May 22, 2025 • 32 mins
What happens when an Amazon operations expert applies tech industry principles to dental practices? Daniel Jimenez, founder and COO of Stride Dental Group, reveals how his engineering background has enabled him to transform dental operations through automation, data analysis, and robust protocols.
Daniel's journey from defense contractor to Amazon project manager to dental innovator offers a masterclass in cross-industry learning. "I come from a world where change happens at a million miles a minute," he explains, contrasting this with dentistry's traditional resistance to new processes. Yet this resistance creates opportunity—implementing basic technological solutions immediately positions Stride Dental ahead of competitors still relying on manual systems.
The conversation explores fascinating operational innovations, including AI-powered phone systems, automated insurance processing that eliminates manual check handling, and standardized protocols that maintain accountability while preserving each practice's unique character. "My focus is to free up my staff to be present with patients," Daniel explains, highlighting how technology supports rather than replaces the human experience.
Perhaps most impressive is Stride's data-driven approach to performance. By tracking metrics like production figures, referral sources, and treatment acceptance rates, they've achieved remarkable improvements—including raising one practice's periodontal diagnosis rate from 2% to 59% through proper protocols and patient education rather than aggressive sales tactics.
As Stride expands from four locations toward a goal of 10-15 practices, Daniel's blend of operational rigor and patient-centered philosophy offers valuable insights for healthcare leaders across specialties. Whether you're running a medical practice, managing a healthcare startup, or simply interested in how technology is transforming traditional industries, this conversation demonstrates how bringing fresh perspectives from outside healthcare can drive meaningful innovation from the inside.
📱 Guest Contact & Social Handles
Daniel Jimenez
COO & Co-Founder, Stride Dental Group
📧 Email: daniel@stridedentalgroup.com
🌐 Website: https://stridedentalgroup.com
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djimenez21/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr Andrew Greenland (00:04):
Hello everyone and welcome back to
Voices in Health and Wellness.
This is the show where we sitdown with innovators, operators
and founders who aretransforming how care is
delivered, making it moreefficient, patient-centred and
sustainable.
Today, I'm delighted to welcomeDaniel Dimenes, the founder and
COO of Stride Dental Group.
Daniel's played a pivotal rolein helping Stride grow into one
of Florida's mostforward-thinking dental groups,
(00:26):
now expanding to their fourthlocation.
So congratulations for that,daniel.
With a strong focus onoperational excellence and
patient experience, danielbrings a unique perspective on
what it really takes to scale amodern dental practice.
So we're going to be divinginto all of that.
So welcome and thank you,daniel, for coming on to the
show.
Perhaps you could perhaps startby telling us a little bit more
(00:48):
about what your role is, whatyour business does and yeah,
that'd be a really good start.
Daniel Jiminez (00:54):
Absolutely.
And first I'll say that we'reactually one of our offices
today, so we have some peoplebehind us, so my apologies.
So yes.
So I'm Daniel Jimenez no worriesand medium-sized ones.
Our focus is on differentiatingourselves through technology
(01:27):
and through really, just reallyforward-thinking processes.
So my background I'm actuallynot a not a dental guy
originally.
I I'm an engineer by trade, somy background is engineering.
Worked in the defense industryas an engineer for 13 years and
then joined Amazon as a projectmanager there for about seven
years.
So my strengths are reallyoperations, execution,
(01:50):
scalability and, of course, I'ma big data and tech nerd.
So when I say that wedifferentiate ourselves with
technology, what I mean by thatis AI, automation, all of the
new cutting edge technologies indentistry from a patient
engagement standpoint answeringthe phones, confirmations,
(02:14):
reminders all of the stuff thatis adjacent to what our staff
should be doing in the office.
That's what I try to automateand try to take off their plates
so that we can focus on what wedo best, and that's engaging
with our patients.
Dr Andrew Greenland (02:28):
Amazing.
So what does a typical day looklike for you, now that you're
scaling across multiplelocations?
I think you're up to four now,so what's?
Your what's a typical day looklike, if there is such thing as
a typical day in your industry.
Daniel Jiminez (02:39):
Yeah, well, I would say so, our, our structure
.
Right now we have a regionalmanager that has a very strong
clinical background, so he ismore kind of my, he's my
right-hand guy, tactical, verymuch tactical in nature and then
myself.
So I'm really focusing more onsort of the business side.
(02:59):
Frankly, right now we have twoadditional practices that we are
under contract with and butwe're going through the due
diligence and the financing andthe account setups and the
lawyers and the asset purchaseagreements and the operating,
all of that stuff.
So I think that the balancebetween um working the
day-to-day operational stuff atthe practices with my, with the
(03:22):
help of my right-hand man,marvin um, and then the business
side, that's really kind of howwe balance things.
But ultimately, what I'mlooking at I'm a big data guy,
so I'm looking at KPIs such astop-line revenue, what's our
schedule look like, what's ourreappointment rate look like.
Obviously, as we have anybodythat walks in the door, we want
(03:45):
for them to leave with twoappointments, one for hygiene
and one with doctor.
So how do we, how are we, whatmechanisms are in place to
ensure that that's being done?
And so really just kind of highlevel, just monitoring things,
making sure that things aremoving in the right direction.
Today we had an emergency wherewe had one of our offices had
two of our dental assistantscall out on the same day, and so
(04:07):
you know scrambling.
There's technology that I useto request a temporary employee,
so I was able to do that and Igot two temporary employees
within an hour of finding outthat our folks had called in,
called out sick.
I should say so, I think, justkind of with that right, just
you know, handling theemergencies while really just
(04:29):
trying to drive the businessforward in terms of growth and
just scaling everything as we,as we hope, to get to 10 or 15
practices here in the next fewyears well, it's a pretty
impressive growth plan.
Dr Andrew Greenland (04:41):
So I imagine things have changed
quite a bit from going from wellone location to where you are.
For what?
What kind of things?
How has this evolved?
How has it developed from oneto where you are at four at the
moment?
Daniel Jiminez (04:52):
yeah, I think that I should.
I should explain thatoftentimes, when you have a
multi-practice group, there'sthis thought that they should
all be very similar, similarbranding, similar logos, and
that, in dentistry, is sometimesit can have a bad reputation.
Right, there's some of thereally large DSOs that have a
(05:14):
reputation of kind of you knowthey don't care about the
patients and that they treat thepatients like numbers, and you
know, I don't know how muchtruth there is to that.
I've never worked in thatenvironment, but I will tell you
you, I've hired many peoplefrom those very large DSOs and
it's and there's, there's notthere's a lot of kind of horror
stories, I should say.
So the reason why I tell youthat is because we're really
(05:36):
trying to differentiateourselves in a thinking in a
very different way.
Right, each practice that webuy should have its own feel,
right, some are large, are large, some are small, some have huge
staff, some have smaller staffs, and so that's something that
we're really trying to becareful about is to ensure that
when you walk into a practice,you don't look around and see,
oh well, this is obviously apart of a large chain, right, we
(05:57):
want it to have a private feeland we want it to be specific to
the area, the demographics andall of that.
So that's something that'simportant to think about as we,
as we continue to expand.
But to answer your question, Ithink that, um, the onboarding
process has just been, has beendifficult, right?
(06:18):
How do you, how do you findtalent?
How do you incentivize them tochoose your office over other
offices?
Because when you work at alarge dso, you have health
insurance, you have all kinds ofbenefits, and at the, when you
work at a large DSO, you havehealth insurance, you have all
kinds of benefits.
And at the smaller, you know,at our smaller size, we have to
find a way to be competitivewith those larger players.
So I think, you know, I'vehired probably in the last two
years I've hired over 50 peoplebetween our offices.
(06:41):
So that's been quite anadjustment between our offices.
So that's been quite anadjustment.
I think, also, you know,navigating my way through
technology has been really kindof, I think, maybe the most
surprising thing that I'veencountered.
