Many practice-owner veterinarians still prefer to actively manage their business, as opposed to leveraging a practice manager or hospital administrator to do the heavy lifting while they provide oversight. While it is understandable that it can be difficult to relinquish some or all control of a practice, there are downsides to not doing so.
It is now accepted as best practice that a veterinarian’s time should be primarily spent doing skills only, they can do, tasks that generate the most revenue that only their license qualifies them to do. When a veterinarian is pulled away to manage any other task a differently qualified person can manage for less cost you are negatively impacting the revenue potential for the practice and essentially misaligning valuable resources.
There are several problems with this, the first of which is the concern of burnout in an unbalanced work/life scenario. Even in a single-doctor practice, there is still a large workload of administrative work necessary to run the business. Many single practice owners feel they cannot justify the expense of a practice manager, but it is certainly possible when one considers the production that could be brought in while freeing up doctor hours, not to mention the ability to strategically run the practice from a financial standpoint regarding proper pricing of services and expense management.
A second and larger concern is that of legality. While a veterinarian practice owner might be comfortable taking on the burden of running their practice and treating their patients alone, there can be unintentional errors that can lead to hefty legal fees and fines. For example, the world of Human Resources is ever-changing, and state and federal laws update frequently. Even if they were to stay stagnant, there is a huge pool of knowledge that most veterinarians are not trained to handle. There can be business crippling fines for a mistake as simple as politely asking a candidate about martial status or having children in casual conversation. If that candidate is not hired, it could be assumed by an employment lawyer that it may have had something to do with the inappropriate information asked at the interview and pursue a lawsuit. While this seems like a more obvious error, consider the mountain of other errors that a non-administrative professional may unknowingly make, such as misclassifying an employee status wrong, payroll issues, harassment lawsuits from employee issues, etc.
There is an argument to make for utilizing (and investing in) a well-trained practice manager from the growth, marketing, and financial perspective in a proactive way. There is even more of an argument to make for protecting yourself by employing an individual who is knowledgeable and well-trained in all areas of business that might negatively affect a practice owner’s livelihood, particularly Human Resources. It is reasonable to conclude that even in a single-doctor practice, there is reason to invest in a professional to run your business. Often, this requires selecting the right person and investing in their training for both of your futures, but it is certainly a worthwhile investment.
Posted on behalf of the Ethics Committee.
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