Dr. Stephen Cheung, a general family dentist, purchased the Sacramento CA area South Mills Dental practice a little more than four years ago. The 4-operatory practice has been in business for about 48 years, involving a series of other dentists who have since moved on or retired. Dr. Cheung is now the office’s only dentist, supported by a team of six hygienists, assistants and a front office person.
Dentistry as a Second Career
Even though his father and uncle are dentists, Dr. Cheung initially chose a different path. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences, he entered the field of Hospital Administration, and even earned a Master’s in Healthcare Administration.
“I climbed the corporate ladder [in hospital administration] for several years. It was fun and very enjoyable, but I realized as you go higher, the work-life balance isn’t very good.” – Dr. Stephen Cheung
Dr. Cheung aspired for the better life balance he witnessed his own relatives enjoying, so made the significant career change into dentistry. While continuing to work full time, he returned to school to complete needed credits, then began studying for dental school entrance exams. He was eventually accepted into University of Michigan School of Dentistry, requiring he and his wife to relocate from California to Michigan for the next four years. The experience was a positive one and they made lifelong friends while there, but were destined to return to the Sacramento area to be near their families, and to also start one of their own.
For a while Dr. Cheung worked as an associate for a Dental Support Organization (DSO). He appreciates how much he learned in the quick-paced environment, but knew that was not where he wanted to settle long term. After looking for more than a year for a dental office he wanted to own, Dr. Cheung purchased South Mills Dental in September 2019.
Standing Out in a Crowd
More so than in most states and areas, the California dental market is saturated with DSOs and clinics, along with a great many independent practitioners still in business. To help create an office feel and culture that differentiates the patient experience at South Mills Dental, Dr. Cheung and the team go above-and-beyond to exceed expectations by, for example, offering refreshments and coffee in the lobby decorated with fresh flowers, and delighting patients with small complimentary gift bags.
Even so, Dr. Cheung and the team know that most important of all is providing “exceptional quality, precision, accurate dentistry” and making sure patients know that. In addition, they pride themselves on being a true family-oriented practice. Although they do not perform specialty pediatric dentistry, kids are welcome, and they continue to treat them as they grow.
“It’s all about the patients. Our goal is simple but heartfelt. We want to offer top-notch dental care in a space that feels just like home. Every patient, every smile, every story matters to us. Using the latest technology and a bunch of friendly faces, we’re set on making your dental journey smooth, comfortable, and pleasant.” – Mission Statement, Stephen Cheung South Mills Dental
“I’m old school in the sense that we like building relationships with patients and keeping them long term,” said Dr. Cheung. “We’re kind of a slow-paced, light-hearted, family-oriented practice where we get to know everyone, learn their interests, and even joke around with them. We get a large number of new patients through referrals from our existing patients.”
A Top Practice is What You Make of It
Dr. Cheung believes being a Top Practice is what you make of it. Even though his practice’s Mission states “It’s all about the patients,” he acknowledges that setting and accomplishing financial and other performance goals is important, or else you may not remain in business to continue serving those patients.
From the beginning, Dr. Cheung also set goals at a very personal level. As he explained, “I have colleagues who want to be super GPs, and do as much in health care as they can. Others that want to grow their practices by huge amounts, and that’s great for them. But for me, it’s more about life balance; that’s why I switched careers.” For example, Dr. Cheung made the intentional decision to not work on Fridays so he has time to catch up on other important tasks, spend time with his kids, and tend to other life priorities.
He knows that running any kind of small business is difficult, and dentistry in particular is back-breaking work. Dr. Cheung feels that being a Top Practice should include making sure you have time for yourself and your family, and whatever else is important to you, such as hobbies, and taking care of your own health. The practice should be the means to an end that you have defined, and it should fit into your greater goals in life, not be in conflict with, or instead of.
eAssist Helps Ease the Burden
In order for Dr. Cheung to be able to take Fridays off, he works at making sure the office is running as efficiently as possible. He has found that outsourcing work to experts with the capability and capacity to do the work better significantly eases his burden as a practice owner.
When Dr. Cheung purchased the practice, the front office person had been working there for nearly 40 years. She decided that was her perfect time to retire, so he was faced with having to bring a new person in right away. Dr. Cheung was not only new to owning and managing a business, but admitted to having no experience with hiring, or even knowing what he should be looking for in a new employee.
The financial and performance goals that Dr. Cheung said were important for a Top Practice include such metrics as accounts receivable, aging, production, collection ratio, and others. At the time he bought the practice, those numbers were at certain levels. After a while he realized that was no longer the case − “I thought oh my goodness, things are slipping here! That’s when I realized that new front office hire wasn’t a good fit, and I hired eAssist to kind of clean house.”
Dr. Cheung was impressed with how quickly eAssist was able to turn the situation around. It was determined that some insurance claims simply were not being submitted, which was an easy fix. The ongoing benefit is that eAssist serves as an outsourced billing and collections team, so that Dr. Cheung doesn’t need to have an inhouse biller. Moreover, he appreciates the guidance eAssist offers to him – “From being a practice owner, to hiring a new person for that all-important front desk position, to having a more efficient workflow.”
Dr. Cheung came to recognize the front office as arguably the most important position in the practice – “You can swap the dentist in and out, just as they do at corporate practices, but you need to have a core front office person. Every cent, every dollar flows through the front, and it’s how we pay our staff.” Having eAssist on the South Mills Dental team has allowed the front office person to focus on the patient experience that is so important to the practice, and to collect from patients, and provide accurate financial estimates.
Separately, eAssist focuses on insurance billing and collections “so I don’t have to worry about that piece of it. And that’s the biggest reason why outsourcing billing is important – just as you could your marketing and accounting and IT – so you have experts doing it, and it’s one less thing you have to worry about.”
“For me to have one less HR burden or headache that I don’t have to deal with or worry about… that’s important to me. I know eAssist has other people, other bosses, watching my office to make sure that my insurance collections are up to par. For anyone on the fence about outsourcing their billing, I would definitely recommend doing it, and to eAssist in particular.” – Dr. Cheung
Words of Advice
Dr. Cheung’s best advice to someone fresh out of dental school is to “really take some time to choose the right associateship. You won’t necessarily find the right one right away, but you don’t want to get stuck in something that limits your experience so that you have a difficult time moving to your step. There are corporate models, and within those, there are chains that have different areas of focus; maybe one does a lot of root canals, but another does mainly extractions and brings in specialists; or, they focus on a certain patient population which tends to limit the types of procedures done. So, you really want to find an associateship that gives you the broader experience and skill set you’re looking for – whatever that is for you.”
For Dr. Cheung, when starting out at a DSO, that meant getting good at doing certain procedures and learning technology. But there were other things he didn’t gain experience in because specialists were brought in. So had he stayed there long term and then moved on, he would have been lacking the skill set and experience he wanted to have before buying his own practice someday.
He cited this example: “When I bought my dental office, the previous dentist didn’t do a lot of root canals. Because the associateship I went through hadn’t focused on that either, neither did I, and I was okay with that. But if that were your case, and if you had gained that additional skill and experience somewhere, then maybe you could grow your office by performing root canals, if that’s what you wanted to do. So, finding the right associateship is very important, and then deciding how to move on from that.”
Dr. Cheung’s second piece of advice had to do with practice ownership – “If you’re ready to buy a dental office, make sure you find the right one. There are so many dental offices out there with different models of how to make money, and how to see patients. Then it has to fit your needs, and what you’re comfortable doing. Honestly, all that is really hard to figure out. I’ve owned my practice over four years and there are things we have to work on every day. Every office is going to be like that, so do the best assessment you possibly can up front to find the one that seems right for you.”
