The successful practice of veterinary medicine — an invitation to benchmark your practice

The Successful Practice of Veterinary Medicine, the most recent of the 3 priorities of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), is supported by the CVMA's Business Management and Marketing Committees. One of the goals of the Business Management Committee is to analyze the business and economic environment, and to provide programs to support the effective and efficient management of the veterinary business enterprise. To this end, the Business Management Committee has been involved in a number of initiatives, including publishing a series of 5 case studies of best-managed practices across the country, producing 4 online business management courses, and publishing employment guidelines for recent veterinary graduates.

To further its goal of supporting the efficient and effective management of the veterinary business enterprise, the CVMA recently joined the founding partners (the American Veterinary Medical Association [AVMA], the American Animal Hospital Association [AAHA], and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges [AAVMC]) of the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues (NCVEI) in the United States to offer CVMA members access to a new online interactive business tool — The National Benchmarking Program. The National Benchmarking Program, which can be accessed through the CVMA's Web portal (www.canadianveterinarians.net), is exclusive to CVMA members.

The program offers 14 benchmarking tools to help veterinarians improve the economic success of his/her practice. Each of these tools allows companion animal practice owners to compare their clinic's performance with practices of a similar size, and within the same geographic region, within Canada or the United States. In addition to generating charts and graphs for data comparisons, each tool is linked to sections with additional information (1). The “Why is it important?” section describes the tool and how the information is used to manage a practice. The “Recommended treatment” section provides suggestions to the practice owner on how to improve this particular area of the business. If, for example, the tool identifies an inventory control program, immediate feedback is provided on how the problem could be addressed with examples of how practices are handling inventory control successfully (1).

To kick-start the program, provincial veterinary medical associations provided the CVMA with their current aggregate economic data to seed the database with Canadian data. Subsequently, the CVMA invited a small number of practice owners in each of the Canadian provinces to be part of a cross-country validation group. Participants were invited to input their respective clinical data into the National Benchmarking Program. The purpose of this exercise was to verify and update the database's current economic data and, more importantly, to provide participating clinics with the opportunity to benchmark their practice with similar practices in a particular geographic region.

The value and utility of the benchmarking database improves with each entry of actual data. The CVMA's goal is for all its members to contribute their practice data to the National Benchmarking Program, which will, in turn, enable the veterinary profession in Canada to better understand how it can become more effective economically.

Please accept my invitation to take advantage of this valuable membership service. I encourage you to log on to the CVMA's Web site for the profession and to test the National Benchmarking Program. You do not have to be a financial wizard to participate. You can start small with just a few pieces of information and, as you gain confidence, expand your data entry to become more detailed and comprehensive. Confidentiality of all information entered into the system is protected. Systems are in place to ensure that only aggregate data from a number of practices can be viewed.

Although the initial thrust of the benchmarking program is companion animal practice, the NCVEI and the CVMA have committed to expand the database to include equine and food animal practice in future phases. In fact, a recent grant was announced by the AVMA to allow for the final development of benchmarking tools for equine practice (2). Through its partnership with the NCVEI, the CVMA is also able to gain access to the services and benefits resulting from the different NCVEI working groups. The CVMA's Business Management Committee will be looking at ways of using the benchmarking data, and the outcomes of the NCVEI working groups, to develop peripheral business management tools for Canadian veterinarians, and for the education of veterinary students.

The successful practice of veterinary medicine is a CVMA priority. The CVMA has invested considerable financial and human resources to provide the National Benchmarking Program to members. Access to the NCVEI's benchmarking tools through the National Benchmarking Program will show veterinarians that there is a better way to manage their business enterprise. The benchmarking tools will answer the following questions: (i) How good are we?, (ii) How good can we be?, (iii) How can we improve?, (iv) How are superior performance levels achieved?, and (v) What practices do we need to adopt to be as good as the best? (3). I believe strongly that participation in the Canadian Benchmarking Project by all CVMA members will benefit veterinary practice owners, associates, and employees. I encourage all CVMA members to access this valuable tool provided to them by their national association.