You know, I come from a world,right at Amazon and Lockheed,
where there's just it's that youuse one primary technology it's
(07:01):
kind of cutting edge and andthat's just how it works In
dentistry.
Every week it feels likethere's some new player in the
market, something with some newservice, some new offering, and
so navigating through throughall of that and figure out, like
, what are the ones that I wantto try out, what are the ones
that would benefit our officethat has been definitely an
(07:22):
ongoing process, for sure.
Dr Andrew Greenland (07:27):
Got it, so you're obviously in the thick of
growth.
Um, what are some of thebroader shifts that you're
seeing in the dental space rightnow?
So, in terms of yourcompetitors or other people
operating similar things to whatyou do, yeah, I think the big
trend right now.
Daniel Jiminez (07:40):
So in the dental space, everyone, everyone, that
the dream I should say thedream is to go FFS, fee for
service Right.
So these are offices that havebeen around for a long time,
they've established a reallyloyal patient base and they're
at capacity.
They cannot, they have no roomin their schedule to add any new
, new patients, and so, as aresult, the first step that you
(08:03):
do is you begin to dropinsurance carriers Right, so you
drop some of the ones with thelowest reimbursement rates,
patients, and so, as a result,the first step that you do is
you begin to drop insurancecarriers right, so you drop some
of the ones with the lowestreimbursement rates, and then,
slowly, over time, you drop moreand more and more until you
really don't accept anyinsurance, practically any
insurance, and the patients thatyou have are so loyal that they
love the doctor, they love thehygienist, they love the
(08:23):
experience of being there, andso they're willing to pay out of
pocket to continue thatexperience.
And so that's sort of the dream, and my business partner and
co-founder of Stride DentalGroup he's at an office exactly
like that, where he's been therefor 14 years and they had
accepted all the insurances 14years ago, and here we are now
and they're completely fee forservice.
So it sounds really great,that's what everybody wants, but
(08:46):
it's very difficult to getthere.
So I think that that's justkind of balancing that trend of
accepting insurance andsometimes the reimbursement
rates are not what you want themto be but balancing that with
okay, well, we have to spendmoney on marketing and we have
to have the insurances so thatwe can fill our schedule, and
then we have to fill, fill, fill, fill, fill, fill till we get
to a point to where, again,we're out of capacity and now we
(09:07):
can have that next discussionabout dropping insurances.
So that that's really the bigtrend that we're seeing.
Um, and so we're.
We have our eye on that, forsure amazing.
Dr Andrew Greenland (09:17):
So I've had lots of conversations with
us-based businesses, not justdentistry but across the various
patches of niches.
Pretty much everybody says thatinsurance and the whole process
is a major bugbear.
How are you navigating it withyour processes, your technology
and your kind of approach?
Daniel Jiminez (09:35):
Well, again, I don't want to give away too many
of our secrets, but we haveagain going back to my
right-hand man.
I have.
We have again going back to myright-hand man.
I have as a regional managersomeone who is an absolute
expert in all things insurance,and that may not sound like well
, what does that mean?
I mean insurance is insurance,no, no, no.
Insurance by design is difficult.
(09:58):
It's not meant to be verysimple and you, oh you, just
submit a claim for a crown andthen it gets paid.
That's not how it works, and so, having somebody that is
intimately familiar with all theinsurances, the evolution of
the insurances, the loopholes,the pre-authorizations, all of
the ins and outs I have someoneon my team that is an absolute
(10:18):
expert in that area, so that hasbeen extremely beneficial.
Also, we have leveraged sometechnology that automatically
connects to insurance carrierwebsites and to our bank account
, and why that's important isbecause, in the traditional way
of doing dentistry, you have apatient, they come in, you
(10:39):
provide a service, they pay theestimated out-of-pocket amount
and then you submit the claim tothe insurance company and then,
weeks go by, you receive apayment from the insurance
company via the form of a check.
You take the check, you depositit into your bank account and
that's how you make money.
That's still being done,absolutely.
But that's just not for me asthe tech guy.
(11:00):
That's not my preferred methodof doing things.
So we've identified technologythat allows for payments to be
automatically posted.
That's not my preferred methodof doing things, so we've
identified technology thatallows for payments to be
automatically posted.
It's software, it's nothuman-based.
There are many services outthere where you can hire a
company and they'll do this foryou, but we decided to go with
software, so it's software.
Software doesn't make mistakes,software doesn't take vacations
(11:21):
, and so the software connectsto our bank account.
It sees that a payment wasposted via direct deposit.
It then can track that paymentback to which insurance company
it came from, and it'sautomatically posting that
payment to the patient's ledgerwithout any human interaction
whatsoever.
So that, right there, that is ahuge barrier opportunity for us
(11:41):
to kind of advance ourselves.
And then also, if there is aclaim that was denied or
something missing from it, thesoftware automatically escalates
it as a task.
So our staff, instead ofchecking claims and which claim
should I send next, they'resolely having to review the
tasks, the tasks of what needsto be adjusted, what needs to be
(12:04):
fixed, and so that has been anabsolute game changer for us.
The task of you know what, whatneeds to be adjusted, what
needs to be fixed, and so, um,that has been an absolute game
changer for us, and definitelywhen I mentioned that in some of
my dental group circles, uh,that's something that not many
people have have adopted yet, sowe're very excited about that
amazing, so um, I presume that'san ai by ai based um technology
from from the way you'redescribing it.
(12:24):
There is.
There is some AI involved, yeah, but this is actually a tech
company out of out of SiliconValley.
Dr Andrew Greenland (12:30):
They've been around for about five years
now, so it's, yeah, very robustteam of engineers that are that
are driving this so it soundslike I mean, you're very much
ahead of the curve with thetechnology in the way that
you're automating andstreamlining your practice.
I mean, would you say the sameis true about your other people
in industry, or are they verymuch behind and that's one of
the reasons why they're notgrowing or developing?
Daniel Jiminez (12:49):
well, that's a loaded question.
It's a loaded question.
Well, doctor, I'll say that.
Um, my experience in my sinceI've got into the dental space
is that change and nobody likeschange.
I understand that, but indental it does seem like there's
(13:10):
much more of these tribalprocesses that people are just
really not wanting to change.
And so, again, I come from aworld at Amazon, where we're
moving a million miles a minuteI mean change every day but you
get right to the finish line andthen you have to pivot and go
back the other direction.
That's just kind of the worldthat I come from.
So I'm not, I'm not.
That doesn't upset me, right,I'm used to that.
(13:31):
But in dental that's not thecase.
People are definitely much more, just just really opposed to
change.
And so, for lack of a betterway of saying this, I feel like
the bar is relatively low.
And what I mean by that is ifyou come in and you have a
forward thinking technology,mindset, automation, scale, ai,
(13:54):
right, that's pretty basic Inmost industries, as you know,
that's pretty basic, but indental I feel like,
automatically, that's acompetitive advantage right, oh
my gosh, you guys have automatedtechnology.
Oh my gosh, you use AI.
So, granted, that's acompetitive advantage, right?
Oh my gosh, you guys haveautomated technology.
Oh my gosh, you use AI.
So, granted, that's just mylimited perspective from the
people that I see, from thediscussions that I have, from
the conferences that I attend.
I talk to people, I share someof the things that we're doing,
(14:15):
and eyes are wide, eyes Like wow, that's incredible and it's
just like really Like, thesethings seem like things that all
of us should be moving towards.
But, that being said, we're notthat special.
I do think that maybe we'rejust a little bit ahead of the
curve.
I do think that everyone'sgoing to realize over time, the
(14:35):
benefits that come withstreamlining processes in your
office and leaning towardsautomation, and so I think we
were just maybe early adoptersof that.
Dr Andrew Greenland (14:47):
In terms of everything you've done.
I mean obviously a lot of techhere and I really like the
streamlining, the onboarding youtalk about.
