Business

Dr. Thomas E. Catanzaro sifts through the misconceptions about compliance issues in practice.

Dr. Marsha L. Heinke offers a lesson in phone etiquette to ensure your staff doesn't shut the door on clients even before they walk in.

Dr. Linda Randall explores how the veterinary team can have a direct influence on whether or not a client will except a recommendation.

Building a hospital is usually an effort of love-and a project you expect to enjoy for years. But Dr. Frank A. Klimitas built his new hospital, a historic building renovation, because of business needs rather than to fulfill a dream.

Don't just play the blame game; remain proactive in talking about herd issues

Asking the right questions critical during physical examination

Answer to practice woes could be as simple as 'who's answering the phone'

'They Love Lucy' star blind to long-term economic problems  

Since the beginning of the year, I am getting more and more calls from colleagues concerned about their financial stability, the erosion of their retirement funds and with the decline in client visits, the ability of their practice to weather this recession.

The Center for Specialized Veterinary Care, a new hospital in Long Island, N.Y., is the first to offer pet owners private rooms so they can stay with their hospitalized pets 24 hours a day.

Not every profit center suits every practice. How do you decide what to add? Follow these steps from Practice Management Editor Mark Opperman, CVPM, president of VMC Inc. in Evergreen Colo., and Indianapolis.

For years Dr. Susan M. Baker had heard colleagues and consultants tout the benefits of adding profit centers. But her old hospital just wasn't big enough to add any more services. So in 1999, when she outgrew the facility she had leased since 1990, she started working on plans for a new hospital. At 6,200 square feet, her new facility offers space for the additional services she dreamed of offering.

Formal reprimand, suspension, dismissal all appropriate at times

Mixed animal practitioners caught on the 'horns of dilemma'

Learn how to make lemonade out of life's lemons

Imagine yourself on a long trip. For the most part, traffic has been rolling along at 70 miles an hour on a highway with a 65-mile speed limit. You are a quarter mile behind the car ahead of you as you enter an area with a reduced speed 50 miles per hour sign, and you see a state highway patrol car just ahead with its radar pointed directly at you.

While clients offer untold excuses as to why they fail to comply with heartworm recommendations and senior screenings, the blame sometimes belongs to the one giving - or not giving - the recommendation.

DVM Newsmagazine

Soon-to-be-moms, nursing moms, and toddlers are a part of practice now more than ever. And as an ever-increasing number of female veterinarians seek employment, and eventually ownership, women's needs will influence facility design even more.

Innovative space-saving solutions, a flawless floor plan, and lots of love went into designing the 1,800-square-foot Landen-Maineville Animal Hospital.

Most veterinary practices don't measure client compliance. Instead, a whopping 83 percent of compliance estimates are based largely on feel and, consequently, overestimated.

Keep your staff current with new procedures, existing protocols

Dynamic evaluation of operation can be enough to ignite change

Pay close attention to deadlines, dates and expirations

The time has come the Walrus said to speak of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax and other inconsequential things.

AAHA study proof positive that practitioners too passive, optimistic about client compliance

Take five minutes to quiz your budget acumen

Knowing over-the-phone sales tactics can help you weed out helpful calls from time-wasters

When Dr. Dermot Jevens, Dipl. ACVS, moved from Pittsburgh to Greenville, S.C., in 1997, he decided he needed to get to know the area before building a hospital. So he leased space for his specialty practice from an emergency clinic. Animal Emergency Clinic (AEC), owned by 37 shareholders, welcomed Dr. Jevens and Upstate Veterinary Specialists (UVS) into the AEC facility.

Five years ago Dr. Neil Shaw and his 14 associates worked from a 1,500-square-foot facility. They had so little exam space they were forced to consult with clients over a picnic table or across the seat of a client's car. Dr. Shaw knew he needed more room, so he built an 11,575-square-foot facility to house 75 staff members in 1999-a facility that won a 2000 Merit Award from Veterinary Economics.