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Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

You cannot pour from a cup that is empty. You cannot take care of everyone until you have taken care of yourself. Because if you ignore things that nag at you, if you ignore taking care of your own self, it’s just going to compound. And the results of that can be disastrous. 

Corey Brown:

I'm Corey Brown and this is Provide: The Path to Owning It podcast where I sit down with trusted industry experts and Provide’s network to give you the tools and advice you need to take your practice ownership dreams into your own hands, from owning your own practice to expanding or improving an existing practice. We'll help pave the way for you to achieve your dental or veterinary career dreams and guide you through all the nuances of the practice ownership journey. Please make sure to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen. Today we are at the Greater New York Dental meeting in Manhattan and I have the absolute pleasure of interviewing Dr. Amrita R Patel who owns multiple specialty group practices in New York City. Dr. Patel serves as the new dentist member of the ADA Council on Dental Benefit Plans and the New York State Dental Association's Council on Ethics. She's an ADA success speaker, AAWD, an NYU CD alumni Association board member, and a 2021 10 under 10 winner, which recognizes new dentists who demonstrate excellence early in their careers. Amrita, we're very happy to have you. Thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Thanks.

Corey Brown:

That is quite an impressive list of accomplishments. Would you mind sharing your story and how you became so successful so early on in your career?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Sure. It's a funny story. So I have the pleasure of working for a parent. So I work for my dad and my father is an endodontist. I'm a general dentist and I actually wasn't involved in organized dentistry at all in dental school because in dental school I was most concerned about getting through. Many sleepless nights, crying into many Costco sized jars of Nutella. And one day our local component Dental society had an opening on their new dentist committee, and my father, who had been a member for decades signed me up. So of course I had no clue about this and I got a call the next day from the staff asking where I wanted my next meeting to be held, and I was like, what? I didn't sign up for anything, what next meeting? And that was kind of how I got my start. And that was at this point 9 years ago, and I haven't really looked back, but it takes a village of support. Definitely.

Corey Brown:

Yeah, absolutely. That's an amazing story. Thanks for sharing. Like you said, you own several practices with your father in Westchester County. I've read that you're very committed to working with New Dentists. Why is that such a passion of yours?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Yeah, so the story behind all of that is my parents came here as immigrants in the '70s for school and someone took a chance on them. I hear that story and I hear my father tell interviewees that story all the time because we get asked that. Why is it that you want to work very intentionally with newer members of the profession? And he says, well, 40 years ago someone gave me a chance. And so paying that forward is important to me in giving others a chance. And so that's what we try to live by.

Corey Brown:

Absolutely. And for dental students and those who are about to graduate, what recommendations do you have for them as they kind of begin their careers?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Get out there and learn as much as you can. Always be teachable. There's a lot that you don't know, but that's okay. The kind of age that we live in right now, there's a lot of really high quality education available literally at your fingertips. And a lot of states are allowing you to fulfill most of your continuing education requirements online. So you don't even necessarily have to take time away from residency, family, private practice, wherever it is that you are, you can access a lot of information very quickly. So make sure to stay informed and also don't be afraid to ask for help. And the power of mentorship definitely can't be understated.

Corey Brown:

Yeah. And looking back, is there anything that you would've done differently starting your career that our audience might find helpful?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Yeah. So in New York State, you have to do at least one year of a postgraduate residency program in order to get licensed. So I did one out on Long Island, and if I could go back and do things differently, I would've done a program in a different part of the country that I normally either would never have a chance to experience or maybe in a setting that was very new to me. And that's what I advise the newer members of our profession, especially the people that aren't necessarily geographically committed the way I was. Get out there and explore, apply to programs. Maybe in communities that you're not familiar with or in places that you might have been interested in living, you're never going to really get that chance again to be training and growing your skillset, be getting paid for it, and also be meeting people that could inspire you and lead your life in a direction that you didn't even know it could go in.

