A note from the CEO

Honored and humbled – that is the best way to describe my feelings after listening to Nancy Frates speak at our doctors’ brunch. Nancy’s son Pete Frates, along with their family and supporters, better known as Team Frate Train, inspired the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and helped to raise $220 million for the ALS Association and its global partners. While there are many things about the Frates family story that are truly remarkable, what is most striking to me is how they faced an impossible challenge and came together to turn it into an opportunity to change the world. They accomplished this by coming together as a team, defining their mission and developing a passion to work together to accomplish the mission.

We have this same opportunity at 42 North Dental. We are fortunate that our challenge is not an impossible one, though it is certainly a tough one. The dental industry is getting tougher each and every year, with changing regulatory requirements, reimbursement pressures, rising costs and increasing competition. We have the winning model in dentistry, one that puts patients first every single day by providing convenience hours, multi-specialty care, and friendly, empathetic service. Our patients love the experience overall, and now is the time for everyone at 42 North Dental to commit to providing an even better experience for every single patient to cement our position as the dental provider of choice for patients throughout the Northeast!

To steal a line from Pete Frates’ affirmation – “don’t ever be afraid to be great!”

Geoff

The 27th Annual Doctors’ Brunch

On February 2, we hosted doctors from across the organization for our 27th annual Doctors’ Brunch. Congratulations to all of our doctors who were recognized with 42 North Dental awards for 2019.

• Director of the Year:  Dr. Matteo Giamarco, Gentle Dental Peabody
• Associate of the Year: Dr. Wendy Heinstein, Newbury Dental Associates
• Associate of the Year: Dr. Patrick Mangan, Gentle Dental Peabody
• Clinical Collaboration & Teamwork: Dr. Erin Hersey, Dynamic Dental
• Ethics & Professionalism: Dr. Geraldine Schneider & Dr. Scott Beckerman, Willow Run Dental
• Dedication to Continuing Education: Dr. Yonathan Dassa, Gentle Dental Brookline
• Distinguished Leadership: Dr. Shelby Cerulli, Gentle Dental Chelmsford
• Professional Commitment: Dr. Anna Reutenauer, New Haven Dental Group
• Excellence in Endodontics: Dr. Maryanne Irwin
• Excellence in Periodontics: Dr. Jose Oscar Colon
• Excellence in Oral Surgery: Dr. Donald J. Gass
• Excellence in Orthodontics: Dr. Natalia Hoffmann

As I mentioned, we were extremely excited to have Nancy Frates speak about her son Pete and her family’s inspirational path to raise awareness and funding for ALS research. She spoke about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised over $220 million for the ALS Association and its global partners.

Our doctors and HQ colleagues were inspired to support Nancy and her work with an ice bucket challenge of our own… and we made a video to share with everyone! We posted the video on our Facebook page, the Facebook pages of all supported practices, and on our Linkedin page. Nancy shared it on her Instagram page. We hope you will take a look and encourage your staff to share and like the post. We hope this video will raise awareness of this important cause as we share the video across our personal and professional networks. Don’t forget to tag #42northdental, #IceBucketChallenge, #StrikeOutALS, #TeamFrateTrain, and tag @TeamFrateTrain. You can also tag your practice name!

Watch Our Ice Bucket Challenge

Dr. Jay Pivor Memorial Award

In memory of the contributions of Dr. Jay Pivor, this award is to recognize an exemplary community service project focused on enhancing access to quality dental care in under-served communities. Dr. Pivor was the Dental Director of Gentle Dental Arlington for over 20 years and a founding member of our Clinical Management team.  He was known by patients for his skill, compassion and chair-side manner.  This award was created to honor and continue his lifelong commitment to human well-being through dental care. The 2nd Annual Dr. Jay Pivor Memorial Award was given to Dr. Jay Dworkin, Director of Southern Connecticut Dental Group.  Dr. Dworkin completed a Tufts Jamaica (GSL) Global Service Learning trip with a $5,000 donation from 42 North Dental.

Tufts Jamaica (GSL) Global Service Learning Trip.

2019 Practice and Doctor Awards

This past year, our supported practices and Doctors continued to win awards for excellence in patient care.

We would like to call out Great Hill Dental Boston (OBC) as a Readers Choice Regional Gold favorite; Gentle Dental Peabody as a Readers Choice Regional SILVER favorite; and Gentle Dental Boston (Tremont) & Great Hill Dental Somerville as Readers Choice Regional BRONZE favorites. Overall 29 practices won Readers Choice Awards. Here is a full list of Award-Winning Practices.

In 2019, an additional 14 Doctors were named Boston Magazine and Connecticut Magazine top Dentists.  This means that 51 different dentists have received this recognition over the past 3 years! These awards are meaningful to doctors and patients, and help showcase our excellence in clinical care. Here is a full list of our Award-Winning Doctors.

Please join us in congratulating all of our award-winners and their teams!

New Offices Join 42 North Dental 

This year we welcomed 16 practices to 42 North Dental. 6 of those practices are newly built (DeNovo) and 10 are affiliations with successful, reputable practices. Of the 16, we added 9 in Massachusetts, 1 in New Hampshire, 5 in Connecticut and our first practice in the state of New York.

