How Bridge Dental Gives Practices Autonomy With Procurement

Bridge Dental didn't build its model around standardization. When a practice joins Bridge, the pitch isn't "here's how things work now." It's the opposite: they keep running your practice their way. Bridge handles the back-office work, such as accounting, HR, payroll, and recruiting, so dentists can focus on dentistry.

That kind of autonomy is intentional, and it's rare.

"You get to run your practice like you always have," said Jody Erickson, who oversees partnerships at Bridge. "You now have this great support team that can run your back end, but you still get to run it the way you want."

It's a model that attracts dentists who want the benefits of a larger organization, such as access to the resources, infrastructure, and shared expertise that Bridge brings, without feeling like they've signed over control of their practice. And it works, because Bridge doesn't push.

That autonomy can create tension when it comes to procurement.

As a DSO allowing practices to order from whoever they want, it’s important to ensure that they’re also getting the best rates for the supplies purchased. 

Bridge Dental has negotiated pricing with suppliers. That pricing is a meaningful benefit for any practice that takes advantage of it. But if a practice is ordering through a rep they've known for years, or through a vendor portal they set up before they joined Bridge, there's no easy way to know whether those negotiated rates are actually being honored, or whether the practice is paying more than they should be.

That's the gap that Bridge Dental uses Method to fill. "I know that when they decide to use Method, they're getting our negotiated prices," Jody said. 

Each new practice that comes on board gets an individualized onboarding session from Method's team.  They’re shown exactly how the platform works within the Bridge model, including how to access Bridge's specialty pricing and how to compare options at a glance. From day one, practices can see the value without being forced to use it.

"Method is one of the very first partnerships we introduce," Jody said. "We show them the value, and whether or not they choose to use it, that's up to them."

Most practices do. And for those that don't fully engage right away, Bridge follows up. They're currently running a training session for practices that aren't using the platform as actively as they could be, not to enforce compliance, but to show them what they might be missing.

For practices that do use Method, the feedback is consistent. The two things they come back to are cost savings and ease of use.

Being able to compare pricing across suppliers in one place, without logging into multiple portals or relying on a rep's word, changes how practices think about ordering. Once they've built out their order carts, the process that used to take an office manager close to an hour is closer to ten minutes.

"Once they get their [workflows] built out, it's so much easier for them and their people," Jody said. "But I would say cost is definitely the number one thing. Doctors like having the assurance that they are getting the best deal."

That assurance matters more than any single line-item saving. It removes a background worry that most practices don't even realize they're carrying and replaces it with confidence that the pricing they see is the best rate they can get.

Bridge Dental measures success at the practice level by whether a location can keep its lab and supply spend within the range of an "ideal practice.” They don't dictate how practices get there. But they give them tools that make it easier to get there on their own terms.

Method is one of those tools. Bridge has seen that practices that use it tend to stay within that range. Those that don’t are missing out on potential profits which Bridge can clearly see with Method, even when the practice can't.

"The best thing is being able to compare and contrast pricing at a glance," Jody said. "When they're not using Method, that's my worry. When they are, I know they're covered."