dental assistant

technician

patient coordinator

orthodontic assistant

dentist

Hero Practice Services

Work-life balance
Work-life balance for leadership at Hero Practice Services is a real struggle. Even if you're paid hourly, expect to be contacted during hours the office is closed and on scheduled days off. There is so much to be done there's no way to do it in the amount of time you're clocked in. It's likely a different scenario for entry-level staff, but retention is so strained that they are also often asked if they will come in on their days off. Decision fatigue is very real and by the end of the day I've been in the office for 12 hours. There's nothing left of me for myself or my family when I get home.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Hero Practice Services are below industry standard for how much experience I have and the same goes for entry level positions.

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Hero Practice Services, I think they need staff so bad that you have to be very unreliable and uncoachable before being let go. I suppose that's good for those who can stick it out.

Management
In general, managers at Hero Practice Services care about their staff and patients. At that level the work load is overbearing and I'm not completely surprised to see high turnover. Upper management (CO's who don't work at the office level) rest on their laurels of the company's mission to excuse low pay and chaotic work settings. "You can get through anything if you keep the mission as your focus." They're not wrong but expecting exponential productivity is why the company struggles with retention and satisfaction from employeess and the families they serve. The staff does not magically become super human by reminding themselves that we're here to help low-income children.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Hero Practice Services is mostly top-down. When the office needs help, reaching out to the right group/person will get you an answer. The rollout of policies and procedures is normal for large companies; higher-ups not working in practices make decisions and then management must quickly implement with 100% compliance. If you ask why a thing is done/changed you'll get an answer and it's usually reasonable. Sometimes higher ups ask what could be done better, but when an honest suggestion is made it's shut down swiftly. They're open to feedback but it may be falling on deaf ears. The thing that gets me through the day is actually the staff I work with. Through our mutual strife we find solidarity and humor.

Overall
My experience working at Hero Practice Services is valuable experientially because I had to push myself so hard to come even close to succeeding in the position. I've developed a certain grit I don't think I had before. I'm grateful for the personal growth, but in all honestly, it comes with great sacrifice to my work/life balance and mental health.

I am a current employee with this company.  While there are things I would like to see improved around the office, I love what I do. I have been with this company for a while and I don't plan on leaving. Our mission is the main focus for most of us and if you stay out of the office politics and worry about yourself, it is quite rewarding to be a part of it all. Management believes in the mission overall and keeps it at the forefront. In the medical field there is a normal amount of turn-over. But with our fast paced environment, that can sometimes feel amplified because we feel the pain when even one team member is gone. To be honest, its not for everyone. You can't be in your phone all day, you have to be there on time, you need to be accountable for your time management and attitude. Also, it takes a lot to work with children in general, and its hard to see toddlers with extensive visible decay because their parents never knew it was important to care for baby teeth, or a pre-teen who has never been able to see the board at school because their parents never knew they should have their eyes professionally checked. But thats why we are here. To educate parents and patients so they can improve their quality of life for the rest of their lives. Its a lot some days. But when you put the patients first and remember what you are there for, it makes the long days worth it. 

Some overall pros and cons are:

PROS: Average pay, rewarding feeling of helping children, decent office culture, bonuses, incentives, lots of benefits (401k, PTO, dental, vision, in house benefits, short term disability, long term disability, life insurance, dependent daycare account, flex spending, accident insurance), 7 paid holidays a year, most team members/ management genuinely care, and parents and patients are overall grateful and appreciative. 

CONS: We see kids so you are expected at work anytime kids are out of school, good work/life balance can be hard for some, seasons with long hours (spring break, back to school, fall break, christmas break), training program needs re-structured and updated, seems to be a lot of turn over with staff when we are really busy.

