Cutting Costs To Cope With The Economic DownturnApril 17, 2009 During the first half of 2008, we in the U.S. struggled through very difficult economic times. This year started out after a slow Christmas retail season and talk of recession. We’ve recently seen oil rocket to over $140 a barrel and the stock market fall by over 15 percent, both as of this writing. The discussion about “if” the United States is in a recession became a moot point to most Americans. As the price of oil has risen, the cost of everything associated with transportation has also increased--food, automobiles, appliances, raw materials, etc. The effect has been less disposable income to spend on non-essential items such as vacations, restaurants, electronics, etc. As we all know, the companion-animal veterinarian relies on the available disposable income of our clients. Fortunately, many of our clients place the value of their pets above that of most other disposable income items. But how much longer will they do this as more and more of their paychecks go toward food and fuel? Where is the veterinary economy heading in the next year or two? No one knows. If we did know, we all could make brilliant investments and turn …
SPONSORED CONTENTSee what precise nutrition can do.Get to the bottom of tough gastrointestinal cases and recommend diets precisely designed to meet your patients' unique needs. + Find out more
Offering A Variety Of Payment Options Can Help Clients CopeApril 17, 2009 Follow Veterinary Practice News on Twitter at @vetpetnews. For most veterinarians, health care is a heartfelt calling. But medicine is also a business, and a hospital must make a profit to succeed. Vital to that success, financial experts say, is a periodic assessment of available payment options for clients and incorporating that analysis into your practice management. “Payment is not something that dominates the day-to-day thought processes of many veterinarians because they have so many things going on,” said Howard Rubin, chief executive officer of the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues. “It’s easy for them to just assume that it will take care of itself. “We have found that veterinarians need to analyze this part of their business just as they analyze other parts of it.” A common mistake made by practitioners is failing to set payment option standards and policies. “Many times [veterinarians] just wing it,” Rubin said. Equally unwise is extending credit without first obtaining a client’s credit history. The result is a possible default that costs your clinic money. Post-dated checks are another no-no, said Tom A. McFerson, CPA, a partner in the …
What’s Your Diagnosis? Mediastinal AbnormalityApril 17, 2009 Signalment: Eight-year-old male castrated standard poodle History: Two-month history of decreased appetite and weight loss. Questions: 1. What are the primary findings? 2. What do you think is the primary reason for the clinical signs? Radiographic interpretation: A soft tissue mass effect is causing a silhouette sign with the cranial border of the heart. The mass runs in a oblique right-cranial to left-caudal direction, indicating that it is in the ventral mediastinum. The mass is seen better on the right lateral recumbent view due to the aerated lung highlighting the mass (recumbent atelectasis partially silhouettes the mass on the left lateral view). The heart and lungs are normal. The mass in the cranial ventral mediastinum is most consistent with a neoplasm. Thymoma or lymphoma are the most common mediastinal neoplasia. Ultrasound of the cranial mediastinum with guided aspiration is often used to help differentiate these possibilities. Normal anatomy: The mediastinum is the central portion of the pleural space and is composed of the left and right pleural sacs. Mediastinal disease usually …
What’s Your Diagnosis? Identifying Pleural EffusionApril 17, 2009 Signalment:10-year-old female spayed Labrador retriever History: 24 hours of progressive respiratory distress Questions: 1. What are the primary findings? 2. What do you think is the primary reason for the clinical signs? Radiographic findings: Increased soft tissue opacity is noted and is causing the pleural fissures and margins of the lung to be identified. The heart and ventral diaphragm are silhouetted by this opacity. The pleural fissures that are seen are wider at the periphery than centrally. Follow-up radiographs taken after thoracocentesis which revealed a hemorrhagic fluid show an obvious mass effect in the right cranial ventral thorax adjacent to the right side of the heart. Radiographic interpretation: Pleural effusion. This is causing a silhouette sign with the intrathoracic structures and removal of the fluid reveals a large mass effect in the cranial thorax. Neoplasia is the primary rule-out in this situation. Discussion: Knowledge of the pertinent anatomy of the thoracic structures facilitates understanding the abnormal. …
Managing Human Resources Within The Veterinary PracticeApril 17, 2009 Veterinarians who choose practice ownership or hospital management positions quickly find out they could use a crash course in human resources management. While veterinarians may be well-trained and well-versed in how to manage medical cases, most of them have little experience in managing people. Surveys of managers in various professions show that more and more time is spent resolving staff problems or concerns, often leaving little time for other management duties. Human resource (HR) issues within the veterinary practice are handled by the owner, hospital director or a practice/office manager. Regardless of who handles the HR issues, it is important to have set policies and an action plan for all areas of the practice. In short, every practice needs a policies and procedure manual that clearly outlines protocols. The manual should be reviewed by an attorney to ensure it is valid and not in violation of employees' rights. The practice owner, whether heavily involved with HR issues or not, should be directly involved in assembling the procedure manual. Practice management seminars both within and outside the veterinary profession can provide the nuts and bolts of how to plan a policy manual and what to include. In addition, …
