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.
PEER REVIEWED
PRACTICE BUILDING
Practices That Continue to Grow What Are They Doing Right?
Karen E. Felsted, DVM, MS, CPA, CVPM W
hat can you do to grow your practice? Whether
you're the owner, an associate veterinarian, veterinary technician, practice manager, receptionist, or other staff member, it takes the entire practice team working together to create a successful practice in these tough economic times. In the next couple of
issues of Today's Veterinary Practice, Dr. Karen Felsted is going to discuss what sets growing, successful veterinary practices apart from their competitors and how you can implement their business models in your practice. Much of the information
presented in this series of articles is based on the results of a recent, cutting-edge survey that investigated veterinary practice performance from the viewpoints of both the veterinary professional and pet owner.
I
t's no big secret that our previously recession- proof profession was strongly impacted by the recent recession and continues to feel this
impact even though the recession has been technically over since June 2009. The decline in veterinary visits that has
concerned veterinarians and practice managers, however, started well before the recession. Information from multiple reports, both of veterinary practice and pet owner activities, indicates the decline in visits started in the early 2000s. The recession made these trends worse, but it didn't cause them. If practices are going to continue to thrive
and grow, it is critical that practice owners and managers understand why visits are declining, what pet owners want from their veterinary practice, and what practices that have continued to grow during the last few years are doing differently from other practices. Findings from the Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study1,2
offer many
insights into these questions (see Inside the Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study, page 56).
January/February 2012 Today's Veterinary Practice 55