10 pitfalls of an incomplete handbookJuly 4, 2018The employee handbook is an important tool for veterinary employers, yet many veterinary employers still do not have one, and those that do often have one that is outdated or inadequate.
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Find a culture crush, not a culture clashJuly 2, 2018Veterinary hospitals employ many talented medical professionals, but it’s an establishment’s culture that really sets it apart. When applying for a position within a veterinary practice, will any job do or are you looking for the best long-term fit?
The future of veterinary inventory managementMarch 23, 2018Running a veterinary hospital is no easy task—managing staff, client experience, finances, and marketing, not to mention delivering quality medical care to patients, are top of mind. In general, inventory management gets pushed aside. Having managed veterinary hospitals large and small, I certainly understand how inventory can be neglected. During my career, the priority in managing inventory was to keep the hospital stocked, with little regard to controlling costs. If we ran out of a medication or a product, I would get an earful. Over the past five years, veterinary medicine has changed. The cost of goods, overhead expenses, and, especially, wages are increasing at an unstainable rate. Minimum wage laws and "living wage" campaigns across the county are touching every aspect of veterinary medicine. These costs will continue to rise. Human healthcare went through a similar transition two decades ago. The answer to reducing costs was process improvement. Today most large healthcare systems have invested in Lean, Six Sigma, or some other form of Kaizen (continuous improvement) programs. The veterinary industry would be wise to follow this lead. Although change is difficult, the good news is human healthcare has already started this journey. Most of the methods, processes, …
Local SEO tips veterinarians need to knowFebruary 22, 2018Think about your behavior as a customer or patient. If you are looking for, say, a new restaurant or dentist, you'll probably do two things—look at their websites and look at online customer reviews. How much new business do you think restaurants or dentists would acquire if you couldn't use Google to find their websites? The same behavior applies to veterinary practices. For veterinarians, the numbers below further highlight the importance of local SEO—the techniques used to make a website appear prominently in Google's organic search results in a given geography. Consider these points: One-third of all mobile searches are local based, and the percentages are climbing. Google processes about nine billion local searches per month. A Pew study from 2013 revealed that about 93 million Americans have searched for healthcare topics online—and this was before mobile search became a factor. According to Moz Keyword Explorer, people search for "veterinarian near me" between 118,000-300,000 times per month in the U.S. The bottom line is this: If your website is optimized for local search, you can connect with more people who are in need of veterinary services. Here …
Petplan to hold veterinary clinic business strategy speaker seriesJanuary 12, 2018Petplan pet insurance announced it will hold its Business of Veterinary Medicine Conference in partnership with VMX on Feb. 2. The speaker series is designed to help independent veterinary practice owners answer the challenge posed by the increase in marketing-savvy, corporate-owned hospital networks. "Practice owners are becoming more aware of the need to pay attention to the business side of veterinary medicine," said Andy Roark, DVM, an industry speaker, author, and media personality who Petplan partnered with to develop the series. "The rise of corporate practices are really forcing business to the forefront." According to Dr. Roark, the most important business principles that practice owners and staff should focus on are strategy (where they are going as a practice), operations (efficiency in providing services), marketing (how to tell their story to find clients), and client experience (how the practice makes people feel). "Vets have always done a good job with operations and efficiency," Roark said. "The area that has the potential to make the biggest impact now is a practice's specific strategy for its clientele. Veterinarians are coming to the understanding that different clients want different things, and they can't be all things to all people. Practice …
5 considerations when choosing veterinary flooringSeptember 29, 2017Modern veterinary facilities and animal shelters face the same weighty challenges as human healthcare settings, with the added concerns of zoonotic pathogens, odor control, and managing patients of different species. Biosecurity ranks high on the list of priorities, as does overall patient comfort, both of which can significantly influence treatment outcomes.
