5 Ways Good Doctors Say Bad ThingsSeptember 12, 2014You’ve had a vomiting, diarrhea and hit-by-car morning. It’s 6 p.m. and you finally call a client who left a message at 9 a.m. to discuss her pet’s senior blood work and urinalysis. You start the rapid-fire conversation with, “I’m so sorry that I didn’t call you earlier. We’ve had a crazy day at the clinic, and I didn’t have time to call you until now.” What the client hears is, “Your pet is not important to me.” Your hurried tone transfers your anxious emotions to the client. Even the best doctors can make communication mistakes and risk losing clients. Here are five communication blunders and how you can correct them: 1) Rushing through follow-up calls. No matter how stressful your day, take a deep breath and start fresh with each phone call. Say, “Mrs. Myers, thank you for your message this morning. I have reviewed Opus’ blood work and urinalysis and have great news. His results are within normal ranges. Let me explain each result to you. … We love to celebrate the good news of normal test results. We will continue to monitor Opus’ health with preventive care exams every six months and will repeat his blood work …
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6 Ways Your Client Service Team can Grow Your BusinessSeptember 10, 2014 A front-office team can influence clients’ decisions to buy products as well as phone shoppers’ choice to select your clinic. Try these proven techniques to increase sales to existing clients and welcome more new ones. 1) Update your phone greeting to promote new products, services or veterinarians. Your phone rings hundreds of times each day, giving you opportunities to tell pet owners about new offerings. Whenever you introduce a new product, let callers know. “Thank you for calling <Your Veterinary Hospital>, where we now offer Vectra 3D for flea-and-tick protection. This is <your name>. How may I help you?” Tell clients when you add new equipment that advances patient care. Say, “Thank you for calling <Your Veterinary Hospital>, where we now offer laser therapy for improved healing. This is <your name>. How may I help you?” Almost twice as many cats as dogs never visit the veterinarian, according to the American Association of Feline Practitioners. If your hospital becomes a Cat Friendly Practice, let every caller know because cats are America’s most popular pet. Say, “Thank you for calling <Your Veterinary Hospital>, where we are now a cat-friendly certified hospital. This is <your name>. How …
Should You Buy A Practice?September 8, 2014 I never thought I’d buy a practice. Though I’d gone to a swanky business school and impressed my professors with projects demonstrating remarkable returns on veterinary practice investments, they’d only grudgingly forfeit the “A” … while not-so-subtly stifling a B school-sized yawn. Verbatim quote: “Why buy a candy shop when you can run Nestlé-Purina?” Translation: We’re not in the habit of inviting the unambitious to our exclusive club and charging $100,000 a year just to churn out small-minded, shiftless, endowment-sucking slackers. I guess it was that kind of slim thinking that stuck to my ribs as I contemplated all my decidedly undelicious options upon graduation. Pharma? Ag? Corporate practice? Yuck! For me, anyway. What’s worse, I’d inconveniently taken on a parasite whose presence would loom larger than my student loans. It’s true. The untimely arrival of an infant (while ever so beloved) didn’t do much to recommend a practice purchase. Which only makes sense to anyone who’s been there, single-handedly or otherwise. I mean, who has the energy to consider running a business when you’re derriere-deep in babyland? All of which explains why I dabbled—admittedly half-heartedly—in the dot-com thing. It also sort of …
Is That A Banana? The Story Behind A Popular X-RaySeptember 5, 2014 The Veterinary Practice News 2014 annual "They Ate WHAT?!" contest has taken the world by storm. While the story of the Great Dane who ate 43 1/2 socks has been the most popular entry so far, a lot of interest been on Dragon, a bearded dragon who ate a toy banana and lived to tell the tale. Veterinarypracticenews.com Dragon, a bearded dragon, came into the Gladstone Animal Clinic because it wasn't eating. I called Andrew Rambo, DVM, of Gladstone Animal Clinic in Gladstone, Missouri to get the details of behind Dragon's diagnosis and surgery. As the story goes, Dragon was brought into the clinic because he was "turning his scaly nose up at food." Dragon, the breaded dragon was "friendly and well-cared for... We weren't sure what was wrong with him," Rambo said. An obstruction or blockage were possible causes for its acute anorexia, but Rambo needed to do an X-ray to properly diagnose Dragon. Dragon was living with his owner's grandmother, who was hesitant to do X-rays at first. Since Dragon wasn't a dog or cat, an X-ray seemed excessive. "But her granddaughter loved …
They Ate WHAT?! - A Look Behind The ContestSeptember 5, 2014 Veterinary Practice News editor Marilyn Iturri created the “They Ate WHAT?!” contest in 2006 to showcase the humorous situations veterinarians and pet owners can face as well as the clinical advances available through digital radiography. The 2014 contest was sponsored by Trupanion, a pet insurance company in Seattle, Wash. This year the first place winner, a frog that had eaten 30 rocks from inside his cage, was submitted by Shawn Messonnier, DVM of Paws & Claws Animal Hospital in Plano, Texas. Tim Gossman, DVM, of Gulf Breeze Animal Hospital took home the second place prize with his entry of a German shorthaired pointer that had swallowed a shish kabob skewer. The submission by DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital of a Great Dane who had eaten 43.5 socks was not only the third place winner, but also took the internet by storm. The competition was a hit with readers from the start. Some trends have been apparent from the first year. Veterinarypracticenews.com A dog who ate a shish kabob skewer took home the second place prize from Trupanion. “This year’s entries featured some of our old standards, such as …