Corey Brown:

That's fantastic advice. How do you recommend new dentists handle the stress of trying to find that kind of harmony between their personal and their professional lives? I know that's a thing that you talk about quite often.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Yeah, it's like my kind of passion project and we talk a lot about finding your peace and what that means. And I think the main part of that is that it looks different for everyone and that's okay. So you hear a lot on social media and news articles about unplugging, literally unplugging from devices. Well, for some people watching a TV show is cathartic. FaceTiming with a family member in a different continent brings them joy, right? So finding peace is different for everyone. If I had to run a 10K or jog outside every morning, that would not make me happy. I find no peace in that. You look on social media and you see pictures of people looking very fabulous after their morning five or 10K, and I look at that and get stressed. That doesn't bring me peace, but that's okay. And so you have to live your life and be authentically you. And that's important to remember even on your downtime, do what brings you peace. For me, I go to Orangetheory in the mornings. I am very upset with myself at 6:20 when I drive there, but I get it done and it's done. And then I buy shoes between patients, but...

Corey Brown:

Fellow Orangetheory member, so I know the feeling. How do you find the time to do that though? You're busy with patients and the schedule's demanding.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

So I found that one of the things that I do, it's an exercise that I practice when I feel like I'm getting very overwhelmed with things, is I take an eight by 11 piece of paper, fold it in half the long way. On the left side, I write down everything I'm doing currently from small tasks like laundry to big things like need to change the office fee schedules for 2023. On the right side of that folded piece of paper, I write down everyone or everything as in a person or a group or a service that could be doing that task better than me. And oftentimes I'll find that there's a lot that I'm taking on that someone else or something else could handle better. And that's one of the ways that I self-check and manage my time.

Corey Brown:

Okay. Power of delegation then.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Yes.

Corey Brown:

Okay. For new dentists who have dreams of practice ownership, what would you suggest they kind of do early in their careers to prepare for that?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Yeah. When you're out looking for a job, right, because you want to be an associate or whatever it is that you want to do before you jump into practice ownership, I would look for an opportunity that provides mentorship, and I would ask the question, definitely, do you provide mentorship opportunities? Are you willing to go through cases with me? What about the business part of dentistry? I see a lot of people that advertise for jobs now saying that this is a work to buy situation. So if you are already sort of knowing where you want to be, maybe it's in your best interest to look for one of those. But I would definitely say to look for opportunities that intentionally provide mentorship.

Corey Brown:

Yeah, I think that's very important. Absolutely. Amrita, we've discussed your advice for dental students and recent graduates, but curious to hear your thoughts on those who aspire to achieve practice ownership and the tips you have for them. More with Dr. Amrita Patel after the short break.

I'm Corey Brown, and this is Provide: The Path to Owning It podcast. We are back with Dr. Amrita Patel as she shares her advice for aspiring practice owners and how they can become successful both personally and professionally. Amrita, as a new owner, what are some of the challenges Dentists can expect to face?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

I think the challenge that we all face newer season right now has to do with workforce shortages. It's definitely been an increasingly ramped up concern over the last 36 months, I'd say. We've seen it start to ease up slightly in my own personal experience, but from the feedback I'm getting from all over the country, it's definitely a very big pain point for people. And one of the other big challenges that we face, of course, is dealing with insurance reimbursements and what that means and how that impacts your practice in real time and then in the future. The contracts that you sign with insurance companies are just that there, they're a contract and there are services out there, and I say this so many times to new owners, please have someone that's a professional read your contract, crowdsourcing an opinion on social media is not the equivalent of a professional degree and someone looking at it with those eyes.

And there are services available, whether it's with attorneys that specialize in this, your state dental association, they can review the contract, but if you've signed it, you're a little bit stuck. And so we are seeing that insurance companies are dropping reimbursements in the face of rising costs, which is another challenge that new practice owners face. The cost of doing business no matter where you are, has skyrocketed. And how do you balance that against providing the best care for your patients, against taking care of yourself and your team members, against making sure that your practice is going to succeed?

Corey Brown:

Yeah. How did you overcome those things, workforce shortages, insurance reimbursements?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Yeah, so personally, we aren't in network with many plans, and that's because our practice is primarily made up of specialists. But I know that that's not the case for everyone. But one of the things that we definitely did and continue to do is when we get requests from plans about changing fee schedules or being in network or not is have a professional look at it, because even at this point, even with my father's guidance, that's not what we are, we're dentists. And so we definitely have professionals look at it.