Home Euthanasia A Valuable ServiceApril 17, 2009 Jonathan Leshanski, DVM, offers housecall euthanasia because he knows from personal experience the importance of the service to ailing animals and their emotionally distraught owners. "Before I became a veterinarian, I owned a cat named Hobbs who had terrible panic attacks that almost qualified as seizures anytime we took him out of the house," said Dr. Leshanski, owner of At Home Veterinary in New York City and former president of the American Assn. of Housecall Veterinarians. "I took him to the veterinarian when the time finally came to have him euthanized, and I felt miserable over the fact that the last 40 minutes of his life were spent in abject terror. "It was a terrible ending for a beloved pet, and I decided then that when I became a veterinarian, one of the things I would do was offer home visits-including euthanasia." Today, Leshanski performs a minimum of five home euthanasia procedures a week-much to the appreciation of his grieving clients. "My clients are incredibly grateful," Leshanski said. "Many have been with me since I got my license. Others are strangers who call me asking for help because their own veterinarians won't leave their …
To Protect And ServeApril 17, 2009 Follow Veterinary Practice News on Twitter at @vetpetnews. Travel Service Opportunities World Vets Home base: Deer Park, Wash. Selected upcoming trips: Loreto, Baja California, Mexico, May 31-June 7; Belize in Summer ’08; Ecuador from Nov. 3-12; Gambia in winter ’08-’09. Contact: info@worldvets.org, 509-276-8387 More info: www.worldvets.org Spay Panama Home base: Bethania, Panama, and Miami Selected upcoming trips: Unavailable Contact: doctor@spaypanama.org, 507-261.5542 More info: www.spaypanama.org Christian Veterinary Mission Home base: Seattle Selected upcoming trips: India from Aug. 6-15, Pakistan in November, Mongolia (ongoing). Contact: info@cvmusa.org, 206-546-7569 More info: www.cvmusa.org Animal Balance Home base: San Francisco Selected upcoming trips: Galapagos Islands in September, Samoa (tentative – date TBA) Contact: volunteer@animalbalance.org More info: www.animalbalance.net For Susan Paseman, the idea began in Cozumel, the Mexican island that boasts the kind of tourist-friendly resort experience Paseman used to find a lot more attractive than she …
Plan Now For RetirementApril 17, 2009 The new tax law has greatly expanded the opportunities for retirement savings. Every veterinary practice should have a business retirement plan by 2002. The right retirement plan costs nothing because it allows funds that would be lost to taxes to provide retirement benefits for long-term employees. But what plan is best for your practice? Each practice and practice owner is unique, and plans are so diverse that the wrong decision could waste thousands of dollars in needless fees or substandard investment results. Because this is a complex area, you should carefully review all available options. Don't be swayed by sales pitches, glossy brochures or professional association endorsements. Demand to see how different plans would work in your practice. You may consider retaining a qualified, independent benefits specialist to evaluate your alternatives. Re-evaluate your current plans to ensure they are still appropriate, considering the new opportunities. You should make these decisions now, as the new provisions take effect in January 2002, and a plan cannot begin to accept salary deferrals until it is officially adopted. Here are the major developments in the new law: 1. The individual contribution dollar limit has been increased …
How To Deal with Clients' GriefApril 17, 2009 Most people can't verbalize their feelings of relief when it follows the death of a family member, friend or pet. It is a struggle to care for a sick pet. Our clients need our emotional support when they tell us about their frustration, guilt, anxiety and hope. As professionals, we need to identify and deal with the symptoms of anticipatory grief. We must also understand why a family has anxiety or reluctance about treating a very sick pet. Here is a letter that opened the door to a much-needed discussion that might help you deal with concerned clients. Dr. Villalobos, My question is whether or not it's worth having our pet dog, Butch, on chemo just to give him a couple more months. My concern is that we may, as a family, have to experience more emotional ups and downs than if we didn't treat him at all and just let the disease take its course. As the spouse of a cancer patient who died in 1990 and as a hospice social worker, I know that one of the most difficult aspects of having a loved …
Organize Your References in 10 Easy StepsApril 17, 2009Look around your office. Do you see unread journals? Proceedings from the last meeting you attended? Cut-out articles you may need to refer to in the future? The last issue of Veterinary Practice News? Here are some tips to get organized once and for all. Organizing continuing education resources can be daunting. It seems that the flow of journals into your inbox never stops! You can purchase software that helps you track articles. The main disadvantage of using software is that you need to find time to type every article reference, title and author for the system to work. One typo and you may never find your article. In addition, you still need a filing system to organize your articles. And of course there’s the cost factor. I prefer a simple and cheap but efficient paper system that has proven extremely helpful and invariably reliable over the years. It was shared by a fellow board-certified surgeon, and it just doesn’t get any better or simpler! Let’s go over 10 simple steps to make your own version. 1. Create your personal list of topics The idea is to start a list of all the topics you are interested in. Since this …