Is any of this driven bypatient demand and expectations,
or is this because you wantedto sort of ultimately make your
practice and your group the mostefficient that you can?
I just wonder what clientexpectations are in terms of
dental clients, and are theysort of shaping the way that you
(15:08):
develop your business?
Daniel Jiminez (15:10):
Yeah, it's a good.
It's a good question.
I think my, my, my instinctualresponse to that is that it
really is not so much clientbase, right?
Clients, patients, want toschedule an appointment.
They want it to be very simple.
They want to be able to usetext messaging, if possible,
online booking, if possible, um,they want for conversations to
(15:33):
be very quick, they want forbilling questions to be very
quick, and so I think that Iwould argue that that's what
patients want anywhere, and soare we making decisions based on
that?
No, I think that my focus is, inthe simplest form, is to free
up my staff to be able to bepresent with patients.
(15:56):
When someone walks in the door,what is that experience?
How are they greeting thepatients?
How are they?
What's that?
What's the handoff right fromfrom being in the lobby to going
back to see the doctor?
What is that whole experience?
(16:16):
And if people are on the phoneand they're sending text
messages and they're, andthere's all these other
administrative tasks that needto be done, then it's taking
away from the patient experience, and so that, for me, is
unacceptable.
That is my main focus, and so,yeah, I think that, with keeping
that in mind and reallyfocusing on that.
It is causing some of ourpatients to have to adapt a
little bit.
Right, some of our patients,well, I don't like having the AI
on uh answering system or Idon't.
I don't like that.
You guys are sending meconfirmation text reminders.
(16:37):
It's like, well, I understandthat, but we have you know it's.
You know a good percentage ofpeople that if they don't
confirm 48 hours before theirappointment, they don't show up
to the appointment at all.
So we need to have textmessages and reminders and we
need to pick up the phone andcall them.
So, um, I think that, of course, most a lot of what we do is to
ensure that we are meeting theneeds and expectations of our
(17:00):
patients.
But if I were to say that thechoices in technology and all of
that, that wouldn't be accurate.
I'm really trying to doeverything I can to streamline
our operations so that thepatients can feel the benefit.
Dr Andrew Greenland (17:12):
Amazing.
So all the things that you'vebeen working on, which do you
think are the ones that you'remost proud of?
They're working for youoperationally the best possible
way, and which are the ones thatyou're still working to develop
to kind of fine tune or get tothe point where you're
completely happy with them?
Daniel Jiminez (17:30):
Yeah, I think that establishing robust
protocols across all differentlevels in the office has been
something I'm very proud of.
We, you know, oftentimes whatI've seen is people come in oh
you're a DA, you're a dentalassistant, perfect, okay, great,
well, let's get you to work andthey put you back there.
And it's just not as the formalworld that I come from both
(17:55):
amazon at lockheed martin, inthe defense industry it was very
concrete expectations, roledefinitions, job scopes, and so
I've tried to emulate that herein our business.
So now, so if you are ahygienist or dental assistant or
a doctor or a front desk staffperson, which we call patient
care coordinators, there is arobust document protocols
(18:19):
document that shows you whatyour job scope is, what the
expectations are, all the tasks,a checklist for you.
Everything is there.
So I think that I could takesomeone off the street,
theoretically, hand them one ofthose protocols.
These are the expectations, andso not only does that help them
from an onboarding standpoint,which is important, but also, if
they're not performing andthey're not meeting the
(18:39):
expectations, it's not asurprise, right?
Here's the document.
You signed this document.
We laid the expectations outvery clear for you.
We're here to support you, butobviously, if you can't meet
these expectations, this is nota good fit for you.
So having that mechanism foraccountability has also been
very useful.
In terms of your second part ofthe question as to what's not
working so well, I'll say that,and I feel like a broken record.
(19:04):
I say this quite a bit amongstmy staff.
I come from a world where, whenthe boss provides a mandate,
everybody does it right.
So this is what what the taskis.
The boss has said this is whatwe need to do.
So we're going to do thatbecause it's the right thing to
do, not just because the bosssays it, but because it's.
We know that it's the rightthing to do and that's right.
(19:25):
In dentistry that is really notthe case and I can't quite put
my finger on why that is.
But what will happen?
What I mean by that is we'llrelease a new process and it's
great and it saves time and itmakes life easier, and then
everyone gets on board,everyone's excited about it, and
for two weeks they'll do itphenomenally.
(19:45):
It's great, we love the newprocess.
And then in that third week,all of a sudden we've reverted
back to how we did it before.
So wait a minute.
We already talked about thisand so, as silly as that may
sound, that happens a lot, andso building there's a lot of
factors there, right?
Well, these folks are, these arehourly employees, right?
(20:07):
I mean, do they have the buy-inand the passion, like I do?
Probably not.
And so how do we balance that?
How do we create mechanisms ormaybe bonus programs or
incentive programs to wherepeople are incentivized to stick
to the protocols, to stick tothe things we put in place, and
so, anyway, that's definitely awork in progress, and so we'll
(20:29):
continue to streamline that andhold people accountable.
And performance reviews, forexample.
This practice that we're attoday we bought a year ago, back
in April of last year, it neverhad a performance review.
Not a single employee had everhad their performance evaluated.
They haven't had raises intheir pay.
I mean, those things areunacceptable.
We want people to feel valued,we want people to have an idea
(20:51):
of what they need to work on andas cost, as the cost of the
world increase.
So should, so should the pay,right, everyone should be
compensated fairly for whatthey're doing.
Dr Andrew Greenland (21:04):
So, um, anyway, that's the uh, ongoing
battle amazing any, anychallenges from coming from
previous industries, becauseobviously you've been sort of in
the tech spaces that youmentioned.
Obviously you're coming into ahealth care environment.
Has that been any challenges oris it something you're able to
snap through because you justapply basic principles to
another kind of industry?
Daniel Jiminez (21:22):
it's been.
I'll tell you it's been easierthan I would have expected and
and I should say that my claimto fame, as I call it, from my
time at amazon, um, I was a partof the original team that
launched the online groceryfulfillment for Whole Foods
Marketplace.
Whole Foods Market is a grocerystore.
There's some in the UK as well,and there's 512 of them, and so
(21:45):
my team we were the ones thatlaunched the online grocery
fulfillment, so you're actuallyordering groceries from home,
having them delivered to you.
So at one point I had in myregion, I had 6,000 employees
reporting up to me, 25 differentgrocery stores.
You know $50 million in weeklyrevenue.
So really just really largescale operations and so.
But when you really drill down,people are picking strawberries
(22:09):
and grapes and milk and eggsand they're making sure that
they're not broken and they'remaking sure, like these are very
basic processes that we managedto scale across 6,000 employees
in my region, across 25 stores.
So, at the end of the day,healthcare obviously very
different world, but there'sprocesses.
(22:30):
They're very they're discreet.
We need to ensure that peopleunderstand how to do them.
We need to hold themaccountable.
There needs to be data thatwe're using to make decisions,
not feelings, not observations.
Data right, Using data to makedecisions as to how to move
forward.
It really has been a mucheasier transition than I would
have thought, and I will saythere's so much data in
(22:51):
dentistry the procedure codes,the reimbursement rates so
that's my passion.
I love data, I love pivottables and queries and all of
that, and so I think being ableto leverage some of those
strengths that have helped me inmy past have made it much
easier for us to have a quickdiagnosis of how are things
(23:12):
going.
Are we making the rightdecisions?
Uh-oh, the phone answer ratehas dropped by 10%.
What are we doing to fix that?
Having those flags to be ableto dictate how we move forward
has been absolutely critical inour success brilliant.
Dr Andrew Greenland (23:27):
So, thinking ahead, maybe 6-12
months down the line, what doessuccess look like for you and
the team, whether it beoperational, patient outcomes,
patient experience, staffexperience, efficiency what are
you looking to achieve in thenext year or so?