In terms of workforce shortages, one of the things that I've found the most helpful actually is I go into a store, whatever it is, whatever I'm buying, gifts, the nail salon, the hair salon, and I have a really good experience with someone that's helping me, the person checking me out, someone's showing me around the store, and I ask them if they have anyone that has their personality that might be looking for a job. So we're not poaching from the place of business, but I say, "Listen, you were really helpful. I really enjoyed getting to hear everything you had to say. You treated me with kindness. I respect that. Do you know anyone that's like you?" And I often have found some really great people from there. And you know what? If you're trainable and teachable, I will take someone that has no experience over maybe someone that's more set in their ways and definitely over not having someone. But I've gotten some really great team members that way.

Corey Brown:

Yeah. when I was in the dental world and hiring, we would almost prefer somebody with no dental experience just because they do oftentimes bring in those bad habits and things that they've learned at the older practice that maybe don't align with what we're trying to do.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Right. And deprogramming is sometimes a lot harder than just starting with a blank slate.

Corey Brown:

Yeah, absolutely. What about rising costs? What have you done to tackle that?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Oh, this is a good one. So I now do all the ordering for all of our offices personally.

Corey Brown:

So that's on the left side of the paper.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

That is on the left side of the paper. And what's on the right side of the paper against-

Corey Brown:

Is you.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

...that is, well, we have a Google spreadsheet that updates every month. I did not set that up, our in-house marketing person did. And each office has an assistant that's in charge of maintaining supplies and they update that spreadsheet. So I don't do that. That's delegated to them. And if they want a specific brand name product, they must include a clickable link. So then when I do it's just click add, click add, click add. In the beginning I was driving myself nuts trying to hunt down all these loose ends. In fact, what is a red mixing tip? I mean, how many red mixing tips are there in dentistry?

Corey Brown:

Couldn't possibly be more than three.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

I mean there's hundreds and they all fit different things. And I don't know what we have. So it was actually a big item on my delegation list. And now that's the way we've done it. But when I look at things, I'm able to compare prices, figure out quantities needed, do we really need 17 boxes of large gloves or is this a typo? So right now I'm the one doing all the ordering. In terms of office supplies we've automated a lot of things on Amazon, subscribe and save which has been awesome. And also Costco. So that's what we've been doing.

Corey Brown:

That's perfect.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Yeah.

Corey Brown:

So speaking of this kind of practice management idea that's not really taught in school, what have you found to be successful that you could share with us today?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

So I think one of the big things that we get taught in school, maybe a little bit incorrectly, is communication. And communication is an art. And a lot of the times, conflicts and issues that arise, which can really turn your day, month, year, or career sideways can be resolved with communication. And if you want to be an effective clinician and practice owner, one of the things that I realized I was doing, and one of the things that I talk a lot about is communication is not talking at people. It's two ways. So I have an idea and I need to transmit it to you and make sure that you receive it the way that I am envisioning it. And so we have to agree on what is that we're talking about. If I told you that this coffee cup was a watch and I was trying to sell you hard on this, you'd think I was crazy, but if I can explain to you what it is that I'm trying to say, even a concept that might be foreign to you suddenly starts to make sense.

And then you might be a lot more likely to want to converse with me about it or to ask me more questions. And why do I bring this up? Well, it's really important when you have a team, which by the way is the backbone of your business that you want to empower to achieve a certain goal. And you have that goal in your mind, but you need everyone on board. And it's great that you know what it is, but until you can make sure that your team also knows and can execute what needs to be done, it's not going anywhere. And it's the same thing with patients. So you walk into a room and you say, number 20 has a PAR and is going to need endodontic therapy, and the code for that is D3320, and then you're going to need a post and that's 2954 and it's so bad that I know these codes.

And then you need a crown that's 2740 and that's going to be $4,000. And then you walk out of the room and say, "Sally at the front is going to take the payment and schedule." Do you think that patient's going to schedule?

Corey Brown:

No.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Versus using models, photographs, scans, whatever it is, whatever tools you have-

Corey Brown:

Diagnosis techniques, yeah.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Exactly, to show the person, to get them to agree that what you're seeing and what you're concerned about should be a concern to them. That's a communication skill and that's learned. And I would say that's one of the biggest, most important things that contribute to success and practice ownership.

