Financing A New Building In This EconomyJanuary 5, 2012 The current economy has given rise to many questions about how a veterinarian should go about financing the construction of a new facility. The buzz in the marketplace is that construction costs are not coming down, appraisers are approaching the market conservatively and banks have tightened credit standards for real estate lending. All these statements are true. But many veterinarians just don’t have enough space to continue to grow their businesses and need new facilities. Will all this news prevent a veterinarian from securing the needed funds to build her building? It doesn’t have to. There are different financing options and one of the scenarios can work for your situation. The market has three primary products available for veterinarians looking to construct or renovate their facilities: conventional bank financing, SBA 504 loans and the SBA 7(a) loan product. The best loan type for your project depends on the appraisal, cash equity injected into the project, current business cash flow, size of the project and additional items important to each lender. As you begin your evaluation of the loan products, it is important to consider each loan type and talk to lenders involved with each product. …
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Let’s Regard End Of Life As A Distinct StageJanuary 4, 2012 While I discussed end of life (EoL) care with Dr. Don DeForge on Connecticut radio, an exciting idea flashed through my mind. We were finishing a 45-minute discussion when I said, “It is time for us to declare, once and for all, that end of life is a distinctly new stage of life. Veterinarians were taught to support four main stages of life. We were not educated to focus our professional attention and develop the skills and expertise for the very important and inevitable ‘End of Life Stage.’ “We need to provide more EoL services because society’s human-animal bond demands more care in this area despite the recession and fewer office visits.” The main life stages we are educated to support are: • Puppy and kitten stage • Adult stage • Senior stage • Geriatric stage I propose a fifth life stage, the End of Life Stage. It is the only life stage that can occur during the other stages. With luck, EoL may not impose itself on the kitten and puppy stage, but sometimes it does. Let’s start thinking about EoL as an inevitable life stage that deserves more focus and expertise in management. …
Thou Shall Not Judge … Your ClientJanuary 3, 2012We’ve probably all been there, standing across an exam table from a client who doesn’t seem too enthused about sticking a pill, squirting a liquid, or cramming a capsule down the mouth of their pet. So, being good veterinary professionals, we pull out all the advice and tricks of the trade … pill pushers, pill pockets, restraint tips, confidence coaching, you name it. If we still end up with a client that “refuses” to medicate their animal, it is easy to judge them at that point as inadequate pet parents, or worse. It affects our respect for that client, and ultimately, the way we treat them in our practice. Think you can fake it, and not let your inner feelings show? Think again. In fact, let’s think of this in a whole different way. Shannon Fujimoto Nakaya, DVM, wrote a wonderful book called “Kindred Spirit, Kindred Care.” In this book, she encourages pet owners to look at their options and decisions regarding their pets in several different lights. She speaks of how to choose a veterinarian, how to assess the patient, advice on understanding the diagnosis and options, the sometimes limited financial commitments, and …
How To Maximize A Clinic’s Cash FlowNovember 29, 2011 The current economy has affected veterinary practices in many ways. Practice owners can use a multitude of tools to manage through these challenging economic times. Practices have experienced record drops in revenue, a decrease in the number of patient visits per year, lower average transaction cost, greater marketing expense and an overall greater demand on time to just maintain the same level of revenue as two years ago. This has forced many practice owners and managers to find ways to improve cash flow to cover the practice’s expenses. Several steps can help to alleviate the cash flow crunch. The supplies and drug inventory should be closely inspected and analyzed to get cost of sales in line with industry standards. Aggressive marketing campaigns can generate new business and retain current customers. When these basics don’t pan out, an owner might consider reducing staff hours to ensure that the lay staff salaries are appropriate for the amount of revenue being generated. The next step might include reducing associate DVM hours and having the owner cover additional hours. The true challenge as a manager or owner comes when these methods still do not provide the cash …
Banking Stem Cells A New Option For AnimalsNovember 29, 2011 Cryobanking allows pet owners to put something away for a rainy day—their pets’ stem cells—in case the animal suffers arthritis or degenerative disease later in life. “Banking stem cells is like having an extra insurance policy for your pet,” explained Jeremy Delk, CEO of MediVet America of Nicholasville, Ky. MediVet sells in-clinic equipment and the adipose stem cell procedure kit, as well as provides banking services for harvested cells. After a regenerative medicine procedure, the veterinarian can send any leftover cells to MediVet’s laboratory in Nicholasville, where they will be banked for future use. This is a good move, Delk said, because stem cells do not cure the degenerative diseases for which they are indicated. Instead, stem cell therapy reduces the inflammation and pain associated with osteoarthritis and degenerative joint diseases, and it provides healing to the joint, but that joint might need a future treatment, or a different joint might need treatment. Banking extra cells allows a second procedure to be done without having to harvest new tissue from the pet—a cost savings to both the veterinarian and the pet owner. Cryobanking is the long-term preservation of the fraction of hemopoetic stem cells that …