Daniel Jiminez (23:40):
yeah, in the next year.
I mean I hope for us to be at,you know, five to six practices
total.
You know, positive, positivenet income.
Of course that that's that's arequirement you know I want for
the Google reviews.
Obviously we live, we live anddie by Google reviews in the
dental space and so having highGoogle reviews, high rates of
(24:01):
those, and, just, you know,having having great testimonials
from the patients enjoyingtheir experience, the doctors
being happy, the staff beinghappy, that's really the goal.
We've spent quite a bit of timewith our first two practices
building up the protocols, theemployee handbook, the culture,
the expectations, and so we'vegot it to a point to where we
(24:24):
feel confident that we can moveto the next practice and just
kind of copy and paste that samestructure, and so that's really
the goal.
The goal is to just continue togrow and, you know, have a
happy staff as difficult as thatmay be at times and, just, you
know, have an environment thatpeople look forward to coming to
(24:45):
work.
That's really, as cliche asthat may sound, that's something
that is important to me.
You know, life is short and Ithink that you know, getting
getting fulfillment from your,from your day to day is very
important, and if it wasn't, Iwouldn't be here, right?
That's.
That's part of the reason why Ileft the corporate world was
because, although I had a greatsalary, my, my, my manager was
(25:06):
over in Europe, so I had a greatfreedom, right.
But that's not.
That wasn't enough for me.
I wanted to feel fulfillment,and so that's what I have now.
In the dental space, I'm ableto see the faces of patients
that came in with a broken toothand they were in pain and now
we've solved their problem.
I mean, you do that 5, 10, 15,20 times a day.
(25:29):
That adds up quickly, right?
Those good vibes definitely addup quickly, so we're definitely
trying to increase that.
Dr Andrew Greenland (25:37):
Brilliant.
You mentioned being a data guy,so what would you say?
Your key metrics that you focuson are always looking to
improve.
I think you may have justmentioned a few of them.
I just wonder if there are anyothers that you really drill
down on Absolutely.
And also, they actually informyour growth, as well as to how
quickly you can grow 100%.
Daniel Jiminez (25:53):
So, number one, new patients.
That's an easy one.
How many new patients are wehaving every month?
Also, of those new patients,how many of them provided a
referral source?
It's very important that Iunderstand what my return on ad
spend is.
If we're investing a lot ofmoney into Google Ads and only
(26:13):
10% of our new patients arecoming from Google ads, well,
that's a problem, right.
Need to shift my funding Asidefrom that.
I you know top line, right.
So we in dentistry, we havethree key metrics of top line
production and revenue.
We have gross production, wehave net production and we have
collections.
Collections is the money thatwe make.
Production is what the doctorsare doing.
(26:38):
But then there's adjustedproduction because sometimes
there'll be a differentreimbursement rate, there'll be
a write-off, there'll be somesort of adjustment that happens,
and so that's what creates thenet production.
Aside from that reappointmentrate, what percentage of our
patients that we're seeing areactually being reappointed with
another appointment?
That's extremely important forour retention metrics.
(26:59):
And then, in dentistry, this isdefinitely specific to dental,
but this is something I'm verypassionate about is what we call
perioratio.
So what that means is about 60%of the population has a disease
that's called periodontaldisease and it's not a big deal
if you treat it.
It definitely can become a bigdeal.
But periodontal disease itrequires a gum infection therapy
(27:22):
, so a deeper cleaning and thenfrom there, instead of having
two cleanings a year, you havefour cleanings a year.
It's not something that's veryexpensive.
Most insurances cover it.
But from a diagnosis standpoint,it's very common that
hygienists will maybeunderdiagnose.
And maybe it's not that common,but I've seen it before where
hygienists are underdiagnosing,obviously with the doctor there.
(27:43):
So there's underdiagnosishappening.
There is, you know, the patientwill say well, I just want to
do whatever's covered by myinsurance.
I don't, I don't, I don't wantto do a deep cleaning, I just.
And so how are we?
How are we handling that Right?
Are we doing what's best forthe patient?
Are we?
Are we making exceptions?
And so, anyway, when weacquired this one practice that
I'm at now, for example, westarted out at 2% perio ratio,
(28:07):
which is very bad, right, itshould be 60%.
And over the course of the lastyear, just as of April of last
month, we are now at 59%.
So that shows me we've reallycome a long way in diagnosing
properly and then also ineducating our patients to make
the right decision.
We don't want to sell youanything, but we want to educate
(28:29):
you as a patient to say, hey,you require gum infection
therapy and if treated you'll befine, but this is what you need
to do, and if you don't want tohave, you know, if you want to
have your regular cleaning here,your healthy mouth cleaning,
that's going to be a problembecause we can't, that's
unethical, we won't do that, andso I think that that's really
important for us to have areally accurate understanding of
our diagnosis.
(28:49):
And then, lastly, there's lotsof other metrics, but I think,
lastly, high level is treatmentacceptance rate.
So, as a doctor presentstreatment to patients, what
percentage of that treatment arethey moving forward with?
Right?
Because if that number is low,that is an indication to us that
the verbiage that the doctor isusing, the urgency that they're
(29:10):
using, maybe is not right,maybe they're oh OK, well, you
know, listen, this may be reallyexpensive for you, but we don't
say stuff like that, right, wedon't know what's expensive to
one person versus another.
So how are we instilling thesense of urgency with our
patients?
How are we educating them tomake the right decision for
their, for their, for their oralhealth.
So those are really the keyKPIs that really provide insight
(29:34):
into the health of ourpractices.
Dr Andrew Greenland (29:37):
Amazing Final question If there's one
challenge you could wave a wandand solve tomorrow, what would
it be?
Daniel Jiminez (29:48):
I mean it has to be the phones.
We received so many phone callsand being able to.
I mean we have all the systemsin place and AI and everything.
But if I could wave a wand andI could have every single phone
answered by someone in theoffice and that could field the
(30:08):
question and that they'reknowledgeable someone in the
office and that could feel thequestion and that they're
knowledgeable, as opposed togoing to voicemail or the AI or
the call center and all that, Ithink that would be a huge
opportunity for us because, ofcourse, as you know the
opportunities, people, ifthey're receiving something in
the mail that says, oh, newdentist in town and they're
picking up the phone to call,there's no other outcome of that
(30:28):
call that would be sufficient,other than them scheduling an
appointment right and so, like,how do we get to that?
How do we really get to a placeto where every single person
that's calling looking for anappointment, we have all the
right information, we have theright dialogue, we have the
right phone conversations to getthem to schedule.
So that's definitely an areathat is difficult.
(30:49):
I think we've made lots ofprogress there, but if I had
that one, that would be my firstobjective.
Dr Andrew Greenland (30:57):
Okay, is that something you're trying to
solve in the wider business?
Did you have a sort of athought about how you're going
to get there?
Daniel Jiminez (31:04):
Yeah, I mean, we're relatively new into the AI
answering.
We've used call centers in thepast.
The thing that's amazing withAI is AI has a knowledge center,
so you can actually dictate itsknowledge base.
So if there's questions aboutbilling, or questions about
procedures, or questions aboutthe doctor whatever it is that
(31:25):
people are asking about you canprogram that information into
the knowledge base of AI, and soit won't make mistakes.
It will always go to the but,so but.
But there's issues there.
There's still issues, right?
For example, if you're speakingto AI and there's a pause, it
automatically will jump in, andso sometimes they'll be speaking
over each other, and so there'ssome kinks to work out.
(31:46):
It's the AI space for, for youknow, receiving calls and
fielding those calls is somewhatnew in dentistry.
So I think that, yes, I thinkthat getting to a place, to
where we're really happy withhow they handle the phone calls,
maybe they can reschedule calls.
Right now, our AI does scheduleappointments, which is amazing,
but if someone calls to cancel,it does not have the ability to
(32:08):
reschedule right now.