Corey Brown:

Talking about kind of goal setting, how important is goal setting when it comes to getting your practice off the ground?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Great question. So dentistry and us dentists tend to be myopic. And what I mean when I say that is that we like to miss the forest for the trees. And so the space that we work in is often measured in millimeters, tenths of millimeters, if you're an endodontist like my dad, and you got to get it right that crown prep has to be right, that fill on that root canal has to be right, that implant has to be torqued down right. But when you sort of start to go inward a lot, you forget to look outward and see where it is that you're going. So you're starting out and you want a full schedule. You want your patients to be happy, you want them to be taken the best care of, and it's really easy to just get on that hamster wheel and never get off. And all of a sudden, 10, 15, 20, 30 years have gone by and it's like, well, what did I do and what's my plan?

So I think it's very important to intentionally check in with yourself. I do it on a monthly basis and see what it is that you're doing, what specific activities that are contributing to get you to where it is that you want to go. So I'll give you my personal example. It's very important to me to pay my blessings forward. So I have a platform, I'm very lucky and very thankful to my parents, but I wanted to make sure that aside from clinical dentistry and taking care of my patients, I was able to get out there and engage with the newer members of our profession in a way that maybe I didn't have or I wouldn't have had. So how do I do that? Well, okay, I work with organized dentistry, I work with other organizations. I travel for ADA success, I do things like this.

But you have to make sure that you allot the time for it and intentionally carve out time so that you know where you're going. You can't let your practice suffer. You can't let yourself suffer. And I'll say that again because I want people that are listening to hear it. You cannot pour from a cup that's empty. You can't take care of everyone until you've taken care of yourself. Dentistry can be incredibly isolating. I'm a hyper extrovert. I love my friends, I love my partner, I love what I do and I love that I get to engage with so many people. It's exhausting. And it took a long time to be able to admit that because admitting that means being a little bit vulnerable and we don't like being vulnerable. But that's where you learn to grow and that's how you sort of learn to stay on track. Because if you ignore things that nag at you, if you ignore taking care of your own self, it's just going to compound. And the results of that can be disastrous. So while we're all out here doing the best we can for everyone, please do the best you can for yourself as well.

Corey Brown:

Does that involve, you've talked about it a little bit before about setting those personal goals alongside those professional goals, intentionally carving out time to do that. How important is goal setting when it comes to both of those?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

I think it's really important because I think that time and life can get the best of you very quickly. I remember being a teenager and turning 17 and being so excited about it. And I distinctly remember like it was yesterday, my father walking in the room and saying, time is going to go by. 20 years are going to go by in the blink of an eye. And they did. And I think goals change and that's okay. So what you wanted 10 years ago might not be what you want now. Maybe you were content with being an associate for life and you've decided that you want to own. Well, there's resources out there available, you have to just go out and get them. And like we talked about before, they're more accessible now than they ever were. I think the other thing too is to find a mentor.

And what a mentor is someone that is able to see things in a way that maybe you can't because they've already experienced it and you're in the middle of it. Mentors don't have to be dentists. They just need to be people that live their life in a way that maybe inspires you or that you want to emulate. I've found people on my travels that have told me things and taught me lessons that inspire me. They're not dentists. And so I would say that when you talk about goal setting, make sure that you find mentors that can help you along the way and those can also change over time.

Corey Brown:

And how would somebody go about finding a mentor or somebody that they want to learn sets of things from?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

So I spoke at a ASDA leadership conference recently and I asked around the room who these students mentors were. And aside from faculty, some of the responses I got back were family members, not even parents, but just family members that had been through hardships and had come out stronger for it, people that they had met, yoga teachers, childhood teachers, friends. Two of my mentors are my friends, they're my best friends from dental school. One is in private practice in Fresno, California as an orthodontist. And my other best friend is division chair of general Dentistry at UCSF. So she runs all the student clinics and watching them live their life and navigate all the things that they juggle is inspiring to me. So different people can be mentors to you at different points in your life. I think if you're looking to start your dental career, specifically, a great place to find mentors, aside from trade shows like this is your local component dental society, because oftentimes those are the people that are really entrenched in the community. And if you're in a place where you know want to be for a little while or you might want to buy, sometimes they're the ones that have the leads and the guidance about what might work in that area and what might not, which might be unique to where you are.

