Healthcare Growth · Multi-Site Operators · PE-Backed Platforms
Healthcare growth, built from inside the operating company.
I’m Paul Gruensfelder. I’ve spent 13+ years in healthcare marketing, including nearly a decade leading growth for multi-site dental organizations and currently as Vice President of Marketing for a PE-backed dental platform. My work sits at the intersection of marketing, operations, patient access, retention, reputation, and local growth.
I help healthcare organizations understand where growth is really coming from, where it is getting stuck, and what needs to be built or improved so the business can grow more predictably.
How I Think About Growth
Built from operator experience, with respect for what has to work in the real business.
Good growth work can come from a lot of places: internal teams, agencies, consultants, operators, and vendor partners. What I have learned from working inside healthcare organizations is that the strategy only matters if it can hold up in the day-to-day reality of the business.
That reality is usually more complicated than a channel report. A campaign may be working, but the phones are not being answered consistently. Demand may be there, but the schedule does not have capacity. New patient volume may look strong, while the active patient base is quietly shrinking. A platform may be purchased, but not adopted.
My strength is connecting those pieces. I try to understand the full path from patient interest to scheduled care, completed visits, accepted treatment, retention, and long-term patient relationships. Then I help build the systems, workflows, and operating rhythm that make growth easier to see, manage, and repeat.
In healthcare marketing since 2013, across health systems, medical groups, dental groups, and DSOs
Nearly a decade leading growth and marketing for multi-site dental organizations
Vice President of Marketing inside a PE-backed dental platform with dozens of uniquely branded practices across multiple states
Hands-on across acquisition, retention, reactivation, reputation, martech, analytics, local growth planning, and internal communications
Ideal Fit
Where This Experience Tends to Be Useful
This experience is most relevant for healthcare organizations where growth spans more than one location, and where marketing needs to connect clearly to operations, capacity, patient experience, and financial performance.
PE-backed healthcare platforms
For sponsors and executive teams that need marketing to connect more clearly to growth targets, EBITDA, patient access, operating priorities, and the realities of scaling across locations. Platform-level growth and location-level execution both matter, and the work is strongest when they reinforce each other.
DSOs and dental groups
For dental organizations balancing local practice identity, provider capacity, patient retention, reputation, and new patient demand across a growing footprint. Dental growth has its own operating realities, from provider schedules and hygiene recall to local trust and doctor relationships.
Multi-site and specialty groups
For MSOs, specialty platforms, and multi-location operators that need a more consistent approach to local visibility, reputation, patient communication, demand generation, and performance measurement as locations, service lines, and complexity grow.
Emerging groups preparing for scale
For founders and leadership teams that want better systems, cleaner data, and stronger operating habits before the next wave of growth makes every gap harder to manage. The earlier the foundation is built, the easier it is to scale without creating unnecessary noise.
Growth Levers
Where healthcare growth usually gets stuck
A campaign can create demand, but it cannot answer the phone, open the schedule, build provider trust, reactivate a patient, or make the experience consistent across locations. In healthcare, growth usually depends on how well the full system works together.
That is where I tend to focus: not only on generating demand, but on whether that demand can become scheduled care, completed visits, accepted treatment, retained patients, and stronger local reputation.
01
Acquisition economics
Clearer, more accountable patient acquisition across paid media, local search, reputation, referral sources, and website conversion. The goal is not just more activity, it is incremental patient growth the organization can actually absorb and measure.
02
Retention & reactivation
The patient base you already have is often the most underused growth asset. Retention, recall, reactivation, and patient communication deserve the same discipline as new patient acquisition.
03
Access & conversion
Phone answer rates, call conversion, online scheduling, forms, lead follow-through, and the handoff from interest to appointment. Often, improving access and conversion creates more value than simply adding media spend.
04
Capacity & operations
Growth plans that respect provider days, schedule utilization, treatment mix, staffing, and operational readiness. The best demand plan is one the organization can actually convert, deliver, and sustain.
05
Local execution
Scalable systems that still respect local practice identity, doctor relationships, patient demographics, and community reputation. Standardization should create leverage without making every location feel the same.
06
Measurement & analytics
Dashboards, definitions, and reporting habits leadership can trust. The goal is better judgment: clearer data, cleaner attribution, and a stronger understanding of what is actually moving the business.
Operating Framework
Make growth easier to see, repeat, and scale.
Growth gets harder when every location, campaign, vendor, workflow, and report has to be rebuilt from scratch. I tend to pressure-test growth systems against three questions: can leadership see what is happening, can the organization repeat what works, and can the system hold up as the platform gets more complex?