Our DeNovos require a great deal of teamwork, from using data and models to select the best locations, to negotiation with landlords, hiring contractors, managing to a tight timeline, recruiting staff and doctors, and marketing aggressively to help build a new patient base. Each DeNovo grand opening is the result of a tremendous amount of work coordinated across multiple departments, and the work doesn’t stop there. We work to grow and develop each DeNovo until it has the active patient base and multi-specialty service to create a profitable, successful and thriving dental practice. I am also happy to announce that 5 of the 6 DeNovos are being led by Directors who were promoted from within our organization. This is a testament to our focus on helping doctors develop and enhance their careers.

Completing affiliations is also the result of teamwork. First and foremost is our standing in the marketplace. The excellent patient care and reputation of each and every supported practice makes it easier for us to start conversations with successful practices across the region. Once we complete the legal transaction, the hard work begins. We are proud of the commitment of our new affiliates as they help their doctors and staff navigate change and integrate into 42 North Dental. We also appreciate all of the folks in our organization that help to make this transition easier and more successful.

We are always interested in meeting with dentists that own high quality, reputable practices about joining the 42 North family and we pay handsome referral bonuses for introductions. Please email Greg Wappett at greg.wappett@42northdental.com if you know a great dentist that would like to discuss a potential affiliation. This year, we welcome the following affiliations:

Yankee Dental Congress

42 North Dental proudly represented our 74 supported practices at the Yankee Dental Congress this past week with a high-profile presence at the exhibition hall. Our focus was on recruiting talented doctors, hygienists, assistants, practice managers and front desk staff, and our recruiting team worked the floor of the convention for three straight days to support the practices. Dental professionals visiting our booth were very positive about 42 North Dental and the opportunities we provide.

2019 At a Glance

• Grew from 58 practices to 74 practices in 1 year, adding 16 practices.
• Opened our first DeNovo outside of Massachusetts and our first practice branded First Line Dental in Manchester, CT.
• Surpassed 1,225 employees across all of 42 North Dental including 243 doctors and 85 employees at HQ.
• Completed 253 Training, Development and CE events. That’s the equivalent of over 716 hours, or 18 weeks of Training to our supported practices.
• Completed 525,339 patient visits – over half a million visits!

2020 and beyond. What is happening on the healthcare landscape? 

Geoff Ligibel spoke at the Doctors’ Brunch about his experiences and thoughts on the future of healthcare. Here are some of his remarks:

I spent 15 years covering the healthcare space more broadly working with hospitals, physician groups, and doctors across the country prior to joining 42 North Dental as President & CEO. While some areas of healthcare are quite different than dentistry, driven by CMS, the dental industry has followed broader healthcare trends with some delay. What are the key themes in the US healthcare industry? Ensuring access to care; an excellent patient experience; price transparency; care shifting to retail and in some areas telemedicine, a lower cost, more convenient setting driven by technological advancements and patient demand for convenience. Every area of healthcare is focused on controlling costs, greater transparency on quality and cost for patients to make an educated choice.

The urgent care industry is a good example. I always ask folks when was the last time they visited an urgent care clinic versus a hospital ER. The urgent care sector reflects the trends in healthcare with a customer-first approach to medicine, and the growth has been explosive. It all starts with convenience for patients which includes expanded hours, capacity to treat emergencies, and extended scope of services. Starting with the Minute clinics at CVS and the occasional urgent care center, the sector has grown to include urgent care clinics run by large hospital groups like Partners and Beth Israel. The explosive growth and change in this sector of medicine has happened quickly, completely transforming the primary care sector in the past 5-7 years.

“This is the age of the patient as a consumer, where fast and convenient is never fast ad convenient enough.”  – Richard Park, MD. the CEO and co-founder of CityMD, a group of urgent care clinics in New Jersey, New York and Washington state, and president-elect of the UCA.

Dentistry is no different and dental patients are looking for this same level of convenience. At 42 North Dental, we have always believed in extended hours and multi-specialty care, and we are well positioned to continue to take advantage of the changes that are underway. We put patients first all day every day, and our brand of friendly, empathetic care is a winning model for patients. But we are facing challenges like everyone in the industry. Large dental payors are looking to cut reimbursement rates. Regulatory requirements are increasing every year. Technologies are changing rapidly. Costs, especially staffing costs, are rising. These things negatively impact our business results. We have to continue to grow and maintain profitability to make the investments necessary to stay competitive. And our industry is competitive. Make no mistake. Did you know Walmart is now providing dental care? Smile Direct Club is offering orthodontic solutions direct to consumer? Dental365, the fastest growing dental company in the Northeast, is open 365 days a year doing dentistry on Christmas Day and Thanksgiving. While we may not aspire to be “the Walmart of Dentistry,” these large entities are powerful enough to attract some of our patients, and to attract some of the new patients that might otherwise come to your practice.

What does this all mean for 42 North Dental?

• It means we have to embrace change, evolve and stay ahead in the market.
• We need to leverage our reputation in the Northeast to ensure we are providing the best quality and experience for patients.
• We have to work together to continue to make 42 North Dental a special place for patients, and the destination of choice for dental professionals.

We can stay on top by strengthening our partnership and staying true to our mission.

Together we are 42 North Dental and we are well positioned to change the face of dentistry and improve dental outcomes for people across the entire Northeast!