Fox Creek Animal Hospital, founded by Stuart Robson, DVM, MBA, in Missouri, has expanded from having three doctors to 18 doctors in four years through the co-ownership model. Photo courtesy Veterinary Practice Partners (VPP) From independent to corporate to joint ventures, veterinarians have a growing spectrum of ownership options to achieve their professional ambitions. A co-ownership model could work best for those seeking partnership, collaboration, and clinical autonomy, and will be detailed below. Take Stuart Robson, DVM, MBA, founder of Fox Creek Animal Hospital in Missouri. He leveraged the co-ownership model to grow his practice from three doctors to 18 in four years. “Partnering has truly transformed Fox Creek,” says Dr. Robson, adding how collaboration, trust, and a sense of community can propel the partnership to success. What is co-ownership? Ownership in veterinary medicine is evolving. Historically, veterinarians were limited to full ownership of independent clinics or being employees of corporate consolidators as options to own practices. Joint ventures distributing profits between corporations and veterinarians emerged as an alternative to this all-or-nothing ownership choice. Co-ownership is a newer model that goes beyond joint ventures. It is a partnership based on collaboration between veterinarians and corporations. With co-ownership, veterinarians can keep full clinical autonomy while their operational partner handles administrative functions, such as HR, finance, and IT. Together, veterinarians and corporations collaborate on how to achieve their shared goals. “Veterinary medicine is undergoing a paradigm shift,” says Dr. Robson, citing co-ownership as the “best” path forward, “where veterinarians partner with corporations to get the benefits of economy of scale and scope with the heart of medicine that only a veterinarian can offer.” Dr. Stuart Robson, founder of Fox Creek Animal Hospital in Missouri Co-ownership in action: Better together Dr. Robson started Fox Creek Animal Hospital in 2000 in a barn behind his home in Labadie, Mo. “As a veterinarian, I had no formal business training. The only way to grow was to learn from my mistakes over 20 years,” he says. “Business and medicine are so hard to balance.” With an ambition to become a leading animal care facility, Robson designed, planned, and built Fox Creek’s first brick-and-mortar location in Wildwood, Mo. The doors opened in 2006. By 2020, Robson had grown his hospital to three doctors and just under 20 employees. At that point, Robson decided he would need help to continue expanding. “I had built the business as much as possible,” says Robson. “I wanted to grow the brand and have other veterinarians be a part of that, and I couldn’t do that on my own.” Robson then decided to approach co-ownership by collaborating with Veterinary Practice Partners (VPP). Once the partnership became official on New Year’s Day 2021, Robson and VPP began expanding, emphasizing on people. First, they recruited more doctors and staff to serve a growing client base. Second, Robson provided hands-on mentorship to new doctors, while VPP provided formal training programs on dentistry and communication. Third, the teams worked together to enhance client experience through new tools and programs, such as a 24/7 online booking and a new online pharmacy. Throughout the partnership, Robson reports keeping complete control over clinical decisions between him and his clinical team. Together, they began scouting locations for new practices by combining the Fox Creek team’s local expertise with VPP’s approach to launching new practices using co-ownership. Fox Creek in Manchester, Mo., opened in 2022, and Fox Creek in Kirkwood, Missouri, opened in 2023. The hospital employs 18 doctors and more than 100 employees across three locations. Robson has also brought a new co-owner to his practices, which VPP refers to as a “partner.” In the co-ownership model, partners have an ownership stake in their local hospitals and take on leadership roles. “Our CEO measures success by the number of partners we have, not new hospitals that join us. That tells you where our priorities are,” Robson says. Dr. Robson examining a patient. How co-ownership can work for you The co-ownership model is more than just for veterinarians who want to expand existing hospitals; it serves a variety of veterinary ambitions, and practices that embrace it can benefit veterinarians with different goals. For example, associate veterinarians ready for the first steps of ownership can choose to own a small piece of a hospital. Entrepreneurial veterinarians can start a new hospital with the support of a partner. Veterinarians ready to enjoy retirement can pass on their legacy to owners who will continue to practice medicine. Veterinarians focused on growing clinical skills can join a hospital’s medical leadership. “There are different opportunities for different team members at different times in their careers … you don’t have to fit a certain mold to be a partner,” says Robson. Emma Shehan is a marketing and communications expert at Veterinary Practice Partners (VPP), with a background in creative and technical writing and emerging media. Shehan earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Loyola University Maryland and has worked in the veterinary medicine industry for four years.