Baby On BoardNovember 28, 2011 Most of us have heard that there are more female students in veterinary school than male students. This preponderance of estrogen will likely have various effects on the profession, and many of them will reflect the reality that often it is the female who bears the brunt of starting a family. The female of a couple is often responsible for a lot of the parenting. That’s not to say there aren’t “househusbands,” and this may be one trend we see climb in the veterinary profession. But out of necessity or pure desire, Mom will need to make time for her family and begin the challenging task of balancing work and home. Creating a Plan As an employee, the female veterinarian who intends to have children must have a frank discussion with her employer as to what they each expect and will tolerate. This requires the veterinarian to determine what those expectations look like on her end, to see if an agreement is possible. How much time off do you expect to need, depending on the ages and number of children in the household? What shifts can you work, and what times are reasonable for …
Putting A New Nutritional Tool To WorkNovember 7, 2011 The word is out: Nutrition is a new option for managing cats with hyperthyroidism. Limiting dietary iodine induces euthyroidism in cats that have naturally occurring hyperthyroidism, according to studies by Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. of Topeka, Kan. Hill’s determined that if the iodine content can be kept below 0.32 ppm, hyperthyroidism in cats can be controlled through nutritional therapy alone. Hill’s released its Prescription Diet y/d Feline Thyroid Health in dry and wet formulations in October. Hill’s describes the food as a daily, low-iodine nutrition solution designed to manage hyperthyroidism in cats, and says it is clinically proven to improve thyroid health in three weeks. The next step is incorporating this new option into the veterinary practice. First Things First: Diagnosis “Fortunately, diagnosing [feline] hyperthyroidism is pretty easy,” said David Bruyette, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, medical director at VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital. Hill’s invited Dr. Bruyette to use the pet food with some of his patients before the new product’s launch. “Most veterinarians now are screening older cats by measuring T4, the major thyroid hormone,” he said. “The vast majority of cats—about 93+ percent—that are hyperthyroid will have a high total …
What’s Beyond For Baby Boomers And The HAB?November 3, 2011 As a baby boomer, I officially enter my senior years when I turn 65 on Nov. 5. My husband, Ira Lifland, who is two months younger than I, follows in January. We are glad to be eligible for Medicare and thankful to be able to save a lot of money on our health insurance premiums, which were more than $30,000 last year. Even though we are healthy, our premiums have been upped annually, paralleling the profits of our carrier. Going on Medicare will be a raise for us. Our strategy is to forgo Social Security payments until we turn 70 so we receive more in the long run if we survive past 80. Ira always envied me for loving what I do. This profession is wonderful, and I enjoy working our concierge referral practices. Animal Oncology Consultation Service and Pawspice is one. Carreen Lynch, RVT, is my Pawspice partner. Pawspice offers palliative care and gentler standard care for cancer patients. It transitions into hospice as the patient’s quality of life declines or if death is expected soon. Carreen has worked with me for most of the past 25 or so years. She has read my …
What To Say Back When Money TalksNovember 2, 2011It is a scene that’s all too familiar. We know what needs to be done for a pet’s health, but the client cannot afford the care. They come to us for help, but we are stopped short by the tough choices they have regarding how much they can afford. Some people go much further than we’d imagine, even spending kids’ college funds and mortgaging the house to save their pets from extreme illness or injury. But we’ve also seen people who think the veterinary profession should provide care even when they can’t pay for it. When we have to explain that the pet owner is responsible for funding the pet’s treatment, they often question our emotional attachment to animals in general, or accuse us of letting a pet die. This is when veterinary medicine is the toughest, when we are made to feel responsible for their inability to pay. What do we do when faced with this situation? Which of several options we use will depend on the situation and the client’s frame of mind. The Humorous Approach Sometimes, particularly with clients who comment on the price but don’t seem to be disappointed or angered by the total, it can …
Are our patients being sold out by Big Pharma?November 2, 2011Only a fraction of the drugs we veterinary professionals use on our patients are actually approved for use in veterinary settings.