Corey Brown:

Yeah. So for those new dentists who have started their practices, how would you recommend that they measure their practice growth? Are there certain KPIs that you look for to inform your next move when growing a practice?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Yeah. We track everything. If you can't track it and you can't compare it to something else, it's not true is one of the things my dad likes to say. So we look at statistics because we want to know what works. We want to know how many new patients are we seeing, where are they coming from, what are we doing that's working? What are we doing that's not working? We break down by procedure code, how many procedures we're doing, and then is that changing or is it stagnating? And then we track it month by month and compare it to the previous month and then the previous month of the previous year. And that's how we sort of measure growth internally. And then when we look to acquire practices or merge practices in, we look at the same numbers for those practices because we want to know, do they line up with our philosophy? Is this a practice that's been seeing 10 new patients for the last five years? If so, is there an opportunity for growth? Are they not doing any marketing? Are they referring everything out? So I think another thing that's important to note for new owners is I know we get caught up a lot in big numbers, but there's a lot of missed opportunity if that's all you go after.

Corey Brown:

Sure. And for those who have dreams of owning multiple practices like you do, what advice can you offer them that might be different?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Make sure that you have professionals advising you along the way. It's great to have your friends' opinions on things, but make sure that you have a really, really good team around you of professionals. I very strongly believe in team training. So a lot of these courses that you doctors go to, there is an opportunity for your teams to go as well. Make sure you bring your teams along because again, we're talking about a shared vision and it needs to be scalable. You need to be able to repeat it. And I use this example, bear with me. So if you get a quesadilla at Chipotle, whether you get it in New York, New York, Wisconsin, California, Florida, and no matter who it's made by what, whether it's someone that's 17 or 70, you're going to get probably the same quesadilla. So systems are really important. And that's where I was kind of going with that.

Your system doesn't have to be the same as everyone else's. What's your new patient flow? What's your treatment planning flow? Put it down in writing in words in front of you and then go over your vision with your team. They will be able to give you feedback on it, standardize it, put it in writing, and put it somewhere where everyone can access it. So if you're treatment coordinator or one of your front desk is out sick or you can't find a replacement because they've quit, which has happened to a lot of us recently, it's standardized. And so someone else can fill in while you're looking or while they're out and the flow doesn't get messed up. And that's one of the ways that we're able to do what we do.

Corey Brown:

Yeah. And I think having your staff understand, you talked about a little bit earlier, but the why behind you're doing these things and inviting them into the conversation and those team trainings and whatnot. I think that's super important. And then I would assume that it also helps build the culture of your practices, right?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Correct. I tell people that we're a family literally because we're family owned, but sometimes we're not all necessarily the most pleasant to each other, but we know why we're there and it's to take the best care of our patients. And so Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I was seeing a million patients and there was stuff jammed in kind of everywhere and everyone was going a little loopy. And it kind of got to the point where I was like, listen, these people all have to go to their families tomorrow. We're not around. I know it's crazy, but how would you feel if you were in this position? Right? A little bit of a recheck. So as long as you can sort of inspire that culture and people know the why behind what you're doing, growing your business, whether it's one or 20 is not difficult.

Corey Brown:

Yeah. I think that's fabulous advice. And lastly, what's the one thing, if you could narrow it down to one thing that new dentists can do today to start working toward this kind of harmonious balance between work and home life, what would you tell them?

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

We said it a little bit before, find your peace and work on yourself first. I had a lot of personal life turmoil. It took me my entire adult life to get where I am. Seeking professional help, again for your own self is not admitting weakness. And I know that we talk about practice ownership and we talk about lots of practices and success, but again, being vulnerable and getting help for yourself can only make you stronger. It can only help you find your own peace and be who you are unapologetically. Like I said, it took me a long time to be able to say that, but that's kind of where I'm at now.

Corey Brown:

That's fantastic. Well, I Amrita. We just appreciate you sharing your story. I think you're going to inspire a lot of new dentists out there, and we just wish you continued success in your career and hope that you'll join us again sometime.

Dr. Amrita R. Patel:

Of course. Thank you.

Corey Brown:

Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Path to Owning It . If you're ready to take your practice ownership dreams into your own hands, be sure to visit getprovide.com to pre-qualify and browse our practice marketplace or check out our news page for more helpful resources. The Path to Owning It is brought to you by the team at Provide with production assistance from Sarah Parky, and it's produced by Podcamp Media, branded podcast production for businesses podcampmedia.com. Producer Dusty Weiss, editor Larry Kilgore III for provide. I'm Corey Brown, thanks for being on the journey with us.

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