right there. So well said. Emmett, you've been a phenomenal guest. Normally you're the host, but you've done a great job and let me ask my questions and kind of go through the whole process. I do want to make sure in my role as host here that I make I launch a very formal invitation. If you are part of the DSO Secrets Facebook group, please come there. We can keep this conversation going. If you're not, if for some reason you haven't joined that group, we encourage you to get there. Emmett's built up a really amazing group that is transparent and willing to jump in and open and share and ask questions and dive in and again, all of it from this same mindset that you now Emmett, are coming to the Adso presidency with. So I guess in wrapping it all

up,

I'm excited for the future and I think every hopefully everybody's listening is excited for where this is going. This is something that came to you because I think you're just value minded. Not like seeking it out, but trying to build and grow value. And so again want to thank everybody for participating and joining. Until next time, keep smiling.

Thank you for listening to DSO Secrets. Join our community on Facebook at DSO Secrets and get answers and resources to some of your most challenging questions. If you want to get a copy of the 7 Secrets of Anything DSO go to our website@dso secrets.com and we will get that emailed to you. Remember, don't go at this alone. Let us be your team while you build your team.