Silliest Client Behavior ContestAugust 28, 2014 I try really, really hard to remain politically correct in this blog. But I do have to share a few stories that portray some of the silliest client ideas and behaviors. Some were my clients. Some were my colleagues.’ All paid dearly for their mistakes, and so did their unfortunate pets. 1) The sister of one client thought it would be funny to play a practical joke. She covered a tampon with ketchup and mustard, and put it in a hotdog bun. Unfortunately, Poopster* the poodle, who had an especially ferocious appetite, got a hold of the hotdog before her owner and swallowed it within seconds. He later had a gastrotomy to retrieve the foreign body. 2) A couple gave Sheba* the Shih Tzu a bath and thought it would be a good idea to put rubber bands on the dog’s ears. Strangely, the ears didn’t like this treatment and started to necrose (see picture). Sheba later had bilateral otectomies. 3) An Amish owner had a friend call his vet clinic to explain that his large breed dog was ADR. Our colleague asked him to bring his dog in. He eventually found a ride, and …
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Are You Paying It Forward?August 14, 2014 “Pay it forward” is a phrase you hear a lot these days, and we’re all pretty familiar with the concept. Basically, when/if someone does something nice for you, you are supposed to turn around and do something nice for another person, to keep that spirit of giving alive. Here’s an example: I was going through the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru, and I was second in line at the window. When that car pulled away, and I pulled up, they let me know that the driver had actually given me the doughnut they bought. Well, okay, it was really a free doughnut for them because they got a coupon for completing the survey, but she used it to get a free doughnut to give to the person behind her. Turns out, I was told that she is diabetic so she can’t eat the treat, but always goes to the trouble to complete the online survey and give that donut away to someone else. In my experience, both the getting and the giving are pleasant. She felt good giving me the doughnut, and I felt good receiving it. Either way, your heart smiles, and so does someone else’s heart. You …
The 7 Deadly Veterinarian SinsAugust 8, 2014 Not that I’m the poster child for veterinary practice … nor am I even remotely in the running for clinician of the year. I have too many bad habits, ingrained biases and pent-up resentments. I commit far too many set-in-my-ways sins and give in to more than my share of slothful indulgences to preach from any pulpit. So much so that “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” might as well be the headline for this month’s column. With last month’s column dissing physicians fresh in our heads, I’m here to tell you there’s a whole lot more we could be doing to improve the quality of our results. That’s something we can all get behind, right? Trouble is, we’ve all got our own ideas of what’s sinful and what’s not. Which is why I make no apologies for my list. Here’s my current list (you never know, it may change next week): 1) NOT Speaking Our Minds For Fear Of Client Retribution Do you tell clients they’re killing their pets with all that food they insist on feeding? That their puppies hail from less-than-reputable sources? Their dog needs to wear a muzzle …
NAVTA Co-Sponsors Heartworm CE Course, Vet Tech ContestJuly 30, 2014 The National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA) is partnering with Merial Ltd. on a client education campaign and with Pets Best Insurance Services on a nationwide contest. The Merial partnership involves a continuing education course designed to teach veterinary technicians to have effective conversations with pet owners about the importance of year-round heartworm disease prevention. “Empowering veterinary technicians with the tools and knowledge needed to offer sound advice is paramount to Merial’s commitment to pet health,” said Sarah Cloud, a marketing director with the Duluth, Ga., drug maker, which produces the heartworm preventive Heartgard Plus. “With NAVTA’s approval, Merial is now able to offer this course to all veterinary technicians.” The free online course, available at JoinPowerOf12.com/education, is RACE approved for one continuing education credit. The material also addresses misconceptions and miscommunication. “This course provides simple tips on how to make that conversation more constructive and truly showcase the need that year-round protection serves,” said Julie Legred, CVT, NAVTA’s executive director. Also announced July 25 was the “Why I Love Being a Vet Tech” contest, which asks veterinary technicians to write a short essay explaining how they …
Must-Have Summer Reads: 5 Books Featuring VeterinariansJuly 10, 2014 Follow Veterinary Practice News on Twitter at @vetpetnews. Have you ever picked up a novel and read the back cover only to discover the protagonist is a veterinarian? It’s possible you purchased it for that reason. You read it, either reacting to the inaccurate portrayal of a veterinarian’s job or perhaps you were pleasantly surprised that the author had done his research. Or maybe a veterinarian wrote the book, relaying tales from her experience. You related to it, shared her experiences by reading about them. As a book lover who also happens to write for a veterinary magazine, I couldn’t help wondering about these books about veterinarians. I discovered Goodreads’ list of 135 and narrowed it down to the following five, in no particular order (based on descriptions and reviews): goodreads 1. The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and their Patients: Edited by Lucy H. Spelmand and Ted Y. Mashima, "The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes” is a collection of stories by exotic animal …
