Today's Veterinary Practice provides comprehensive information to keep every small animal practitioner up to date on companion animal medicine and surgery as well as practice building and management.
Issue link: http://todaysveterinarypractice.epubxp.com/i/133843
Read Nikhita Parandekar's opinion piece—Working with the Bear: Staying Aware of Vet School Problems—published in The Cornell Daily Sun at cornellsun.com/section/opinion/ content/2013/03/08/parandekar-working-bear-staying-aware-vet-school-problems. KENNETH HUMPHREYS, DVM One Love Animal Hospital, Brooklyn, New York Dr. Kenneth Humphreys is a 2005 graduate of ross University school of veterinary Medicine. together with his partner and wife, Dr. eliza Lischin (also a ross graduate), they founded One Love Animal Hospital (onelovevet.com) in 2010, which has grown into a thriving 5-doctor practice. As someone now established in his career, what is your view on the value of veterinary education? Would you still recommend this path to someone considering a career in veterinary medicine? i work with many aspiring veterinarians. i clearly point out the amount of student loan debt i incurred—$180,000—but encourage them to follow their dreams. i also recommend that students live simply while living on loans. the veterinary industry is not isolated in the increase of educational debt burden. i believe, if you remain flexible and have a strong work ethic, financial solvency is a reality. While veterinarians do not join this profession to become rich, most of us didn't choose it to live near the poverty line either. As a profession, we need to communicate the value of our education and charge for our skills appropriately. How aware were you of your student debt when you were in school? How did you keep it manageable? i understood that i was taking on a large amount of debt to reach my dream. Once i signed my name on my first semester loan documents, i had no choice but to work hard and succeed. if i had failed in my endeavor, it would be very difficult for me to repay these loans without this profession. When living on loans in school, i made sure to live within my means and acquire as few loans as possible. Once working, like many of my classmates, i made sure to pick up extra shifts when they were available. i believe it is likely that default rates will increase. Not only the debt holder will be affected; these increased costs will DANIEL EISENSTADT, JD, MBA President, Community Veterinary Partners An attorney by training, Daniel eisenstadt holds a JD from University of virginia school of Law and an MBA from Harvard Business school. He left his career as an investment manager in 2009 to cofound community veterinary Partners (cvpco. com), now a family of 25 hospitals in the Mid Atlantic region, and lives in Philadelphia with his family. Over the past few years, several studies have been published that provide contrasting views of the veterinary economic outlook, work force needs, and challenges within the industry. How do you make sense of the differing opinions? Before i became involved with veterinary medicine as a co-owner of practices, my partners and i studied the industry. One of the interesting things about this sector is the relative lack of clarity when it comes to financial performance. in other business sectors, you can follow dozens of comparable companies to establish ultimately be passed to the consumer, as prices will increase accordingly to cover new graduates' costs. Friction develops between what our industry and clients can afford and the salary a new graduate requires to be solvent. What role has your student debt played in your ability to achieve financial success? it has definitely been a hurdle, and can be daunting to overcome. However, my educational debt has made me more driven to succeed. i believe our profession is uniquely poised for almost limitless job opportunities, as long an individual is willing to be flexible. examples include jobs in academia, private practice, pharmaceuticals, and both national and international governments. My opportunity to be financially successful came through practice ownership. the current lending climate is very open to funding new veterinary ventures. i was fortunate to receive 100% financing though Bank of America Practice solutions, and factored in my educational loan debt when determining my financing package. Prior to applying for a practice startup loan, i made sure to manage a good FicO score and develop a strong business plan. Our practice opened in November 2010 and now employs 5 doctors and 15 support staff. Do you believe that foreign training institutions influence the supply of veterinarians in the U.S.? Does that negatively impact the industry? there are a number of very good veterinary schools located outside the U.s, including those serving students primarily from this country. As i've said, our profession offers a wide range of career opportunities to veterinarians who have strong training and a commitment to succeed. a reliable feel for how an industry is performing. veterinary medicine is highly fragmented. relatively few companies disclose their financial performance, and even so, large corporations don't necessarily represent the independent veterinary hospital. Most surveys and studies that attempt to benchmark the industry do so at a national level and/or fail to compare "apples to apples." National studies make general statements about the "average" situation; however, we all intuitively know that local economic issues are very different. Yet blanket assumptions based on broad data are often made. the net effect is that we often end up missing some very real issues in local markets that affect practice owners in very different ways. Do you perceive an over or under supply of veterinarians in the industry? i can only speak to our experience: in general, we have quite a few applicants for associate veterinarian openings, but we have been hiring and i know that many other practices have been May/June 2013 today's veterinary Practice 73 Perspectives: the Future of veterinary Medicine PersPectives |