By: Leather Brice

In most conversations I’ve had with practice owners in the past year I’ve heard their biggest concern is staffing. We need people! We need associates and kennel techs and registered techs…every hospital is hiring and every hospital is experiencing the stress and frustrations from being short staffed. How can we take this negative and make it a positive? Are we looking at what might set new hires up for success and increase the longevity of veterinary professionals in our practices while on the search for these illusive creatures? Start with what we CAN control and that is the here and now in our hospitals.

Creating, Implementing and Training Standards of Care and Process can not only set your new hires up with expectations and provide amazing care for your client’s pets but also align your current team. Three key benefits of implementing Standards of Care in your Veterinary hospital are consistency, improved efficiency, and training.

Start by reviewing wellness and illness topics. Hold a meeting with the doctors. Divide up the top 20% wellness and illness topics. Assign each doctor 2-4 diagnosis for which you want to bring industry standards into your practice. Set a due date for when research needs to be completed.

Next, schedule an offsite meeting. During this meeting, each doctor will share their findings. Discussion about these findings will ensue, and a consensus should be reached regarding standard of care. A protocol for the practice will be created and then finalized.

By Sarina Wijts, CVPM, CVT, CVBL

The first quarter of the year has come to end. You feel like things went well and cannot wait to hear about the outcome. The accountant sends over the quarter review and alerts the owner to the fact that your net profit is down by 3%. The owner asks you to start an investigation to decipher the cause and how to rectify this deficit before the end of the second quarter. Where do you start?

You wrack your brain on what data you would like to collect and conclude that numbers speak truth, you will need to review the practices financial statements. You ask the accountant to send you some information, pull up the profit and loss statement and see a literal sea of numbers. It is so intimidating. Your first instinct was right, numbers speak truth, but how do we learn to READ numbers?

Before we begin our READ - ing session, there will be a few questions to consider. First, which accounting system are you using (Cash vs Accrual Accounting)? Second, how is the Chart of Accounts organized in your Accounting Software? And third, how will you utilize industry benchmarks?

Cash vs Accrual Accounting- Which is recommended?

Cash-based Accounting is when income is recorded when the cash is received, not when the services are performed. Expenses are recorded when the practice makes the payment, not when the expense is incurred.

Accrual-based Accounting is when income is recorded when the service is performed, not when the client ultimately pays for those services. Expenses are recorded when incurred, even if the client still owes the vendor.

By Jessica Strohecker, CVBL, PCM, CDMP

If Veterinary Practice Managers were prescribed like medication the intended use label would probably sound something like this:

The intended use of a veterinary practice manager is to help support practice goals, aspirations and guide the practice, clients, patients, and team to success. Warning: Handle with care.

Veterinary practice owners typically start looking for a practice manager when things start to feel out of control in their practice. Especially when human resource issues become the priority, team turnover starts to cycle, and management tasks begin to fall behind. Thus, causing a full-blown case of “Practice Brokentitus”, making the practice owner ready to prescribe the cure - a practice manager.

However, hiring one is never a cure. It is just a treatment to improve the negative symptoms happening in a veterinary practice.

Practice owners will regularly relinquish management duties, like human resources, to a new practice manager, as soon as they are hired. Always with the intent that the new manager will turn the practice around and everything will be fixed immediately. Then after a few months, when things are progressing slowly, the owner becomes antsy, feeling there has been zero progress. Which triggers the owner’s internal thought loop, “I hired a practice manager to fix the practice, but the practice isn’t fixed yet, so why do I have a practice manager if they haven’t fixed the practice.” This leaves the practice owner frustrated, feeling as if they made a terrible decision, and hired the wrong person. Owners will begin to consult with peers and business colleagues, only telling the story from their own perspective – never taking into consideration how frustrated, isolated, lost and potentially overwhelmed the manager may feel.

The practice manager’s perspective

By: Jessica Strohecker, CVBL

There is a quiet that sets in, right before he walks into the event. A nervousness from the audience and a hush of anticipation wondering what is about to take place. As the door opens an explosion of excitement abounds. Wearing his uniform, it’s easy to identify who the man is. Almost iconic, really. He smiles as he walks in, looking down at the small fan who is jumping up and down trying to get attention from his new hero.

Funny, how a typical Tuesday new puppy appointment sounds just like a pro-wrestler entrance. Paging, Dr. Terry Bollea, paging Dr. Bollea.

I loved watching wrestling when I was a kid. Specifically, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant, Jake the Snake Roberts and Hulk Hogan. If you were an 80’s kid, reading those names probably brought back a few memories. Imagery of bright costumes, toys and maybe even a pro wrestler jumping off the turnbuckle, flash in your mind. It is those memories of pop culture powerhouses that inspired so much of my marketing career.

Now you may be wondering, what does Hulk Hogan have to do with veterinarians? Really Hulk Hogan?

It’s all about branding, brother.

Now, this is not going to be a post, where I feel veterinarians need to give themselves a nickname, wear a flashy costume or have a crazy gimmick. No, it is about creating a brand that stands the test of time. (However, The Vaccinator, would be an awesome nickname for a wrestling veterinarian.)

Creating a brand is not something practice owners or veterinary associates really think about when they go into practice. Many veterinarians went into veterinary medicine for the love of pets, not to become well-known public figures. The veterinarians I know are pretty camera shy and never really like being the center of attention unless they are in the safety of a closed exam room or directly in front of a client. In a day and age where social reputation can make or break you as a veterinary professional, branding is one of the most important components to your success.