Provides a quick veterinary reference to all things practice management related, with fast access to pertinent details on human resources, financial management, communications, facilities, and more
Blackwell's Five-Minute Veterinary Practice Management Consult, Third Edition provides quick access to practical information for managing a veterinary practice. It offers 320 easily referenced topics that present essential details for all things practice management—from managing clients and finances to information technology, legal issues, and planning.
This fully updated Third Edition adds 26 new topics, with a further 78 topics significantly updated or expanded. It gives readers a look at the current state of the veterinary field, and teaches how to work in teams, communicate with staff and clients, manage money, market a practice, and more. It also provides professional insight into handling human resources in a veterinary practice, conducting staff performance evaluations, facility design and construction, and managing debt, among other topics.
KEY FEATURES:
Presents essential information on veterinary practice management in an easy-to-use format
Offers a practical support tool for the business aspects of veterinary medicine
Includes 26 brand-new topics and 78 significantly updated topics
Provides models of veterinary practice, challenges to the profession, trends in companion practices, and more
Features contributions from experts in veterinary practice, human resources, law, marketing, and more
Supplies sample forms and other resources digitally on a companion website
Blackwell's Five-Minute Veterinary Practice Management Consult offers a trusted, user-friendly resource for all aspects of business management, carefully tailored for the veterinary practice. It is a vital resource for any veterinarian or staff member involved in practice management.
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In general, veterinary practices have changed very little over the past few decades. Although there are a number of corporate players in the field in the United States, probably representing 12–15% of small animal practices, the vast majority of veterinary practices in the country are owned as sole proprietorships, closely held corporations, or partnerships. The retail environment, on the other hand, has changed dramatically over the same period. Major retailers have entered bankruptcy protection, whereas online retailers and discount chains have evolved to better serve the perceived needs of the public.
Pet owners today want choices in the services they can request: 24-hour access to health-related information, the ability to price-shop for items they consider commodities, the opportunity to participate as equal partners in health decisions, and the ability to interact on their own schedules. Today’s consumer also wants choice, variety, value, and time-saving options. These are often hard to accommodate in current veterinary practice models.
TERMS DEFINED
Commodity:
An item that is considered interchangeable, and whose price is a reflection of supply and demand. For example, one 500 mg capsule of cephalexin is much like any other to a client, regardless of brand name and whether they get it at a veterinary hospital, at their local drug store, or through an online pharmacy.
Economy of Scale:
The reduction in cost per unit that results when operational efficiencies allow increased production. Thus, there are savings, because as production increases, the cost of producing each additional unit decreases.
Economy of Scope:
The reduction in cost that results when delivering two or more distinct goods or services, when the cost of doing so is less than that of delivering each separately. It is the efficiency attributed to variety and diversification rather than volume.
Full-Time Equivalent:
A method of comparing practices based on a full-time schedule of 40 hours a week. If a practice has two veterinarians, one working 50 hours a week and one working 20 hours a week, that practice has 1.75 full-time equivalent veterinary positions [i.e., (50 + 20)/40].
Mom-and-Pop:
A colloquial term for a small, closely held company in which the principals owning the business are also the principals working in the business.
Retail-Anchored Practice:
A veterinary practice affiliated with a retail entity.
ISSUES AND OPTIONS
THE CURRENT SITUATION
The veterinary small animal market in the United States is a highly fragmented environment of approximately 28,000 primary care practices. The majority of practices employ fewer than three full-time equivalent veterinarians.1
The small number of veterinarians per practice does not bode well for the continued success of the current veterinary model. Operating a veterinary hospital is an expensive undertaking, and there are few economies of scale or scope to be derived from such small business ventures (see 2.1 – Workplace Management). Other small retail units, such as “mom-and-pop” drug stores or hardware stores, have largely been replaced by entities that have revolutionized those industries to better meet customer needs.
Most veterinary practices in a community are remarkably similar, with little to differentiate one from another in the minds of consumers (see 6.15 – Practice Differentiation). They are often competing against one another for the same small market share, with new veterinary practices opening in local markets that can barely support the practices already in existence.
The result is that communities often have many small veterinary practices with proportionately high overheads, because these practices tend to offer all veterinary services (e.g., surgery, hospitalization, radiography, etc.) and must be staffed accordingly. The competition puts downward pressure on prices while keeping hospital costs high. This leaves these small practices chasing the same resources that become harder and harder to attract: clients, trained staff, and associate (employed) veterinarians.
The current model – in which clients who have pets with health problems schedule appointments with their primary care veterinarians, receive treatment, and/or are referred to specialists and then are expected to follow special instructions – is a system fraught with inefficiencies. It is one that has never worked particularly well, either in human medicine or veterinary medicine. Current studies of compliance in the veterinary industry, in which veterinary estimates of client compliance are far more optimistic than the facts suggest, attest to this (see 4.11 – Compliance and Adherence). Actually, few veterinary practices track compliance, increasing the likelihood that clients are not being adequately served by the practice or that they are receiving some of the needed services elsewhere (including nonveterinary outlets).
Today’s veterinary graduates also confound the picture for current practice models. Many are seeking lifestyle benefits that are harder to come by in small practices: a shorter workweek, on-the-job mentoring, continuing education, and the potential for piecemeal equity ownership. These smaller practices can also be difficult to market when the owner wishes to sell. Corporate practices have their own criteria for practice acquisition that often does not include small practices, and valuations for these small practices no longer mirror past standards wherein the seller could expect to be paid based on a certain percentage of gross revenues. In addition, in recent years, there has even been the prospect of staff joining unions in some practices, suggesting that not everyone is satisfied with the current business model.
Veterinary graduates these days also tend to concentrate in clinical practice. Although needs assessments suggest that there are no shortages of veterinarians in practice, need and opportunities exist in research, industry, and public health.2
THE MARKETPLACE
Today’s pet owner is also a savvy consumer, familiar with elite business practices such as those used by Walmart, eBay, Disney, Amazon, Internet pharmacies, and out-of-country pharmacies that offer lower rates (see 1.5 – Today’s Pet Owner).
In the American family of yesteryear there was a male head of the household, a female stay-at-home spouse, and two-plus children. With a stay-...
Table of contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Editor-in-Chief and Consulting Editors
List of Contributors
Preface
About the Companion Website
Section 1 Marketplace
Section 2 Administrative Management
Section 3 Human Resources
Section 4 Client Relationship Management
Section 5 Communication
Section 6 Marketing Management
Section 7 Financial Management
Section 8 Cash Management
Section 9 Operations Management
Section 10 Information Technology
Section 11 Facility Management, Design and Construction