What Do They Teach In Vet School?July 10, 2014 A few years ago, John Taylor Gatto, multiple-time New York City Teacher of the Year and one-time New York State Teacher of the Year, wrote a scandalous, revolutionary, irreverent article about what schools should teach students. He starts the article by listing a set of 10 critical skills suggested by one of the schools at Harvard (“perhaps the School of Government,” he ponders). Here is the list: The ability to define problems without a guide. The ability to ask hard questions that challenge prevailing assumptions. The ability to work in teams without guidance. The ability to work absolutely alone. The ability to persuade others that your course is the right one. The ability to discuss issues and techniques in public with an eye to reaching decisions about policy. The ability to conceptualize and reorganize information into new patterns. The ability to pull what you need quickly from masses of irrelevant data. The ability to think inductively, deductively and dialectically. The ability to attack problems heuristically.* * You probably should check out the meaning of this word if you were to learn, well, heuristically. If you did that, you would learn that heuristic relates to …
7 Reasons You're Better Than A PhysicianJune 20, 2014Sure, we’re veterinarians so we’re biased. Nevertheless, it’s true that plenty of you will concur that our clients are often better served by our kind than by our physician cousins. I got to thinking about this after writing my last column detailing my many misadventures related to a Rottweiler-induced broken nose. Fielding the glut of collegially sympathetic comments I received in its aftermath, I realized our clients have lots to be grateful for compared to their encounters with our physician counterparts. 1) Cost Intelligence Concerns Let’s be honest: Physicians often have no idea how much their services cost. Unless they’re working in a fee-for-service environment (my nose-mending plastic surgeon, dentist and dermatologist are three exceptions), they’re typically clueless as to the price of their services, the diagnostics they recommend and the drugs they prescribe. Even after Massachusetts installed a law requiring physicians and hospitals to disclose their fees, receiving even a rough estimate from a provider or hospital in advance of a procedure, for example, is essentially impossible. In fact, a recent NPR report revealed that securing an estimate for something as standard as an uncomplicated vaginal delivery was almost …
Is Your Clinic Receptionist Losing $6,000 Per Month?April 17, 2014 When a phone shopper calls your veterinary hospital, does a confident receptionist answer? If grumpy Gloria quotes a price and hangs up without scheduling the exam, she could be costing your clinic $6,000 per month. Let’s say your clinic gets 10 phone-shopper calls this week, and your receptionist schedules eight appointments. Most calls are from new pet owners who need preventive care or spay/neuter surgery. Your practice can’t afford to lose more than $71,000 annually in new patient care. Phone shoppers aren’t just checking prices—they’re looking for long-term relationships with your practice. At Communication Solutions for Veterinarians, we have provided phone-skills training to more than 3,500 veterinary staff (www.csvets.com/training.htm). During screening calls to determine employees’ current skills, we listen for attitude, confidence, what information is provided, and most importantly, whether they ask for the appointment. Out of 3,500 calls, the average score is 2.5 on a 5-star scale, which is below average. Only 6 percent of receptionists asked for the pet’s name and used it during the conversation. Only 46 percent asked for the appointment. Elevating phone skills of your front-desk staff not only improves client service, …
Human Resources: Why Should I Care?April 2, 2014 If you are NOT a member of your practice's management or leadership, you may be asking yourself this question: "Human resources? Why should I care?" As it turns out, the human resources protocols and policies should matter very much to you, and every other person on the team no matter the position. Here is a sample of why: Would you like to know what is expected of you when you interview and consider being hired by an organization? Then you'll want to see a job description. Would you like to be trained on what is expected of you, so that you have every chance to succeed on those specific tasks? Then you'll want to see the training program, which uses the job description as the backbone of essential training. Would you like to be evaluated on those things that are expected of you, that you were trained to do correctly? Then you'll want to see the performance evaluation process, and one that evaluates those tasks on your job description, in your training program. Would you like to know when you do something RIGHT, or are you comfortable with the unwritten policy of "no news is good news?" …
Dr. Gerhardt G. Schurig, Dean, Virginia-Maryland Regional College Of Veterinary MedicineMarch 19, 2014 Dr. Gehardt G. Shurig has traveled a long and winding road on his path to becoming dean of Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine--from his birth in Santiago, Chile, to a stint as a meat inspector in a slaughterhouse, to academic experience on opposite ends of the continent . It's due to his colorful background, and that long road he traveled, that VeterinaryPracticeNews.com chose to launch our Vet School Dean Q&A series with Schurig. Name: Dr. Gerhardt G. Schurig, Dean, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine Age: 65 Degrees and Schools: 1977 – PhD, Immunology, Cornell University 1974 – MS, Immunology, Cornell University 1970 – DVM, University of Chile 1970 – Licentiate in Animal Husbandry, University of Chile Family: Ginger (wife), Michelle (daughter), Pablo (son) Hometown: Blacksburg, Va., (current); Santiago, Chile (native) 1. Why did you enter veterinary medicine? At the time I joined veterinary medicine, there was much talk about the need to feed the world. I was interested in improving farm animal health and productivity and also had great interest in studying diseases that spread from animals to humans (zoonosis). I wanted to contribute to the discovery of new ways …
