Gen4 Dental is an organisation that strives to be a true partner to dental practices. It is a truly dentist-first DSO, promoting excellence at every level and working to improve by at least one percent every day. Through mergers and acquisitions, the organisation is also growing at an incredible rate. This expansion and ambition requires a sturdy procurement department to support it. Enter: Rick Sisk, Director of Procurement at Gen4.
Changing the procurement landscape
Prior to Sisk joining Gen4 Dental, the procurement landscape certainly wasn’t what it is today. The organisation has grown so quickly in its short lifetime. Sisk says that Gen4 has expanded so rapidly in a way that had the potential to cause problems. “When I came in, there was no real purchasing platform. I called my industry friends and said ‘hey, I need help’. We needed to start at ground zero. I had all these ideas and I was told that procurement was mine to shape. I was really excited about that.”
It was hard going, at first. Gen4 had months where several hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of expenses from previous months were coming out due to a lack of visibility over purchasing – something that’s vital for a DSO to avoid waste. “Many things were not working,” Sisk continues. “Getting a purchasing platform off the ground was a priority. That’s what’s allowed me to continue looking after procurement without a team under me.”
Upgrading the industry
One of the reasons that Gen4 Dental’s expansion and general improvement is to be celebrated is that the dental industry (and, more broadly, many elements of healthcare) can be resistant to change. It often falls behind in several business areas, including technology advancements. This can make it extremely difficult to make solid advancements. This not only makes life harder for those working in the industry, but trickles down to mean patients miss out. So why is this so common?
“One reason is just the common nature of change,” says Sisk. “They’re stuck in their ways. But the biggest reason, I believe, is cost. Within the last decade, expenses for dental practices have risen by around 7.7%, whereas revenue has grown 2.2%. Insurance reimbursement has been lowered in a lot of cases, meaning dental practices are getting less revenue, and COVID-19 was highly disruptive. Some people are in a position where they’re having to choose between their actual health and the basics they need to survive, and going to the dentist might feel like an expense they can’t justify, especially if they need anything more than a check-up. People tend to think of the mouth as being completely separate from the body, but they’re linked in so many ways.”
All of these factors have left the dental industry in a position where it can’t afford to keep upgrading itself, but this is something Sisk is working hard to alter. While changing the state of insurance is more of a political battle, he at least can work on lowering costs for dentists as much as he can – something his experiences in finance and procurement prepared him well for.
