10 ways to reach the summit of veterinary medicine
Close your eyes take a breath, kneel down in the High Temple, our High Temple, the exam room, and remember the smell of sweet-and-sour puppy breath.
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Kneel down in the High Temple
Close your eyes take a breath, kneel down in the High Temple, our High Temple, the exam room, and remember the smell of sweet-and-sour puppy breath.
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at LakewoodAnimal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Engage
Acknowledge how much people love their pets, and tell them what a great job they’re doing with their pets. And every time you enter the exam room, drop your shoulders, raise your head, and say to yourself, “This is the most important client and pet I’ll see today.”
You have to engage in the exam room, the way a climber engages with the mountain. When you’re picking your way up the edges of a sheer cliff, you can’t take a single step off. You can’t take a single step for granted. Not one.
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at Lakewood Animal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Adjust to the new normal
If I’m right about the future, we all have a new mountain to climb. Some people think these new, lean, frugal times will pass quickly, and we’ll be instantly transported back to the easy prosperity we’ve known the past 30 years or so. It’ll be go, go, go and grow, grow, grow, again. I don’t think so. I think this new frugality is here to stay.
I’ve always practiced with this principle: Tell people everything they need to do for their pet, but only what they need. I think that’s how you build trust. In the new normal, the reality of the new frugality, that principle is more important than ever.
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at Lakewood Animal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Work toward fear-free visits
There are lots of tricks you can use to make your patients as comfortable as possible while they’re in your hospital. Use them. Follow each unpleasant experience with a tasty treat. Examine some dogs in the parking lot. Leave some cats in the carrier. Spritz the air with pheromones. Whatever it takes to keep the fear factor down. Your patients and your clients will both love you for it.
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at Lakewood Animal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Don’t overlook the basics
It’s time to go back to the tip-of-the-nose to the tip-of-the-tail exam. When a woman brings in her dog with a shoulder complaint, I say, “I’m going to get to that shoulder but first I’m going to give Elmo a comprehensive physical exam to make sure we don’t miss anything with an eye to always catch things in their earliest phase when we prevent unnecessary pain, expense or worse.”
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at Lakewood Animal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Find a way to get to everything
I always run out of time in the exam room. I know you can’t imagine why. When I do, I tell the pet owner, “I have prioritized the most important instructions. Do you mind if I contact you later (call or e-mail) when I get a break and fill you in on the rest of what I want you to know to keep your pet living a healthy, happy life?” Then I know I can cover the bedrock topics I feel I must talk to every client about: nutrition and body condition, oral health, preventive health care, and behavior solutions.
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at Lakewood Animal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Praise people for bringing their pets to you
They deserve it. Talk to pets in the exam room and tell them they’re lucky to have a mother who loves them so much and takes such good care of them. On checkout, don’t just regurgitate a robotic response of “Have a good day.” Rather, jolt the consciousness with something like “I just have to tell you that it’s an honor and a privilege to have someone like you as a client.”
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at Lakewood Animal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Always set up the next appointment before the last one is finished.
You do that when you visit your hairdresser, dentist, when you have your oil changed or when you have the lawn guy out to spray. So in every visit you need to accomplish two things: promote wellness --- via twice-yearly wellness visits --- and make the next appointment.
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at Lakewood Animal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Take a stand for pet health
If you offer the best information, you greatly influence animal health decisions. No website can advocate for a pet when the owner wavers. We must shout from the mountaintops that the veterinarian is the true pet health expert, even as we acknowledge that an informed, involved client is the best partner in caring for a pet.
Photo by Susan Farley
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Focus on the power of pets
Illuminate the positive affect of pets on human health and well-being and hit the brass notes of why investing in a pet’s health not only celebrates and protects The Bond, it enhances human health, happiness and longevity. This greatly adds to the value equation of veterinary medicine.
Photo Quicksilver by Photography of Coeur d'Alene photographed at Lakewood Animal Hospital of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