You Asked For It: More Crazy X-RaysSeptember 5, 2014 The 2014 annual "They Ate WHAT?!", sponsored by Trupanion, was a huge success, and one of the entries even took the Internet by storm. We received a lot of entries and couldn't fit them all into the magazine. Check out some of the other entries we received. A Cat Ate What?! Matthew Schroeder DVM Crossroads Veterinary Hospital Painesville, Ohio Veterinarypracticenews.com The contents of Allie's stomach. A 2-year-old female spayed feline presented with vomiting and inappetance of 1 week duration. Abdominal palpation revealed an indistinct soft tissue mass in the cranial abdomen which required radiography. Radiographs revealed a stomach full of mineral opacity linear foreign material. Small intestines look moderately twisted and potentially plicated. Rest of abdomen within normal limits. Abdominal exploratory resulted in the removal of many large black hair-tie type rubber bands coated w/ fabric from the stomach. The owner recalled that the family was missing a large number of elastic headbands. Further examination revealed five to 10 large-sized black elastics that had been consumed by the feline patient. She made a …
Pet Insurer VPI Adopting Nationwide NameSeptember 5, 2014 Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. (VPI), which covers more than 500,000 U.S. pets, is getting a new name: Nationwide. Parent company Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. announced Tuesday that a family of subsidiaries selling everything from automobile and farm insurance to mortgages and financial services will be rebranded over the next 18 months. Headquartered in Brea, Calif., VPI is the nation’s oldest and largest pet health insurer, offering a variety of plans to the owners of cats, dogs, birds and exotic animals. The company was founded by Jack Stephens, DVM, and issued its first policy in 1982. Dr. Stephens later left to start a competitor, Pets Best Insurance Services of Boise, Idaho. Nationwide aims to bring all its businesses, ranging from VPI to Nationwide Insurance, under the same corporate brand and an updated logo. “We’re a company that has a much larger footprint than most people realize,” said Steve Rasmussen, CEO of the Columbus, Ohio, parent company, which did nearly $24 billion in business in 2013. “Nationwide is in all 50 states and features more products and solutions than our competitors, but customers in many areas aren’t aware of our strength, offerings and …
10 Steps to Protect a Big InvestmentSeptember 2, 2014 How much do you have invested in surgical instruments? $1,000? $10,000? $100,000? More? Good instruments are not only expensive, they are also delicate objects any surgery lover should treat with care and respect. How about the rest of your team? Do they treat your investment with care and respect? Do they know exactly what to do once they find a pile of bloody instruments in the sink? Here is a 10-step process to become a perfect instrument caretaker. 1) Soaking Surgical instruments are like dishes: the longer they dry out in the sink, the harder they are to clean. Fortunately, there are presoak sprays and enzymatic cleaners that can start the cleaning process for you. The box locks or hinges of all instruments should be kept open during the soaking phase. If you do not have time to take care of instruments in a timely fashion—say less than 10 minutes—never let them soak in water. Instead, spray them, and cover them with a wet towel. 2) Rinsing Rinsing instruments clears them of gross debris. Ideally, this should be done with distilled water. Tap water will do, but be aware that chlorine and minerals …
Embrace the World of Veterinary AppsAugust 29, 2014Smartphone apps can be valuable tools by which veterinary operations can help clients make appointments, find information, store a pet’s medical information, refill prescriptions, market themselves and more. Peter Weinstein, DVM, executive director of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association, can envision many scenarios in which apps can help clinics increase their business, such as helping to bring the patients in for annual checkups, and offer clients convenience and more frequent medical care for their pets. Imagine a client who is waiting in a doctor’s office with her child—the two-legged one—and she realizes she’s out of therapeutic food for her pet. She grabs her phone and opens an app connected to her veterinarian and orders a 50-pound bag refill. As the client is placing the order, she notices a reminder that it’s nearly time for the pet’s annual exam. One or two taps of her finger and an appointment is made. “As a smartphone user, I have apps on my phone for a variety of things and I do think that more people are doing searches on smartphones and tablets than desktops and laptops these days,” Dr. Weinstein said. Apps to Measure AliveCor’s veterinary heart monitor snaps onto an iPhone …
2014 X-Ray Contest WinnersAugust 27, 2014The 2015 "They Ate What?!" Radiograph Contest Now Accepting Entries! Animal hospitals in Texas, Florida and Oregon won Veterinary Practice News’ ninth annual radiograph contest, “They Ate WHAT?” Pet insurer Trupanion of Seattle, Wash., sponsored the contest and will provide cash awards to support the uncompensated care these hospitals provide pets. The first-place winner, Paws & Claws Animal Hospital of Plano, Texas, received $1,500, Gulf Breeze Animal Hospital in Gulf Breeze, Fla., won the $1,000 second prize, and DoveLewis Animal Hospital in Portland, Ore., will receive the $500 third prize. The Veterinary Practice News editorial team and several advisory board members judged the entries. The Winners First Place: Kermit the Frog Shawn Messonnier, DVM Paws & Claws Animal Hospital Plano, Texas Kermit had the munchies. His owner noticed the exotic frog eating the rock substrate in his cage, and radiographs confirmed the owner’s observation. More than 30 small ornamental rocks were removed in surgery and the frog recovered without complications. The owner wisely decided to remove the remaining rocks from the frog’s habitat. Second Place: A Shish Kabob Skewer Goes Missing Tim Gossman, DVM Gulf Breeze Animal Hospital Gulf Breeze, Fla. Marley, a neutered male