So that's a big opportunity forus as well.
So, to answer your question,yes, I'm doing everything in my
power to solve that problem.
But yeah, again, that is anongoing process, for sure.
Dr Andrew Greenland (32:21):
Daniel, on that note, I'd like to thank you
so much for your time thisafternoon.
It has been a reallyfascinating conversation.
Thank you so much for talkingso openly about what you're
doing in stride Really reallyinteresting how you're
leveraging tech and streamliningyour operation and wish you all
the best with your growth to Ithink you said 10 practices
where you're looking to go inthe immediate future.
I hope you get there as soon aspossible.
(32:42):
It sounds amazing, but thankyou so much for your time this
afternoon.
Daniel Jiminez (32:45):
Thank you so much.
Dr Andrew Greenland (32:46):
It was an interesting conversation.
Daniel Jiminez (32:47):
Thank you.
Thank you have a good one.
Dr Andrew Greenland (32:49):
Thank you.
Hello everyone and welcome back to
Voices in Health and Wellness.
This is the show where we sitdown with innovators, operators
and founders who aretransforming how care is
delivered, making it moreefficient, patient-centred and
sustainable.
Today, I'm delighted to welcomeDaniel Dimenes, the founder and
COO of Stride Dental Group.
Daniel's played a pivotal rolein helping Stride grow into one
of Florida's mostforward-thinking dental groups,
(00:26):
now expanding to their fourthlocation.
So congratulations for that,daniel.
With a strong focus onoperational excellence and
patient experience, danielbrings a unique perspective on
what it really takes to scale amodern dental practice.
So we're going to be divinginto all of that.
So welcome and thank you,daniel, for coming on to the
show.
Perhaps you could perhaps startby telling us a little bit more
(00:48):
about what your role is, whatyour business does and yeah,
that'd be a really good start.
Daniel Jiminez (00:54):
Absolutely.
And first I'll say that we'reactually one of our offices
today, so we have some peoplebehind us, so my apologies.
So yes.
So I'm Daniel Jimenez no worriesand medium-sized ones.
Our focus is on differentiatingourselves through technology
(01:27):
and through really, just reallyforward-thinking processes.
So my background I'm actuallynot a not a dental guy
originally.
I I'm an engineer by trade, somy background is engineering.
Worked in the defense industryas an engineer for 13 years and
then joined Amazon as a projectmanager there for about seven
years.
So my strengths are reallyoperations, execution,
(01:50):
scalability and, of course, I'ma big data and tech nerd.
So when I say that wedifferentiate ourselves with
technology, what I mean by thatis AI, automation, all of the
new cutting edge technologies indentistry from a patient
engagement standpoint answeringthe phones, confirmations,
(02:14):
reminders all of the stuff thatis adjacent to what our staff
should be doing in the office.
That's what I try to automateand try to take off their plates
so that we can focus on what wedo best, and that's engaging
with our patients.
Dr Andrew Greenland (02:28):
Amazing.
So what does a typical day looklike for you, now that you're
scaling across multiplelocations?
I think you're up to four now,so what's?
Your what's a typical day looklike, if there is such thing as
a typical day in your industry.
Daniel Jiminez (02:39):
Yeah, well, I would say so, our, our structure
.
Right now we have a regionalmanager that has a very strong
clinical background, so he ismore kind of my, he's my
right-hand guy, tactical, verymuch tactical in nature and then
myself.
So I'm really focusing more onsort of the business side.
(02:59):
Frankly, right now we have twoadditional practices that we are
under contract with and butwe're going through the due
diligence and the financing andthe account setups and the
lawyers and the asset purchaseagreements and the operating,
all of that stuff.
So I think that the balancebetween um working the
day-to-day operational stuff atthe practices with my, with the
(03:22):
help of my right-hand man,marvin um, and then the business
side, that's really kind of howwe balance things.
But ultimately, what I'mlooking at I'm a big data guy,
so I'm looking at KPIs such astop-line revenue, what's our
schedule look like, what's ourreappointment rate look like.
Obviously, as we have anybodythat walks in the door, we want
(03:45):
for them to leave with twoappointments, one for hygiene
and one with doctor.
So how do we, how are we, whatmechanisms are in place to
ensure that that's being done?
And so really just kind of highlevel, just monitoring things,
making sure that things aremoving in the right direction.
Today we had an emergency wherewe had one of our offices had
two of our dental assistantscall out on the same day, and so
(04:07):
you know scrambling.
There's technology that I useto request a temporary employee,
so I was able to do that and Igot two temporary employees
within an hour of finding outthat our folks had called in,
called out sick.
I should say so, I think, justkind of with that right, just
you know, handling theemergencies while really just
(04:29):
trying to drive the businessforward in terms of growth and
just scaling everything as we,as we hope, to get to 10 or 15
practices here in the next fewyears well, it's a pretty
impressive growth plan.
Dr Andrew Greenland (04:41):
So I imagine things have changed
quite a bit from going from wellone location to where you are.
For what?
What kind of things?
How has this evolved?
How has it developed from oneto where you are at four at the
moment?
Daniel Jiminez (04:52):
yeah, I think that I should.
I should explain thatoftentimes, when you have a
multi-practice group, there'sthis thought that they should
all be very similar, similarbranding, similar logos, and
that, in dentistry, is sometimesit can have a bad reputation.
Right, there's some of thereally large DSOs that have a
(05:14):
reputation of kind of you knowthey don't care about the
patients and that they treat thepatients like numbers, and you
know, I don't know how muchtruth there is to that.
I've never worked in thatenvironment, but I will tell you
you, I've hired many peoplefrom those very large DSOs and
it's and there's, there's notthere's a lot of kind of horror
stories, I should say.
So the reason why I tell youthat is because we're really
(05:36):
trying to differentiateourselves in a thinking in a
very different way.
Right, each practice that webuy should have its own feel,
right, some are large, are large, some are small, some have huge
staff, some have smaller staffs, and so that's something that
we're really trying to becareful about is to ensure that
when you walk into a practice,you don't look around and see,
oh well, this is obviously apart of a large chain, right, we
(05:57):
want it to have a private feeland we want it to be specific to
the area, the demographics andall of that.
So that's something that'simportant to think about as we,
as we continue to expand.
But to answer your question, Ithink that, um, the onboarding
process has just been, has beendifficult, right?
(06:18):
How do you, how do you findtalent?
How do you incentivize them tochoose your office over other
offices?
Because when you work at alarge dso, you have health
insurance, you have all kinds ofbenefits, and at the, when you
work at a large DSO, you havehealth insurance, you have all
kinds of benefits.
And at the smaller, you know,at our smaller size, we have to
find a way to be competitivewith those larger players.
So I think, you know, I'vehired probably in the last two
years I've hired over 50 peoplebetween our offices.
(06:41):
So that's been quite anadjustment between our offices.
So that's been quite anadjustment.
I think, also, you know,navigating my way through
technology has been really kindof, I think, maybe the most
surprising thing that I'veencountered.
You know, I come from a world,right at Amazon and Lockheed,
where there's just it's that youuse one primary technology it's
(07:01):
kind of cutting edge and andthat's just how it works In
dentistry.
Every week it feels likethere's some new player in the
market, something with some newservice, some new offering, and
so navigating through throughall of that and figure out, like
, what are the ones that I wantto try out, what are the ones
that would benefit our officethat has been definitely an
(07:22):
ongoing process, for sure.
Dr Andrew Greenland (07:27):
Got it, so you're obviously in the thick of
growth.
Um, what are some of thebroader shifts that you're
seeing in the dental space rightnow?
So, in terms of yourcompetitors or other people
operating similar things to whatyou do, yeah, I think the big
trend right now.
Daniel Jiminez (07:40):
So in the dental space, everyone, everyone, that
the dream I should say thedream is to go FFS, fee for
service Right.
So these are offices that havebeen around for a long time,
they've established a reallyloyal patient base and they're
at capacity.