This company lost its center in ambition.
Told how to see patients by a revolving door of executives from retail stores that have absolutely no experience in healthcare. The senior executives do not have credentials for their given positions. Cover up by spending all their time writing long team spam emails or calls that only repeat cult phrases like grace and agility while staff are leaving faster than they can be replaced and no problems solved. 
Management diminish doctors by calling them by first names and subordinating to every person off the street willing to be a manager for 6 months. You are a production worker.  Owner doctors are paper tigers with no authority whatsoever. I never even took my own kids to the dental side because all of the staff have worked there less than 6 months, always.  It’s sad because the need for access to care is so great and it could be so much better in the capable hands. There are talented people involved but anyone that had real experience were eventually gotten rid of or reduced in their roles
There also is extreme favoritism based upon age gender and appearance. Some providers can’t take time off for a simple doctors appointment without extreme hassle and stress while others come and go without a word for no reason at all, just work part days and leave with no consequence. Job is only a good fit for you if you don’t have children or a family because the expectation is that you have life no other life than Hero, or your aren’t playing ball.

If you’re considering working here, just know this is a very high-stress environment with extremely high expectations and not nearly enough support.
In my experience, production and speed mattered far more than quality patient care or employee well-being. Everything revolves around timers. Hygiene is expected to stay on a strict 30-minute schedule whether it’s a 6-month recall, cavitron, new patient exam, X-rays, charting, cleaning, and even notes. Somehow all of that is expected to be done in that time.
As an EDDA/DA, I constantly felt pressured to work faster, not better. When doing fillings, there was nonstop pressure to finish within the time limit, even when cases weren’t straightforward or patients were difficult, anxious, or uncooperative. It often felt like the priority was just getting things done as fast as possible.
There were constant morning and afternoon meetings, constant reminders about speed, timers, production, and staying on schedule. It felt like every day was “Whos taking that next patient?” (when everyone was with one or two patients at a time) or "We are running behind , look at your timer?” Instead of feeling supported, it felt like constant pressure and micromanagement. 
The workload is heavy, the expectations are exhausting, and for what is expected, the pay does not reflect it. Staying late, feeling mentally drained, and going home exhausted became normal.
Speaking up about concerns also didn’t always feel safe. It often felt like if you spoke up, you risked being labeled as difficult or negative.
There are genuinely hardworking people there, and this review is not about them. It’s about a system that pushes people toward burnout.

I cannot stress enough how horrible of a place this is to work at. During the interview, I was informed that I would receive training on their practice models and flow of the office so that I would know what to do and how to fit into the practice. When I started,  however, I received no help or training and when I asked for information I was told to "just figure it out" with their reasoning being "we didn't train anyone else so we aren't going to train you either". Needless to say, I would make mistakes that I wasn't aware I was doing which would lead to constantly being pulled aside and told I couldn't do anything right and everyone disliked me. 

They do not try and make you a part of the team, and in fact, in my experience, they all worked together to make it miserable to work there until I finally quit. I had no help, no one to turn to, and ultimately felt completely alone. They lure people in with good benefits and the facade that there is a great team that helps each other and is focused on patient care when in reality they are such a horrible practice with such a high turn over rate, that they will say anything to get bodies in the office to work there. Since I left, 70% of the team that was there when I was there has quit as well. 

Don't waste your time or sanity in that place. If you want to work in pediatrics, work at an office that doesn't have a bad reputation with the entire Spokane dental community. I have met several doctors that all say they are amazed that Hero hasn't been shut down for all of the unethical and horrendous practice models that they have.

