Good practice means using established and emerging resource bases

In today's complex and evolving business environment, the busy practitioner has less and less time to be “jack of all trades” when it comes to balancing patient care responsibilities, managing the practice, keeping up-to-date on current developments, and having a life outside the business. Engaging in each of these activities has an opportunity cost; to wit, less time available to pursue one of the other responsibilities.

Fortunately, the veterinary profession has made great strides in providing veterinarians with better support and greater varied expertise with respect to all the above functions. Practitioners should lean on their “primary advisors” for more than their traditional roles, as they have been defined.

Primary advisors to practitioners generally include accountants, legal counsel, insurance advisors, mentors or colleagues, and self-interest organizations capable of offering various forms of individual support products or services; continuing education; and specific practice management advice or general advice on strategic planning in all functional areas of a practice, including income trusts management, marketing, operations, human resources, facility management, and business and personal financial management. Each practice should be aware of, and subsequently identify, who these individuals are and what services are available.

Perhaps the greatest advances in terms of breadth of available services and products come from organizations representing the interests of the profession. Veterinarians who see membership in these organizations as “just another expense” need to recognize their number of potential direct benefits for the individual and indirect benefits for the profession. Without the support of practitioners, these organizations lack the financial leverage, political clout, critical mass, and economy of scale to effect timely change. Not only can these organizations help to facilitate more effective and efficient practice management, visible membership (framed certificates) to clients can help to brand a practice and signal to clients a perception of a relatively high level of assurance and professionalism that will translate into better care for their pets.

Domestically, in recent years, provincial veterinary medical associations and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) have broadened their services through such central and vital efforts, including, for example, the establishment of suggested fee guides and rationales for fees, consultative processes to help benchmark high performing practices, facilitation of employment for veterinarians changing roles, leadership on animal welfare issues, public relations, and, of course, continuing education.

Internationally, there are 2 organizations with a Canadian presence and with value-added services to practitioners that are worth noting and publicizing.

The CVMA has created a working relationship or functional partnership with the National Committee on Veterinary Economic Issues (NCVEI). The NCVEI emerged several years ago to address the downward economic trend in veterinary practice that was identified by the 1999 KPMG veterinary market study in the United States (1). Since 2000, this organization has and is tackling many issues of importance to the profession in Canada and the United States, including pricing strategies; improving the delivery system; gender differences and demographic trends in the profession; and strategies to improve the skills, knowledge, attitude, and aptitude of veterinarians. Practitioners can “take the pulse” of their practice at no cost and can confidentially and anonymously compare their practice results with those of other similar or different practices.

Another international organization with a prominent profile and national membership base in Canada is the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA). I recently had the privilege of being appointed to the Board of the AAHA. Led by a talented Board and dedicated and skilled staff, the AAHA continues to set the bar for exemplary standards in companion animal care in North America.

The AAHA has recently embarked enthusiastically on some major initiatives, including an extensive revision and enhancement of the standards expected of AAHA accredited hospitals, changing their established publications, such as the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association and Trends to an electronic format for more effective access to a wider variety of literary sources on clinical and management issues, supplemented by an extensive variety of printed references available through the AAHA Press. The AAHA has a wide variety of on-site and remote access continuing education tools available to facilitate its vision of the “practice team” and to help to train and educate all team members for improved performance and service. The AAHA is further concentrating on management issues surrounding the lifecycle of the companion animal practice and veterinarian, from veterinary student and new graduate issues to transition issues for the later career veterinarian.

If you are seeking ways to improve your practice and further develop yourself or members of your staff, check out what some of the organized bodies of the veterinary profession have to offer. They are there to make our lives better!