The Role of Operations Director in the Procurement Process

Karla Santiago, Director of Operations for Oakpoint, has a background in business administration and operations in the healthcare industry. She spent the last six years in the dental industry focusing on the use of technology and the implementation of standard operating procedures to create efficiency in the areas of clinical operations and clinical procurement. She works in Raleigh, North Carolina.

DSOPro: Describe the Director of Operations function

As Director of Operations at the DSO level, we help support our practices in the areas of the front office, compliance, human resources, marketing, finance, and general operations.

During the integration process, we schedule a series of meetings with the doctor and the office manager to learn more about the practice’s daily workflows. We coordinate infection control and HIPPA compliance training and analysis, PPO analysis, and set-up of artificial intelligence platforms for data analytics that connect directly to the practice management software. In addition, we help with vendor management and the implementation of the procurement platform for easy ordering of clinical supplies.

We work with the doctors and their clinical team to establish KPIs (key performance indicators) to track the practice’s performance. We are available to support the practice manager on daily workflows, equipment purchasing, hiring, office renovations, data analytics, staff training and development, and any other areas in need of support. We collect the data, and we provide solutions and resources to help in areas of improvement.

DSOPro: Describe building a procurement or purchasing division

When building a procurement or purchasing division you first need to define the goals and objectives. For example: centralized purchasing, cost savings, data analytics/reporting, vendor analysis, contract management, etc. Building a procurement or purchasing division takes time. You have to take into consideration the size of the organization and the roles and responsibilities of the team.

As part of our goals for this year at Oakpoint, we are working more closely with the practices to help support the clinical purchasing of equipment and supplies. In my experience, meeting with vendors, evaluating products, comparing pricing, and other tasks related to procurement take a significant amount of time. Helping support the practices in this area creates more time for the doctors and clinical staff to spend providing patient care.

One of our main goals is to establish and grow relationships with the vendors and engage in conversations that will help leverage our buying power and economies of scale when negotiating prices and programs through Oakpoint instead of under an individual contract per practice. We are also working hard to standardize clinical purchasing across all locations and create an efficient process for both the practice and Oakpoint with the ordering and implementation of dental equipment. To this end, we have taken the first step by implementing Dentira’s procurement platform in all our locations. During this process, we were able to gather supplier data for each practice to really understand their needs and preferences. We have started conversations with main suppliers to create catalog pricing that will benefit all our locations. In addition, with the use of the procurement platform and visibility of supply spend, we are able to complete a more in-depth purchasing and product analysis. Having access to this information allows us to focus on strategic sourcing. Adding procurement support to our offerings will continue to add value to our current and future affiliates.

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That data will allow me to have strategic conversations with our vendor partners to help our Oakpoint practices. Let’s say, hypothetically, across the board we order at least 70% of clinical supplies from one supplier. We can then use the numbers to help negotiate a DSO-level contract that all Oakpoint practices can benefit from. When you have 30-plus practices, you can definitely negotiate a much better price than if you are negotiating for an individual practice.

As Oakpoint continues to grow, our goal is to add a purchasing analyst to our team that will help with purchasing and specific product pricing analysis. Having such a resource will be really valuable.

DSOPro: What do you see as the benefits of having a procurement platform?

There are a lot of benefits to using a procurement platform. It saves a lot of time for staff. For example, instead of having 10 different logins and ordering portals, they work with just one log in and one platform. You can conduct analytics within the platform, which can include purchase orders, processing invoices, and payments. It also gives real-time visibility to the practice’s supply spend. Instead of just waiting for your monthly expenses or your profit-and-loss statement to see how much you have spent, you can keep track of how much you’ve spent in the month so far and proactively take action if needed. It’s definitely a very powerful tool.

DSOPro: Describe your role at Oakpoint and how procurement and purchasing fit into that role.

Mick Janness, Oakpoint CEO, asked me to join the company as Director of Operations to bring in another individual to help support the practices in areas of operation. As Oakpoint continues to grow, Mick’s vision is to have multiple Directors of Operations with each supporting several practices.

During our initial conversations, I also shared my experience in clinical procurement during my time as Director of Clinical Operations at the University of North Carolina, Adams School of Dentistry.

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DSOPro: How has your previous experience helped in this role?

One of the first projects I did at UNC was to implement an inventory management software that tied into the entire clinical dispensaries’ workflow for the various student clinics. By doing so, we were able to reduce clinical supply expenses by more than $400,000. In addition, we centralized clinical equipment purchases to be smarter in pricing negotiations, which also resulted in savings for the organization.

This and many other experiences during my time at the Adams School of Dentistry, enabled me to develop a passion for both operations and procurement. It helped me cultivate long and successful relationships with vendors. It helped me understand the product preferences of the doctors for evidence-based material that would result in the best outcome for patient care. My time in that role was immensely educational and life changing. It’s where I found my passion for dentistry. I always joke that I worked at the dental school, but it felt like I went to dental school. Don’t get me wrong, my passion is the business side of dentistry, but I wholeheartedly appreciate all the education and support that the faculty, students, and my other colleagues gave me.

I continued to hone my operations and procurement skills when I became Executive Director of Local Start Dental. Local Start Dental is a 5,000-square-foot not-for-profit dental clinic in downtown Durham that provides tooth replacement services to veterans and underserved and low-income populations. It was still under construction when I joined, so I was part of the final stages of setting up and opening the clinic. My days were spent working with marketing and fundraising consultants to continue to create awareness, following up with donors, supervising installation of the dental equipment, and day-to-day tasks of making an empty space feel and function like a clinic. Being part of a start-up and helping transform a space into a clinic was very fulfilling. Especially working with many talented members of the dental community, executive directors of non-profits in the area, and many others who were all focused on providing service to those in need.

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For me, the past years have been about a lot of growth and learning. Each of these experiences prepared me to perform my role at Oakpoint successfully, working along with incredibly talented colleagues to provide the best support possible to our practices.

DSOPro: Tell us how it all comes together

There is a lot of value in taking care of the operational side of a DSO. We want doctors to be able to focus on patient care. That’s the key to success. We don’t want them to spend their time worrying about all the operational, procurement, or other backend tasks. We want them to focus on what they love, which is providing patient-centered care.

 

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About Karla-Marie Santiago

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Karla-Marie Santiago completed a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Puerto Rico. She has over 10 years of experience in healthcare including education and the non-profit sector. She has led the implementation of practice management software, procurement, and supply management platforms in various settings. Karla is a leader in digital transformation and focuses her strengths on execution and collaborative ownership of strategic initiatives to drive organizational change and industry compliance. She loves traveling, spending time with family and friends, wine, and Latin food. Growing up in Puerto Rico, she loved sipping a passion fruit mojito at the beach in a “hamaca” under the shade of a palm tree.

About Oakpoint

Oakpoint is a Dental Support Organization (DSO) that supports practices in the areas of human resources, finance, marketing, IT, and compliance, among other functions, in North Carolina and the Southeast region. Oakpoint was established in 2019 with only 2 practices and, to date, it has successfully partnered with 30+ dental practices. What makes Oakpoint unique is that it offers a culture of transparency, access to data, and clinical autonomy where our doctor partners are at the table with us driving growth side-by-side.