Leadership

You can improve outcomes by utilizing lean process techniques to optimize the way a patient moves through your hospital.

Moving a patient through a veterinary hospital is a complex activity involving many opportunities to make minor improvements that would result in better outcomes for the hospital, patient and client. Lean processes are those that have been analyzed and refined to maximize efficiencies, experiences, accuracy and financial outcomes. Utilizing studies of lean process techniques, I […]

A client bonding rate of 60% is nothing to celebrate. Use surveys, mystery shoppers, reminders and other tactics to get pet owners to come back to your clinic time after time.

When I present seminars, I talk about all the financial information that can be gleaned from practice management software, but do you know which benchmark I consider most important? Your practice’s bonding rate — the rate of return of clients within 18 months of their last visit. It’s your practice’s success rate. You might know […]

Team members and job candidates desire more than a paycheck. Benefits such as flexible schedules, paid CE and mentoring can produce happier employees.

Team members and job candidates desire more than a paycheck. Benefits such as flexible schedules, paid CE and mentoring can produce happier employees. Veterinary practices have found that they need to make the workplace as appealing as possible if they want to recruit and retain quality team members. In the past, clinics could simply advertise […]

Everyone on the veterinary team, from managers to groomers, is responsible for ridding the hospital of germs and then doing it again and again. Cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing is a never-ending job.

Virtually all businesses that are open to the public tout their enhanced cleaning protocols in light of the pandemic. We see it everywhere we go as customers. The veterinary profession is no exception. When it comes to personal safety, our clients and employees are more knowledgeable than ever. Infection control is essential and is more […]

Practices that conserve cash, champion job security and nurture clients will be ready to capitalize on an economic resurgence. When leadership takes care of the team, the team takes care of the business.

It became official June 8: The United States began its pandemic-fueled recession in February 2020 after experiencing the longest economic expansion in the nation’s history. The announcement was a bit difficult to reconcile because many veterinary practices are experiencing abnormally busy summers. However, as unemployment safety nets dissolve and consumer confidence erodes, hospital managers need […]

Practice owners need to be careful to avoid claims over discrimination, paid leave, medical testing and harassment.

As businesses reopen across the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic, veterinary practice owners are confronted with myriad decisions that can impact profits. Minimizing the risk from potential employee lawsuits should not be a primary consideration, but it does need to be an important part of the reopening calculus. Returning to Work If your clinic […]

COVID-19 tested the ability of practice leaders to adapt to change. The profession will emerge better equipped to tackle the next challenge with optimism and grace.

What a dynamic time this is. As I write this article in mid-April, I wonder how my veterinary practice will be operating when you read this in early June or afterward. Will stay-at-home orders still be in place? Will the veterinary team at Daniel Island Veterinary Hospital be healthy and able to work? Will pet […]

Most people and teams default to some variation of “no” or “yes, but.” The alternative is your ticket to resilience and peace.

In rapidly changing and uncertain circumstances, the practice of “Yes, and” and the related principles of improvisational theater provide a refreshing and hopeful alternative to the human tendency to react based on fear or a desire to maintain control. When it comes to being present in the moment, letting go and trusting the process, and […]

COVID-19 forced veterinary practices to forgo clinic walk-ins and instead move to parking lot transfers. You can make such non-traditional interactions even better for the client.

If you had told me a few months ago that I would walk into a grocery store and see bare shelves, or that I would be required to stay home and wear a mask when I go outside, I would have said you were out of your mind. Yet, that is our new reality as […]

We learned to navigate through the unthinkable and prepare for the unknown.

As I write this article, the world is smack dab in the middle of a bona fide pandemic. We are all scrambling to adjust and continue to provide veterinary services to clients while at the same time trying to take care of our businesses, our employees and ourselves. It has been a tremendously stressful time […]