Why Relief Vets Are Needed Monica Hughes, director of operations for Relief Services for Veterinary Practitioners, offers these common reasons veterinary clinics seek relief services: To supplement existing staff during peak seasons or busy days To give a sole-proprietor veterinarian a weekday off To cover for a vacation To cover for a medical leave or illness To cover a maternity leave To bridge the gap until a new associate is hired To cover a clinic after a death For example, Relief Services for Veterinary Practitioners promotes itself as the largest veterinary staffing agency in the nation. Founded in 1992 by David Grant, DVM, in Denton, Texas, RSVP began servicing the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with relief veterinarians and has expanded to cover the entire state and surrounding regions. Dr. Grant says that in its 16 years of operation, RSVP has filled more than 65,000 relief shifts. The company regularly places more than 50 veterinarians and a dozen technicians in more than 500 hospitals across Texas. VetSolutions LLC, serving Los Angeles and eastern Tennessee, operates under a similar business model. Operations manager Ryan Jurgensmeyer, LVT, says several organizations like VetSolutions are open across the country to serve hospitals within a set area. “We prepare all the contracts and security for the doctors,” Jurgensmeyer says. “We pay the doctors once a month and bill each hospital, so we eliminate the hospitals’ having to deal with all the individual doctors and taxes and that sort. We cut each doctor a 1099 at the end of the year.” <HOME>
