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State unemployment tax audits: Employee or independent contractor?
December 1st 2004The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cares about accurate classification of employees and independent contractors, but so does your state unemployment tax department. No one ever thinks he or she will get audited, and many practitioners are surprised to learn that state unemployment departments often audit more frequently than the IRS.
Case study: Creating a nonprofit spay and neuter program
November 3rd 2004After Veterinary Economics published "Caught in the Middle: Business vs. Compassion" in June 2004, we received several letters fueling the discussion. One in particular, from Dr. Lowell Novy of Valley Veterinary Clinic in Simi Valley, Calif., provided an interesting solution: Start a nonprofit organization to help cover costs.
Intracorporeal suturing in minimally invasive surgery
November 1st 2004Minimally invasive surgery is a rapidly developing discipline in veterinary medicine, thanks to its widespread use in human medicine. During the past 20 years, veterinarians have watched a temporally similar development with arthroscopic surgery. While minimally invasive surgery has many advantages over traditional open surgery—including reduced postoperative pain, reduced recovery times, and improved operative results—there is a caveat: It requires specialized training and considerable experience. In this article, I'll focus on one particular minimally invasive technique—intracorporeal suturing.
Sutures: Past, Present, and Future
November 1st 2004We live in a time when polymer chemists work magic with different suture materials to give them specific properties that benefit surgeons. Today's sutures absorb within a consistent time frame every time veterinarians use them, possess specific handling characteristics, demonstrate good knot security, and cause minimal tissue inflammation.
Do your homework-and get estimates
November 1st 2004In the past year, I've learned that a little laziness and a lot of assuming can cost big bucks. First it was our radiology badges-I assumed we all paid about the same price for this service. But when an astute colleague asked about the going rate in our area, I learned I was paying four times more than some of my colleagues!
Practice for Profit: Eight ways to destroy productivity and morale
November 1st 2004IIf my mental calculator is not askew, Caryn and I have just completed Veterinary Productivity's 350th in-house, on-site, out-of-town, hotel food AGAIN, practice productivity consultation. Each one of these veterinary entrepreneurs asked us to help improve their bottom lines. Oh, they said they wanted to streamline their services, make sure that they weren't missing any client service opportunities, yada yada yada. What they all really wanted was more money to play with at the end of each month just in case, however unlikely, they ever decided to retire.
Surgical Stapling in Abdominal Surgery
November 1st 2004Surgical stapling equipment allows the small-animal surgeon to perform a variety of challenging abdominal surgical procedures more quickly and consistently than with conventional, hand-suturing techniques. This article will summarize the use of these devices.
Giving an old house a cutting-edge extension
November 1st 2004Combining history with innovation is a hallmark of New England. And Gardner Animal Care Center pays homage to that tradition by building its modern, high-tech veterinary hospital adjacent to a 233-year-old restored Massachusetts farmhouse.
The one-question client survey
November 1st 2004Ever wonder if there is just one customer satisfaction survey question that could accurately predict company growth? Consultant and author Frederick Reichheld spent two years researching that question, and published his findings in the Harvard Business Review.