The River Tree | Danny Chan
  • WELCOME
  • WRITING
    • DENTAL COPYWRITING
    • DENTAL BLOG PACKAGES
    • FEATURE ARTICLES
  • ONE STOP MARKETING
  • BLOG
  • CONTACT
    • BOOKING

Baptism of fire

10/6/2021

 
Selling his practice months before the Black Summer and COVID-19 proved a timely decision for Dr Jeremy Sternson.

By Danny Chan

The dynamic dental practitioner is a well-known figure in Victoria’s close-knitted dental circles. With a finger in every pie, Dr Sternson’s abbreviated bio contains more commas than the grammar police would be comfortable with. 

President of the Victorian Branch of the ADA; Fellow of the Academy of Dentistry International (FADI); Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne (UoM); Fellow of the Pierre Fauchard Academy (FPFA); Fellow of the International College of Dentistry (FICD); President of the Australian Dental Association, Victorian Branch (ADAVB); Deputy Chairman of the eviDent Practice-based Research Network, treasurer of the Evident Foundation; and Associate Investigator in the eviDent Implant Complications Project; Australian Dental Council Examiner;  Professional Assessor for AHPRA and the HCC. The list goes on.

On top of all that, Dr Sternson ran a thriving Melbourne CBD dental practice for 21 years as co-owner and Practice Principal.

Before asking if he requires eight hours of sleep like the rest of us, or surreptitiously keeps “time in a bottle”, you’d be somewhat relieved to find out that Dr Sternson has scaled back his practice involvement in recent years. 

Along with Dr Greg Barton and Dr Thomas Joseph, he sold the Melbourne Dental Group to practice acquisition firm, the Ekera Dental Group, in 2019. 

Time to focus

Dr Sternson’s primary motivation for the sale was, well, he needed more time. More specifically, he wanted to devote more attention to his original passion.

“I’d been a practice owner for 19 years and frankly the way compliance, regulation and everything was going, I found I was spending more of my time running a business than doing what I loved – dentistry,” he says. 

“Hence the idea of joining a corporate such as Ekera was attractive as it offered to take away the headaches of running a practice, allowing me to focus on why I became a dentist in the first place.”

Staying on as Practice Principal following the sale has deepened Dr Sternson’s appreciation for the practice buyer’s laidback mode of operations, and their robust back-end support. 

“Ekera has a very “hands-off approach” allowing the practice principals to continue to practice with autonomy and keep the practice running as it was – albeit with more efficiency and help from the Ekera team. 
 
“There hasn’t been much of a change except that now I get spare time in my day to catch up on things I’ve been trying to do for years.” 
 
The indefatigable dentist devotes a fair chunk of that spare time catching up on his multifaceted role as the ADAVB President, while championing practice-based research and advocacy work at the eviDent Foundation, where he served as past Chairman.
 
The Ekera difference
 
Hearing stories from industry colleagues, in addition to first-hand accounts from his vantage position as AVADB President, Dr Sternson admits he once held a “grim view” of corporates. It was Ekera Dental’s well-known “hands-off approach” that changed his mind. 
 
“The reason our practice had been successful in the past was not our waiting room and processes but the people that interacted and treated the patients,” he rationalises.
 
“Ekera recognises this and doesn’t want to interfere unless you want them too.” 
 
Since selling, the practice acquisition firm has helped the practice obtain accreditation and successfully managed a complex series of HR and COVD-19 issues.
 
“It has taken away all the things I didn’t like about running a practice,” he affirms.
 
“Our philosophy is still the same and I practice as I see fit. I can order what I want. If I want to entertain new technologies, Ekera can help me along that path.
 
“In Ekera, you deal with the people that run the corporation directly and they are honest and transparent.”
 
Dark time
 
The practice sale also helped see the Melbournian dentist through critical junctures and cope with unforeseen challenges, both professional and personal.   
 
Six months after joining the Ekera group, his house – recently upgraded with funds from the sale – and farming business at Mt Hotham in Victoria’s alps were ravaged by unusually intense bushfires, part of what became known as the Black Summer.
 
The Sternson’s dream house, built only nine years prior, and virtually everything on their farming property including budding trees producing their maiden crop, had been razed to the ground. Miraculously, two recalcitrant horses sheltering in a canyon, had survived. The family was staying with friends when the tragic event occurred. 
 
“It’s hard to explain what you feel when this happens.” Dr Sternson says, “ but it is like something has been torn out of you and the sadness is constantly there.”
 
“People often say they’re “just things”, but losing some things are like losing memories as certain objects spark feelings and fond memories of times past. It was a dark time for my family and changed our whole 10-15 year plan.”
 
Dr Sternson is nonetheless thankful for the timeliness of the practice sale.
 
“Not having the burden of looking after my practice at that time, together with the time I needed off, meant that I could help my kids with the reconciliation process and help them form resilience going forward,” he said in an interview published in the Ekera Dental Newsletter.
 
“Shortly after that, COVID-19 hit and we all know that story. It was good knowing Ekera had my back.”
 
Support in a pandemic
 
In a bizarre way, the pandemic lockdowns provided much needed downtime for the practicing clinician to attend to the clean-up and rebuilding process. A self-confessed control freak, Dr Sternson is in the middle of rebuilding an identical house on the same property, albeit to very high bushfire standards.
 
With Ekera Dental taking the driver’s seat at the Melbourne Dental Group, he was happy to relinquish the macro considerations and responsibilities of charting the way forward in these difficult times.
 
“When COVID-19 came, dentistry was definitely not normal: lockdowns, re-openings, and more lockdowns. Victoria was hit hard. It was great to be at the frontline in advocacy with the ADAVB and also to have Ekera there looking after the maze of HR issues that arose,” he says. 
 
“I would have been lost especially at a time when I was still coping with the tragedy. Having someone there to take care of the business gave me the freedom to rebuild my life and form strong resilience going forward.”
 
Going home
 
What little time Dr Sternson has left outside work and organised dentistry, he spends across a variety of leisure activities including fly-fishing, skiing (and all snow sports), hiking, mountain biking, white water rafting, kayaking and looking after his two recalcitrant horses.

At the time of writing, however, he has been busy coordinating the final re-construction phase of his house due to complete in a few months. It’s been two years since the fire, and the wait is almost over.

“I look forward,” he adds with a mix of excitement and poignancy, “to making many more family memories up there.”

    The
    ​Dental Blog Writer

    Danny Chan | Dental Blog Writer

    Danny Chan

    Danny is founder of The River Tree, a Multimedia Company based in Melbourne that provides Quality Content & Digital Marketing Services to Dental Professionals across Australia and New Zealand.

    RSS Feed

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    April 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    February 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    February 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008

    Categories

    All
    Dental Business
    Dental Fitouts
    Dental Laboratory
    Dental Plant Room
    Dental Software
    Dental Technology
    Dental Workflow & Efficiencies
    Funnies
    Interesting
    Video Production

    RSS Feed