They cannot, they have no roomin their schedule to add any new
, new patients, and so, as aresult, the first step that you
(08:03):
do is you begin to dropinsurance carriers Right, so you
drop some of the ones with thelowest reimbursement rates,
patients, and so, as a result,the first step that you do is
you begin to drop insurancecarriers right, so you drop some
of the ones with the lowestreimbursement rates, and then,
slowly, over time, you drop moreand more and more until you
really don't accept anyinsurance, practically any
insurance, and the patients thatyou have are so loyal that they
love the doctor, they love thehygienist, they love the
(08:23):
experience of being there, andso they're willing to pay out of
pocket to continue thatexperience.
And so that's sort of the dream, and my business partner and
co-founder of Stride DentalGroup he's at an office exactly
like that, where he's been therefor 14 years and they had
accepted all the insurances 14years ago, and here we are now
and they're completely fee forservice.
So it sounds really great,that's what everybody wants, but
(08:46):
it's very difficult to getthere.
So I think that that's justkind of balancing that trend of
accepting insurance andsometimes the reimbursement
rates are not what you want themto be but balancing that with
okay, well, we have to spendmoney on marketing and we have
to have the insurances so thatwe can fill our schedule, and
then we have to fill, fill, fill, fill, fill, fill till we get
to a point to where, again,we're out of capacity and now we
(09:07):
can have that next discussionabout dropping insurances.
So that that's really the bigtrend that we're seeing.
Um, and so we're.
We have our eye on that, forsure amazing.
Dr Andrew Greenland (09:17):
So I've had lots of conversations with
us-based businesses, not justdentistry but across the various
patches of niches.
Pretty much everybody says thatinsurance and the whole process
is a major bugbear.
How are you navigating it withyour processes, your technology
and your kind of approach?
Daniel Jiminez (09:35):
Well, again, I don't want to give away too many
of our secrets, but we haveagain going back to my
right-hand man.
I have.
We have again going back to myright-hand man.
I have as a regional managersomeone who is an absolute
expert in all things insurance,and that may not sound like well
, what does that mean?
I mean insurance is insurance,no, no, no.
Insurance by design is difficult.
(09:58):
It's not meant to be verysimple and you, oh you, just
submit a claim for a crown andthen it gets paid.
That's not how it works, and so, having somebody that is
intimately familiar with all theinsurances, the evolution of
the insurances, the loopholes,the pre-authorizations, all of
the ins and outs I have someoneon my team that is an absolute
(10:18):
expert in that area, so that hasbeen extremely beneficial.
Also, we have leveraged sometechnology that automatically
connects to insurance carrierwebsites and to our bank account
, and why that's important isbecause, in the traditional way
of doing dentistry, you have apatient, they come in, you
(10:39):
provide a service, they pay theestimated out-of-pocket amount
and then you submit the claim tothe insurance company and then,
weeks go by, you receive apayment from the insurance
company via the form of a check.
You take the check, you depositit into your bank account and
that's how you make money.
That's still being done,absolutely.
But that's just not for me asthe tech guy.
(11:00):
That's not my preferred methodof doing things.
So we've identified technologythat allows for payments to be
automatically posted.
That's not my preferred methodof doing things, so we've
identified technology thatallows for payments to be
automatically posted.
It's software, it's nothuman-based.
There are many services outthere where you can hire a
company and they'll do this foryou, but we decided to go with
software, so it's software.
Software doesn't make mistakes,software doesn't take vacations
(11:21):
, and so the software connectsto our bank account.
It sees that a payment wasposted via direct deposit.
It then can track that paymentback to which insurance company
it came from, and it'sautomatically posting that
payment to the patient's ledgerwithout any human interaction
whatsoever.
So that, right there, that is ahuge barrier opportunity for us
(11:41):
to kind of advance ourselves.
And then also, if there is aclaim that was denied or
something missing from it, thesoftware automatically escalates
it as a task.
So our staff, instead ofchecking claims and which claim
should I send next, they'resolely having to review the
tasks, the tasks of what needsto be adjusted, what needs to be
(12:04):
fixed, and so that has been anabsolute game changer for us.
The task of you know what, whatneeds to be adjusted, what
needs to be fixed, and so, um,that has been an absolute game
changer for us, and definitelywhen I mentioned that in some of
my dental group circles, uh,that's something that not many
people have have adopted yet, sowe're very excited about that
amazing, so um, I presume that'san ai by ai based um technology
from from the way you'redescribing it.
(12:24):
There is.
There is some AI involved, yeah, but this is actually a tech
company out of out of SiliconValley.
Dr Andrew Greenland (12:30):
They've been around for about five years
now, so it's, yeah, very robustteam of engineers that are that
are driving this so it soundslike I mean, you're very much
ahead of the curve with thetechnology in the way that
you're automating andstreamlining your practice.
I mean, would you say the sameis true about your other people
in industry, or are they verymuch behind and that's one of
the reasons why they're notgrowing or developing?
Daniel Jiminez (12:49):
well, that's a loaded question.
It's a loaded question.
Well, doctor, I'll say that.
Um, my experience in my sinceI've got into the dental space
is that change and nobody likeschange.
I understand that, but indental it does seem like there's
(13:10):
much more of these tribalprocesses that people are just
really not wanting to change.
And so, again, I come from aworld at Amazon, where we're
moving a million miles a minuteI mean change every day but you
get right to the finish line andthen you have to pivot and go
back the other direction.
That's just kind of the worldthat I come from.
So I'm not, I'm not.
That doesn't upset me, right,I'm used to that.
(13:31):
But in dental that's not thecase.
People are definitely much more, just just really opposed to
change.
And so, for lack of a betterway of saying this, I feel like
the bar is relatively low.
And what I mean by that is ifyou come in and you have a
forward thinking technology,mindset, automation, scale, ai,
(13:54):
right, that's pretty basic Inmost industries, as you know,
that's pretty basic, but indental I feel like,
automatically, that's acompetitive advantage right, oh
my gosh, you guys have automatedtechnology.
Oh my gosh, you use AI.
So, granted, that's acompetitive advantage, right?
Oh my gosh, you guys haveautomated technology.
Oh my gosh, you use AI.
So, granted, that's just mylimited perspective from the
people that I see, from thediscussions that I have, from
the conferences that I attend.
I talk to people, I share someof the things that we're doing,
(14:15):
and eyes are wide, eyes Like wow, that's incredible and it's
just like really Like, thesethings seem like things that all
of us should be moving towards.
But, that being said, we're notthat special.
I do think that maybe we'rejust a little bit ahead of the
curve.
I do think that everyone'sgoing to realize over time, the
(14:35):
benefits that come withstreamlining processes in your
office and leaning towardsautomation, and so I think we
were just maybe early adoptersof that.
Dr Andrew Greenland (14:47):
In terms of everything you've done.
I mean obviously a lot of techhere and I really like the
streamlining, the onboarding youtalk about.
Is any of this driven bypatient demand and expectations,
or is this because you wantedto sort of ultimately make your
practice and your group the mostefficient that you can?
I just wonder what clientexpectations are in terms of
dental clients, and are theysort of shaping the way that you
(15:08):
develop your business?
Daniel Jiminez (15:10):
Yeah, it's a good.
It's a good question.
I think my, my, my instinctualresponse to that is that it
really is not so much clientbase, right?
Clients, patients, want toschedule an appointment.
They want it to be very simple.
They want to be able to usetext messaging, if possible,
online booking, if possible, um,they want for conversations to
(15:33):
be very quick, they want forbilling questions to be very
quick, and so I think that Iwould argue that that's what
patients want anywhere, and soare we making decisions based on
that?
No, I think that my focus is, inthe simplest form, is to free
up my staff to be able to bepresent with patients.
(15:56):
When someone walks in the door,what is that experience?
How are they greeting thepatients?
