Brian Heyndrickx, Independent Dental Solutions Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Prior to launching Independent Dental Solutions (IDS), a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) for private dental practices, I worked in medical distribution for more than 20 years. Like many other industries, medical offices, surgery centers and hospitals rely on an effective supply chain and procurement strategy to manage their operating expenses and stay competitive within the market (I define supply chain and procurement as everything a dental practice needs to run a practice, including supplies, equipment, lab and professional services). Since supply chain management plays such a vital role in so many other industries, I assumed dentists utilized the same supply chain principles – I was wrong.

While I knew the GPO concept was new to the dental industry, I was surprised to learn that very few practices made managing their supply chain a priority either. Currently the dental industry is about 30-40 years behind the medical industry when it comes to the adoption of GPO’s and supply chain best practices. In fact, many dentists still believe methods like price shopping online or buying from an e-commerce sites are sufficient supply chain strategies. They are not. After learning this, it has become my personal mission to educate dentists on the importance of using supply chain management and procurement strategies. To get started, I’ve compiled the “Supply Chain Check List” below, to enable practices to operate more efficiently and cost effectively:

Learn more about GPO’s and how joining one can help your practice operate more efficiently and cost effectively by clicking here.

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