Two companies that monitor the financial performance of U.S. veterinary hospitals are seeing signs of improvement as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to play out.
iVET360 found that revenue on Wednesday, May 6 at 786 veterinary clinics was 7.2% higher than on the same weekday one year earlier. While the number of transactions was down 2%, the hospitals reported 23.5% more new clients and a 9.4% increase in the average transaction charge. Revenue on the previous day, May 5, was 8.1% higher than on the same Tuesday in 2019.
The double-digit surge in new clients is mostly tied to skyrocketing pet adoptions as animal shelters reduce their populations of cats and dogs, industry observers say.
iVET360, a provider of practice management services, reported that business started poorly in April and then gained momentum.
“Over the course of April, the industry saw a slow and steady movement across all major key performance indicators,” iVET360 noted.
Business was down significantly in April compared with the same month in 2019. For example, pharmacy revenue tracked by iVET360 dropped by 9%, surgery revenue by 14% and dentistry revenue by 33%.
“The large drops in dentistry and surgery were likely due to the bans on elective procedures in some states,” the company reported.
Another company, VetSuccess, discovered positive signs as the calendar turned from April to May. For the week of April 30 to May 6, revenue tracked at more than 2,500 veterinary hospitals jumped by 6.9% over the same period of 2019. Transactions, or invoices, fell by 2.2%.
Practices located in New York State, which has been hard hit by COVID-19, experienced a 10.7% drop in revenue year over year and 14.8% fewer invoices, according to VetSuccess.
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