How are they?
What's that?
What's the handoff right fromfrom being in the lobby to going
back to see the doctor?
What is that whole experience?
(16:16):
And if people are on the phoneand they're sending text
messages and they're, andthere's all these other
administrative tasks that needto be done, then it's taking
away from the patient experience, and so that, for me, is
unacceptable.
That is my main focus, and so,yeah, I think that, with keeping
that in mind and reallyfocusing on that.
It is causing some of ourpatients to have to adapt a
little bit.
Right, some of our patients,well, I don't like having the AI
on uh answering system or Idon't.
I don't like that.
You guys are sending meconfirmation text reminders.
(16:37):
It's like, well, I understandthat, but we have you know it's.
You know a good percentage ofpeople that if they don't
confirm 48 hours before theirappointment, they don't show up
to the appointment at all.
So we need to have textmessages and reminders and we
need to pick up the phone andcall them.
So, um, I think that, of course, most a lot of what we do is to
ensure that we are meeting theneeds and expectations of our
(17:00):
patients.
But if I were to say that thechoices in technology and all of
that, that wouldn't be accurate.
I'm really trying to doeverything I can to streamline
our operations so that thepatients can feel the benefit.
Dr Andrew Greenland (17:12):
Amazing.
So all the things that you'vebeen working on, which do you
think are the ones that you'remost proud of?
They're working for youoperationally the best possible
way, and which are the ones thatyou're still working to develop
to kind of fine tune or get tothe point where you're
completely happy with them?
Daniel Jiminez (17:30):
Yeah, I think that establishing robust
protocols across all differentlevels in the office has been
something I'm very proud of.
We, you know, oftentimes whatI've seen is people come in oh
you're a DA, you're a dentalassistant, perfect, okay, great,
well, let's get you to work andthey put you back there.
And it's just not as the formalworld that I come from both
(17:55):
amazon at lockheed martin, inthe defense industry it was very
concrete expectations, roledefinitions, job scopes, and so
I've tried to emulate that herein our business.
So now, so if you are ahygienist or dental assistant or
a doctor or a front desk staffperson, which we call patient
care coordinators, there is arobust document protocols
(18:19):
document that shows you whatyour job scope is, what the
expectations are, all the tasks,a checklist for you.
Everything is there.
So I think that I could takesomeone off the street,
theoretically, hand them one ofthose protocols.
These are the expectations, andso not only does that help them
from an onboarding standpoint,which is important, but also, if
they're not performing andthey're not meeting the
(18:39):
expectations, it's not asurprise, right?
Here's the document.
You signed this document.
We laid the expectations outvery clear for you.
We're here to support you, butobviously, if you can't meet
these expectations, this is nota good fit for you.
So having that mechanism foraccountability has also been
very useful.
In terms of your second part ofthe question as to what's not
working so well, I'll say that,and I feel like a broken record.
(19:04):
I say this quite a bit amongstmy staff.
I come from a world where, whenthe boss provides a mandate,
everybody does it right.
So this is what what the taskis.
The boss has said this is whatwe need to do.
So we're going to do thatbecause it's the right thing to
do, not just because the bosssays it, but because it's.
We know that it's the rightthing to do and that's right.
(19:25):
In dentistry that is really notthe case and I can't quite put
my finger on why that is.
But what will happen?
What I mean by that is we'llrelease a new process and it's
great and it saves time and itmakes life easier, and then
everyone gets on board,everyone's excited about it, and
for two weeks they'll do itphenomenally.
(19:45):
It's great, we love the newprocess.
And then in that third week,all of a sudden we've reverted
back to how we did it before.
So wait a minute.
We already talked about thisand so, as silly as that may
sound, that happens a lot, andso building there's a lot of
factors there, right?
Well, these folks are, these arehourly employees, right?
(20:07):
I mean, do they have the buy-inand the passion, like I do?
Probably not.
And so how do we balance that?
How do we create mechanisms ormaybe bonus programs or
incentive programs to wherepeople are incentivized to stick
to the protocols, to stick tothe things we put in place, and
so, anyway, that's definitely awork in progress, and so we'll
(20:29):
continue to streamline that andhold people accountable.
And performance reviews, forexample.
This practice that we're attoday we bought a year ago, back
in April of last year, it neverhad a performance review.
Not a single employee had everhad their performance evaluated.
They haven't had raises intheir pay.
I mean, those things areunacceptable.
We want people to feel valued,we want people to have an idea
(20:51):
of what they need to work on andas cost, as the cost of the
world increase.
So should, so should the pay,right, everyone should be
compensated fairly for whatthey're doing.
Dr Andrew Greenland (21:04):
So, um, anyway, that's the uh, ongoing
battle amazing any, anychallenges from coming from
previous industries, becauseobviously you've been sort of in
the tech spaces that youmentioned.
Obviously you're coming into ahealth care environment.
Has that been any challenges oris it something you're able to
snap through because you justapply basic principles to
another kind of industry?
Daniel Jiminez (21:22):
it's been.
I'll tell you it's been easierthan I would have expected and
and I should say that my claimto fame, as I call it, from my
time at amazon, um, I was a partof the original team that
launched the online groceryfulfillment for Whole Foods
Marketplace.
Whole Foods Market is a grocerystore.
There's some in the UK as well,and there's 512 of them, and so
(21:45):
my team we were the ones thatlaunched the online grocery
fulfillment, so you're actuallyordering groceries from home,
having them delivered to you.
So at one point I had in myregion, I had 6,000 employees
reporting up to me, 25 differentgrocery stores.
You know $50 million in weeklyrevenue.
So really just really largescale operations and so.
But when you really drill down,people are picking strawberries
(22:09):
and grapes and milk and eggsand they're making sure that
they're not broken and they'remaking sure, like these are very
basic processes that we managedto scale across 6,000 employees
in my region, across 25 stores.
So, at the end of the day,healthcare obviously very
different world, but there'sprocesses.
(22:30):
They're very they're discreet.
We need to ensure that peopleunderstand how to do them.
We need to hold themaccountable.
There needs to be data thatwe're using to make decisions,
not feelings, not observations.
Data right, Using data to makedecisions as to how to move
forward.
It really has been a mucheasier transition than I would
have thought, and I will saythere's so much data in
(22:51):
dentistry the procedure codes,the reimbursement rates so
that's my passion.
I love data, I love pivottables and queries and all of
that, and so I think being ableto leverage some of those
strengths that have helped me inmy past have made it much
easier for us to have a quickdiagnosis of how are things
(23:12):
going.
Are we making the rightdecisions?
Uh-oh, the phone answer ratehas dropped by 10%.
What are we doing to fix that?
Having those flags to be ableto dictate how we move forward
has been absolutely critical inour success brilliant.
Dr Andrew Greenland (23:27):
So, thinking ahead, maybe 6-12
months down the line, what doessuccess look like for you and
the team, whether it beoperational, patient outcomes,
patient experience, staffexperience, efficiency what are
you looking to achieve in thenext year or so?
Daniel Jiminez (23:40):
yeah, in the next year.
I mean I hope for us to be at,you know, five to six practices
total.
You know, positive, positivenet income.
Of course that that's that's arequirement you know I want for
the Google reviews.
Obviously we live, we live anddie by Google reviews in the
dental space and so having highGoogle reviews, high rates of
(24:01):
those, and, just, you know,having having great testimonials
from the patients enjoyingtheir experience, the doctors
being happy, the staff beinghappy, that's really the goal.
We've spent quite a bit of timewith our first two practices
building up the protocols, theemployee handbook, the culture,
the expectations, and so we'vegot it to a point to where we
(24:24):
feel confident that we can moveto the next practice and just
kind of copy and paste that samestructure, and so that's really
the goal.
The goal is to just continue togrow and, you know, have a
happy staff as difficult as thatmay be at times and, just, you
know, have an environment thatpeople look forward to coming to
(24:45):
work.