Predictable
Can leadership see what is happening, understand what is working, and make decisions before the month is already over? Predictability depends on timely, trustworthy data and a shared understanding of the numbers.
Replicable
Can the organization take what works in one location and adapt it to another without starting over every time? Replicability turns isolated wins into operating capability.
Scalable
Can the system support more locations, more demand, more vendors, more providers, and more operating complexity without creating more noise than insight? Scale only works when the underlying habits and systems can support it.
This does not mean every location should be marketed the same way. It means the underlying data, workflows, expectations, and playbooks should be strong enough to support local relevance as the organization grows.
Working Together
Conversations can take a few different shapes.
I am not trying to force every conversation into a predefined package. Depending on the organization, the need may be strategic advisory, fractional leadership, a focused project, interim support, or a more formal executive role. The common thread is whether my experience can help the team make better growth decisions and build stronger systems.
01
Growth Assessment
A focused review of the growth picture: acquisition, retention, reactivation, access, conversion, capacity, reputation, and the data underneath it all. The goal is a clear read on what is working, what is getting in the way, and where leadership should focus next.
Best when: growth has slowed, performance varies by location, or the team needs a clearer view of what is actually happening.
02
Executive Growth Support
Senior growth and marketing leadership alongside the existing team, whether for a specific initiative, a transition, a rebuild, an integration, or a period where the business needs more experienced capacity than the current structure provides.
Best when: the team is strong but stretched, the organization is moving through change, or a high-priority initiative needs clearer leadership.
03
Growth Systems and Operating Rhythm
Work focused on building durable capability: measurement, patient relationship workflows, martech adoption, local growth planning, reputation systems, campaign governance, and the operating rhythm that keeps the work moving.
Best when: the organization is scaling, complexity is increasing, and the systems need to become more consistent without becoming rigid.
Every conversation should start with the business context: where growth is coming from, where it feels stuck, what the team already has in place, and whether my experience is likely to be useful. If it is not the right fit, I will be direct about that.
Operating Point of View
An Operator’s View of Healthcare Growth
Healthcare marketing is strongest when it is close to the business. The work should reflect provider capacity, patient needs, local market dynamics, clinical realities, team adoption, and the financial goals of the organization.
That is why I tend to focus on the connective tissue: the handoffs between marketing and operations, the data behind the campaigns, the phone call after the click, the follow-up after the visit, and the systems that turn patient interest into scheduled, completed, and retained care.
Existing patients matter
Retention and reactivation
The patient database deserves the same discipline as paid acquisition. Retention, recall, reactivation, and patient communication are often the most practical places to create durable growth.
Local trust is the asset
Local relevance still matters
Even sophisticated platforms need location-level relevance: accurate information, strong reviews, clear provider pages, practical patient communication, and messaging that fits the community being served.
Marketing has to match reality
Messaging has to match reality
The best messaging represents the care experience accurately, sets the right expectations, and helps the right patients take the next step. Trust is easier to build when the promise matches the experience.
Growth requires follow-through
Demand requires follow-through
Demand generation matters most when the organization can convert interest into scheduled care, completed visits, accepted treatment, and lasting patient relationships.
Background
The Path Here
My path has moved from digital advertising into health system marketing, group dental, and multi-state DSO leadership. Across those roles, the through line has been growth, patient experience, local visibility, and the operating systems behind them.
Select Dental Management
Vice President of Marketing
2021 – Present
A growing PE-backed DSO with dozens of uniquely branded practices across multiple states. Leadership across patient acquisition, reactivation, reputation, patient communication, marketing operations, analytics, internal communications, and the martech stack.
Eastern Dental · Smile Exchange
Director of Marketing
2017 – 2021
Group dental and DSO leadership, including work across a 62-location, multi-brand organization. Deep experience in multi-site patient behavior, local SEO, reputation, patient acquisition, and doctor-partner dynamics.
RWJBarnabas Health
Manager, Social Media & Digital Marketing
2013 – 2016
Digital and social strategy for New Jersey’s largest health system: 40+ brand profiles across 11 hospitals, an ambulatory care center, and a medical group.
Recognition
Jersey’s Best Under 40
Marketing & Communications
Regional peer recognition, healthcare marketing writing, and speaking on multi-site growth, analytics, ROI, and practical uses of AI in healthcare marketing.
Let’s Talk
Thinking through growth across more than one location?
The best starting point is a conversation about the business: where growth is coming from, where it feels stuck, what the team is trying to build, and whether my experience can be useful.
No pitch deck required. No predefined package. Just a practical conversation.