Practice Pulse Blog

Dealing with substance abuse can be particularly difficult for small businesses because they don’t have the expertise or resources to devote to the topic. Substance abuse can create serious problems in a veterinary workplace including accidents, errors in patient care and legal liability. How big of an issue is this in veterinary medicine? When asked: “ Have you ever discovered an employee who exhibited behavior consistent with suspected substance read more...

Increasing revenue has become harder in the last decade or so. Most practices are dealing with pushback on the cost of veterinary care from pet owners, and therefore the large fee increases are harder to implement than they used to be. With the increase in the number of veterinarians and veterinary practices, competition for clients is also more difficult. Adding new services, however, remains an option—not only do new services allow a practice to read more...

Twenty years ago, most veterinary practices didn’t have a practice manager; these tasks were performed by the owner of the practice. As practices have gotten bigger and the environment in which veterinary medicine operates has gotten more complex, it is rare to find a practice that doesn’t have at least a part-time management person. The management team in many practices has also grown both in size and skill set. VHMA’s July 2019 Insiders’ Insights read more...

Most practices are spending more time and money on marketing activities than they used to keep their practices growing and keep clients bonded to the hospital. Digital media can be time-consuming to manage, and the practices who do it most successfully have clearly assigned team roles and a detailed digital marketing plan that keeps everyone on schedule and moving towards the same goal. This month's Insiders’ Insight survey takes a look at how practices read more...

Many factors are essential to the practice of quality medicine and surgery including having an appropriate range of high-quality equipment for both diagnostics and treatment and the right medications, supplies, and food to use in-house or send home with clients. The process for purchasing and replenishing these items varies from practice to practice, and May’s Monthly Management Survey asks about that process. No surprise, the practice owner (typically read more...