That's really, as cliche asthat may sound, that's something
that is important to me.
You know, life is short and Ithink that you know, getting
getting fulfillment from your,from your day to day is very
important, and if it wasn't, Iwouldn't be here, right?
That's.
That's part of the reason why Ileft the corporate world was
because, although I had a greatsalary, my, my, my manager was
(25:06):
over in Europe, so I had a greatfreedom, right.
But that's not.
That wasn't enough for me.
I wanted to feel fulfillment,and so that's what I have now.
In the dental space, I'm ableto see the faces of patients
that came in with a broken toothand they were in pain and now
we've solved their problem.
I mean, you do that 5, 10, 15,20 times a day.
(25:29):
That adds up quickly, right?
Those good vibes definitely addup quickly, so we're definitely
trying to increase that.
Dr Andrew Greenland (25:37):
Brilliant.
You mentioned being a data guy,so what would you say?
Your key metrics that you focuson are always looking to
improve.
I think you may have justmentioned a few of them.
I just wonder if there are anyothers that you really drill
down on Absolutely.
And also, they actually informyour growth, as well as to how
quickly you can grow 100%.
Daniel Jiminez (25:53):
So, number one, new patients.
That's an easy one.
How many new patients are wehaving every month?
Also, of those new patients,how many of them provided a
referral source?
It's very important that Iunderstand what my return on ad
spend is.
If we're investing a lot ofmoney into Google Ads and only
(26:13):
10% of our new patients arecoming from Google ads, well,
that's a problem, right.
Need to shift my funding Asidefrom that.
I you know top line, right.
So we in dentistry, we havethree key metrics of top line
production and revenue.
We have gross production, wehave net production and we have
collections.
Collections is the money thatwe make.
Production is what the doctorsare doing.
(26:38):
But then there's adjustedproduction because sometimes
there'll be a differentreimbursement rate, there'll be
a write-off, there'll be somesort of adjustment that happens,
and so that's what creates thenet production.
Aside from that reappointmentrate, what percentage of our
patients that we're seeing areactually being reappointed with
another appointment?
That's extremely important forour retention metrics.
(26:59):
And then, in dentistry, this isdefinitely specific to dental,
but this is something I'm verypassionate about is what we call
perioratio.
So what that means is about 60%of the population has a disease
that's called periodontaldisease and it's not a big deal
if you treat it.
It definitely can become a bigdeal.
But periodontal disease itrequires a gum infection therapy
(27:22):
, so a deeper cleaning and thenfrom there, instead of having
two cleanings a year, you havefour cleanings a year.
It's not something that's veryexpensive.
Most insurances cover it.
But from a diagnosis standpoint,it's very common that
hygienists will maybeunderdiagnose.
And maybe it's not that common,but I've seen it before where
hygienists are underdiagnosing,obviously with the doctor there.
(27:43):
So there's underdiagnosishappening.
There is, you know, the patientwill say well, I just want to
do whatever's covered by myinsurance.
I don't, I don't, I don't wantto do a deep cleaning, I just.
And so how are we?
How are we handling that Right?
Are we doing what's best forthe patient?
Are we?
Are we making exceptions?
And so, anyway, when weacquired this one practice that
I'm at now, for example, westarted out at 2% perio ratio,
(28:07):
which is very bad, right, itshould be 60%.
And over the course of the lastyear, just as of April of last
month, we are now at 59%.
So that shows me we've reallycome a long way in diagnosing
properly and then also ineducating our patients to make
the right decision.
We don't want to sell youanything, but we want to educate
(28:29):
you as a patient to say, hey,you require gum infection
therapy and if treated you'll befine, but this is what you need
to do, and if you don't want tohave, you know, if you want to
have your regular cleaning here,your healthy mouth cleaning,
that's going to be a problembecause we can't, that's
unethical, we won't do that, andso I think that that's really
important for us to have areally accurate understanding of
our diagnosis.
(28:49):
And then, lastly, there's lotsof other metrics, but I think,
lastly, high level is treatmentacceptance rate.
So, as a doctor presentstreatment to patients, what
percentage of that treatment arethey moving forward with?
Right?
Because if that number is low,that is an indication to us that
the verbiage that the doctor isusing, the urgency that they're
(29:10):
using, maybe is not right,maybe they're oh OK, well, you
know, listen, this may be reallyexpensive for you, but we don't
say stuff like that, right, wedon't know what's expensive to
one person versus another.
So how are we instilling thesense of urgency with our
patients?
How are we educating them tomake the right decision for
their, for their, for their oralhealth.
So those are really the keyKPIs that really provide insight
(29:34):
into the health of ourpractices.
Dr Andrew Greenland (29:37):
Amazing Final question If there's one
challenge you could wave a wandand solve tomorrow, what would
it be?
Daniel Jiminez (29:48):
I mean it has to be the phones.
We received so many phone callsand being able to.
I mean we have all the systemsin place and AI and everything.
But if I could wave a wand andI could have every single phone
answered by someone in theoffice and that could field the
(30:08):
question and that they'reknowledgeable someone in the
office and that could feel thequestion and that they're
knowledgeable, as opposed togoing to voicemail or the AI or
the call center and all that, Ithink that would be a huge
opportunity for us because, ofcourse, as you know the
opportunities, people, ifthey're receiving something in
the mail that says, oh, newdentist in town and they're
picking up the phone to call,there's no other outcome of that
(30:28):
call that would be sufficient,other than them scheduling an
appointment right and so, like,how do we get to that?
How do we really get to a placeto where every single person
that's calling looking for anappointment, we have all the
right information, we have theright dialogue, we have the
right phone conversations to getthem to schedule.
So that's definitely an areathat is difficult.
(30:49):
I think we've made lots ofprogress there, but if I had
that one, that would be my firstobjective.
Dr Andrew Greenland (30:57):
Okay, is that something you're trying to
solve in the wider business?
Did you have a sort of athought about how you're going
to get there?
Daniel Jiminez (31:04):
Yeah, I mean, we're relatively new into the AI
answering.
We've used call centers in thepast.
The thing that's amazing withAI is AI has a knowledge center,
so you can actually dictate itsknowledge base.
So if there's questions aboutbilling, or questions about
procedures, or questions aboutthe doctor whatever it is that
(31:25):
people are asking about you canprogram that information into
the knowledge base of AI, and soit won't make mistakes.
It will always go to the but,so but.
But there's issues there.
There's still issues, right?
For example, if you're speakingto AI and there's a pause, it
automatically will jump in, andso sometimes they'll be speaking
over each other, and so there'ssome kinks to work out.
(31:46):
It's the AI space for, for youknow, receiving calls and
fielding those calls is somewhatnew in dentistry.
So I think that, yes, I thinkthat getting to a place, to
where we're really happy withhow they handle the phone calls,
maybe they can reschedule calls.
Right now, our AI does scheduleappointments, which is amazing,
but if someone calls to cancel,it does not have the ability to
(32:08):
reschedule right now.
So that's a big opportunity forus as well.
So, to answer your question,yes, I'm doing everything in my
power to solve that problem.
But yeah, again, that is anongoing process, for sure.
Dr Andrew Greenland (32:21):
Daniel, on that note, I'd like to thank you
so much for your time thisafternoon.
It has been a reallyfascinating conversation.
Thank you so much for talkingso openly about what you're
doing in stride Really reallyinteresting how you're
leveraging tech and streamliningyour operation and wish you all
the best with your growth to Ithink you said 10 practices
where you're looking to go inthe immediate future.
I hope you get there as soon aspossible.
(32:42):
It sounds amazing, but thankyou so much for your time this
afternoon.
Daniel Jiminez (32:45):
Thank you so much.
Dr Andrew Greenland (32:46):
It was an interesting conversation.
Daniel Jiminez (32:47):
Thank you.
Thank you have a good one.
Dr Andrew Greenland (32:49):
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.