Time Inc. latest corporation to reap pet, veterinary industry rewardsSeptember 12, 2017The lure of the lucrative pet products industry is hard to resist—even for a content king like Time Inc., which is launching PetHero, a paid membership program that leverages a network of veterinarians that belong to Pet Assure pet owners' club. Time Inc. claims it engages with more than 100 million pet owners and pet lovers through its pet-related content platforms. With the pet products and services industry surpassing $66 billion in 2016 and expected to exceed $70 billion by 2020, according to the American Pet Products Association, it comes as little surprise that the media giant is looking to take greater advantage of what this sector offers. How the PetHero program works PetHero membership plans begin at $20 per month for one-pet households and $25 for multipet households. After purchasing a plan, PetHero members receive a 25 percent discount on in-house veterinary services from more than 5,600 participating veterinary practices, a 15 percent discount on all products purchased through PetCareRx.com, seasonal gift boxes with pet toys and treats, and expert veterinary advice. The discounts on health care costs apply to all pets regardless …
Could your practice use a CWO?September 11, 2017Until recently, there were: The CEO, or chief executive officer; The CFO, or chief financial officer; The CIO, or chief information officer; The CTO, or chief technology officer; And a few others (CSO, CCO, and CKO anybody*?) I recently heard of the CWO, aka Chief WOW Officer, aka Director of WOW, as Nido Qubein calls it. The businessman and motivational speaker is currently the President of High Point University, an amazing private liberal arts university in High Point, North Carolina. Of course, there is a CWO at High Point. His job is to identify the un-WOW on campus, and turn it into WOW to improve the students' experience. Here are a few of the services provided. Each one honors an important value: • There is an ice cream truck on campus, and a bubble-gum machine at the entrance of the Dean's door (value: generosity). • Students can have a free car wash on week-ends to forget the dust caused by an extensive construction project (value: respect for others' property). • Valet parking for students after 9 pm (value: safety). • Live music at the cafeteria (value: rock 'n' roll forever?). Similar creative …
How call tracking barks up business for veterinariansSeptember 8, 2017There's no denying that veterinarians are dedicated to their craft. Animal care is complex and leaves little time for marketing—after all, a veterinarian belongs in the field, not at a desk. Regardless of the difficulties of veterinary work, owners will accept nothing less than the best for their pets. Ninety percent of pet owners regard their pets as family and have the same health care experience expectations as they would for a child or spouse. Confusing or inconsistent advertising can dissuade pet owners from a choosing a veterinarian—there's no kidding around with animal health. Some veterinarians are prioritizing better companion care through partnership with third-party providers. While outsourcing the business side of a practice alleviates major marketing responsibilities, as well as other routine tasks like accounting and human resources, it does not solve the entire problem for vets. If these campaigns are still based on gut decisions rather than data, there's little opportunity for vets to improve their marketing efforts over time. Call-tracking and analytics solutions remove the guesswork from attribution, even between online and offline efforts. As vets begin to understand which marketing channels are actually driving leads, they can adapt their advertising …
AAFP Cat Friendly Practice endorsements promote programSeptember 6, 2017The American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) has announced endorsements of the Cat Friendly Practice (CFP) Program by CATalyst Council, Cat Healthy, and the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. The program is a global initiative designed to elevate care for felines by reducing stress for the cat, their caregiver, and the entire veterinary team, according to the AAFP. The CFP program, launched in 2012, currently includes more than 1,100 clinics in North and South America. It provides tools to integrate the feline perspective into clinics' physical environments and the delivery of medical care, focuses on increasing the standard of feline care, educating practices about feline patients' needs, decreasing the stress of veterinary visits, and ensuring each cat receives the highest quality, according to the association. To earn the CFP designation, veterinary clinics must meet specific criteria, such as embracing gentle and respectful handling of all cats, providing adjusted procedures to make veterinary visits less stressful for cats and their caregivers, and training staff to understand the individualized needs of cats. "Visiting the veterinarian can be stressful for both cats and their caregivers," said Elizabeth Colleran, DVM, MS, DABVP (Feline), co‐chair of the CFP committee. "So often regular check-ups …
