Michael Ayes is changing the face of dentistry by focusing on making his patients smile.

Statistics show that 50% of Americans are afraid to go to the dentist. Dr. Michael Ayes, CEO of Pennsylvania-based American Dental Care, wants that to change. Ayes joined forces with Dr. PG Patel in February 2006 to form a 12-location, multi-group, multi-discipline practice that, through technological and infrastructural enhancements, is changing the face of dentistry.

Dr. Michael Ayes, CEO

The company’s dentists had been compensated with salaries and incentives. Much of Modern Dental Concepts’ patients and providers worked on a pre-paid basis, leaving the company with a large amount of capitated dollars. To ensure each type of patient was given the same consideration regardless of payee type, dentists were guaranteed salaries with incentives so they could focus on the dentistry rather than compensation. Ayes’ goal is still the same, but the way to achieve the goal has changed.

“We are moving to only providing incentives and performance-based compensation,” he said. “We pay our doctors based on a percentage of collections as opposed to salaries. We didn’t reduce the compensation of those doctors who have been with us for years. In fact, this change gave them the ability to make more.”

Each of American Dental Care’s locations holds between 10 and 26 operatories. As well as offering general dentistry, most locations include endontists, orthodontists, periodontists, and oral surgeons. Ayes said the size of the locations enables patients who walk in or call in to be seen on the same day.

“When you have the right size offices and staffing numbers, you can see these kinds of patients because you have the room to bring them in,” he said. “Each location has multiple treatment rooms, and by doing all types of general and specialty dentistry, we distinguish ourselves in the marketplace.”

Make them smile
In 1995, Ayes’ reengineered Modern Dental Concepts’ infrastructure by developing three teams focused on the core of his business. The first was a patient satisfaction team that dealt directly with patients. The second team was focused on morale and motivation, and the third was called the Modern Dental Concepts’ Care Team. Because of the success of this project, Ayes decided to implement the same structure at American Dental Care.

“The focus of those teams is still a priority,” said Ayes. “I want our doctors and our patients to feel their needs are addressed.”

American Dental Care’s reengineering project began in February 2007. The patient satisfaction team is responsible for holding focus survey meetings with randomly selected patients to understand patient expectations, communication issues, and the effectiveness of the patient’s experience. The team then makes recommendations back to the leadership team.

“In our previous conversations with patients, we discovered that lengthy phone hold times, inconvenient appointment scheduling, and the wait between escorting a patient to the front desk from the dentist’s chair were patients’ biggest concerns,” said Ayes. “We have addressed some of these issues through our investments in technology.”

Before the merger with American Dental Concepts, Ayes wanted a paperless operation by June 2007. The first step in moving toward reaching this goal was the implementation of digital X-rays. The next was to find software that included voice recognition capabilities. Since February 2007, all 12 offices have moved to the voice recognition system. Rather than a doctor or an assistant writing a patient’s information into a paper chart, the doctor wears a headset that records all information and charts the patient’s treatment.

The system has both reduced overhead and improved efficiencies in the offices. “If one of our patients calls with an emergency, we can go into the system from any computer, look up their chart, and help them immediately,” said Ayes. “The days of making the patient wait until the following morning are gone.”

Healthy communication
The company’s second quality-control team focuses on the morale, motivation, and job satisfaction of the company’s employees. Employee concerns are identified and prioritized by surveys. Ayes said the results from the 1995 surveys were not what he expected.

The number one employee priority was to be paid accurately. Number two was benefits, and staff management communication was not far behind. Recognition and job security were also major concerns, but compensation, which he expected to be number one, actually ranked at number eight.

“Companies need to take a step back and hear what is important to their employees,” Ayes said. “If one person makes all of the decisions and receives no feedback, how do you know if your decisions are right or wrong? We realized as time went on we needed to be flexible in renegotiating our decisions.”

The mission of Modern Dental Concepts’ care team was to increase revenues and production through education and communication. American Dental Care’s care team may have another mission, but that decision will be in the hands of the team members.

“One of my goals is to have a culture of accountability and involvement,” said Ayes. “We want every visit to have a happy ending.”