Hero prides itself on lean operations. What this means to daily operations is, you must produce more with less. They have a dreaded "AHOD" season which stands for All Hands on Deck, except its not all hands its only the hands which are patient facing. If you are a provider, or technical staff member (DA,vision tech, clinical manager, or regional) you WILL work 60+ hours a week with minimal support from the corporate office as most of them will be on vacation, or golfing. This organization is lead by one of the most incompetent CEO's I think I've ever had the experience of working for. He lacks education, but further he lacks decorum and professionalism. He is confrontational in his approach, doesn't accept feedback well and is overly paranoid which contributes to his constant state of anxiety that is visible in every meeting. He is a one trick pony, preaching motivational speeches that lack strategy or substance. This lack of talent and experience has resulted in creating an even more inept executive team, including an HR team that is incapable of maintaining confidentiality. If you want to work to death, be reminded on a daily- and I I mean EVERYDAY basis how much money you made or didn't make be lead by baboons- then rest assured this is the place for you. The benefits are also subpar, medical insurance is high, there is no 401K- meaning there is no consistent matching, so you will need to explore other options if that is something important to you.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The relationships made from the good team members there. Not leadership or the C-Suite. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The company has this “mission” on how they want to positively impact their patients. But that is not modeled as the c-suite execs are completely out of touch about the audience they serve and team that they lead. Ridiculous expectations from a “leadership” team that never steps foot inside a practice for longer than an hour and still doesn’t engage with patients or floor level teammates. Only worried about financial goals and not quality care. Extremely high patient volumes that create burnout for staff. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Stressful, money driven, lack of motivation bc the focus is only on financial goals and not well being for the team or patients. The environment at Hero is very selfish and culture is only good if you are apart of the cliques “leadership” chooses to let you in on. Extremely high school with a team of  white males in the c-suite who have no idea how out of touch they are to the audience they serve and team they “lead.” You only excel at Hero if they like you. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Very long. 7am starts to 6pm ends. No work life balance. No appreciation from leadership. If you value your sanity- this is not where you want to work.

They used to be more mission driven and less money driven. Their mission is to provide the best quality of care to children of low-income families. They hide behind their mission statement, but in no means live up to it, caring more about money and less about patient care.

There is little room for growth within the company unless you are willing to kiss up, and as a doctor there is even less room for growth. Most of the time the people they do promote do not get the job because they are the best qualified or best person for the job, but because they've kissed up to the right people.

As a doctor you have little to no say in your patient schedule and what is expected of you, and there are times when your schedule can be changed without any discussion with you. And one of the worst parts is they don't treat you with the respect that a doctor deserves and would get in any other setting. I have been treated with more disrespect and judgment at this job, especially towards the end than any other job (including retail, housekeeping and fast food).

The best and most redeeming part of the job are the kids. They are why I go to work. At the end of the day, I know that my job is helping them. I just wish the company also cared more about helping them.

This place will drain you. Be prepared to be mentally & physically drained. Only stay for a couple of months, learn as much as you can and go somewhere else. This place will overwork you, you barely get a break in between patients, they love to overpack the schedule to where it’s overwhelming, patients can come up to an hour later and we still have to see them, there was a couple of days where we only had a 15 minute lunch break, office managers do not care about their employees. They push you a lot to do same day cares when the schedule is overpacked most days. Managers love to tell their employees we need to take/care for our patients when the company barely takes care of their own employees. This company will never change, all they care is about scheduling 180 patients on the schedule and expect their 6 assistants to see them. Also some assistants like to wonder around the office and not take any patients. All these complaints have been brought up to team leads and office managers but they do not care since nothing has been done. This place is a joke & by far the worst job i’ve had. Only thing that made Adventure dental enjoyable was some of the coworkers & team leads, & also the doctors. You see a lot of employees come in go as well. If this company fixed all their problems a lot of employees would’ve still been at this company.  

The mission of this company is good, if you are a hard worker don’t expect opportunities. The opportunities are only given to people that know people in the upper management. If managment doesn’t like you be ready to get terminated, anything you do gets recorded for their final decision. Manager doesn’t work as needed but gets paid good, requires good results from the  office staff, but certainly  don’t expect good results from manager, comes in late and leaves early, no suppport in difficult situations. Definitely expect everybody below this position to do the hard work while the manager gets paid good for not doing the job correctly!!!  The company has set up training specialists but the training is not enough,  the trainings don’t include how to deal with the high patient flow, the experience and training is gathered with time.  If you are not a lead or there are no leads  managment expects you to do the work of the missing people plus what is your responsibility and the pay rate stays the same, managment will not send in help from other offices because the other offices are in need as well.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Dental assistant 1 salary reported	$28.50 per hour
Technician 33 salaries reported	$15.83 per hour
Patient coordinator 25 salaries reported	$16.21 per hour
Orthodontic assistant 13 salaries reported	$19.43 per hour
Dentist 15 salaries reported	$240,000 per year

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