City guide subscribers grade veterinary care

When on a quest to locate a reputable veterinarian, many pet-owning consumers rely on word-of-mouth referrals and the trusty Yellow Pages.

Now, some savvy metropolitan consumers subscribe to a so-called "peer-reviewed" publication to hand pick the veterinarian with the most votes in their city.

That publication, Consumers' Checkbook, available on a semi-annual basis to nearly a dozen cities nationwide, rates service providers, such as veterinarians, on a regional basis.

The Washington, D.C. and San Francisco editions of Consumers' Checkbook have existed for nearly 30 years, while newcomer publications in Seattle, metro Philadelphia, Chicago and the Twin Cities joined the offerings this year.

"Instead of pulling out the Yellow Pages and throwing a dart at a list of veterinarians, we're actually giving people a basis to make an informed decision about which vet to take their pet to," says Mark Ciagne, researcher for Consumers' Checkbook.

The content of the magazines, which spans the gamut from auto repair shops to tree care services, is entirely survey driven. In cities such as Washington, D.C., where the subscriber base peaks at 60,000, the publication receives thousands of survey responses from its subscriber base exclusively.

"Rather than (consumers) only being able to ask one or two of their neighbors, we feel like we're asking thousands of their neighbors. We're aggregating all of their opinions and publishing them in one place," says Ciagne.

In expansion areas of the publication, Consumers' Checkbook surveys local consumers and region-specific Consumer Reports (CR) subscribers to which they have access, along with random telephone surveys, according to spokesman Frank Mueller.

(Although no "official" affiliation exists between CR and the Checkbook, Consumers Union, which publishes CR, founded Consumers' Checkbook in the 1970s with a grant.)

Typically, the Checkbook will record the total number of ratings each veterinarian received from consumers, which can vary from 10 to more than 50. Veterinarians don't know they're being rated.

How it works

Those surveyed are asked to list veterinarians they used in the past year along with content for up to 60 other service categories on the questionnaire. They rate the categories according to various criteria with a ranking of inferior, adequate or superior. Consumers' Checkbook then publishes the percent of surveyed customers who rated the firm superior for that category.

"By asking all these different questions, we're letting people decide for themselves which criteria are important to them and basing their decision on that," says Ciagne.

Criteria on which veterinarians are rated includes:

• Listening to the client

• Giving helpful advice by phone

• Spending enough time with the client

• Maintaining pleasant office and staff

• Giving prevention/self-help advice

• Apparent competence and thoroughness.

• Helping keep pet's medical costs down

Charlie Powell, public information officer for the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, wrote about the Seattle version of Consumers' Checkbook in a recent newsletter of the state's veterinary medical association. While he says the books appear "relatively harmless," he deemed it important to let the membership know such a rating service exists.

Field response

If the response to his newsletter piece is any indication: "I didn't receive any calls from vets, and I didn't have one consumer call regarding it," he says. It appears the profession has bigger eggs to fry.

Marsha Heinke, DVM, CPA, a consultant to the profession, was put off by the content. She asserted an article in the Chicago edition offered rankings and advice that were "a bit scary." She cited quotes from the article, such as "You can easily judge the convenience and quality of service provided by a vet" or "To save time and money, and to enable you to respond quickly to a pet's needs, it's important to be able to get meaningful advice by phone."

Dr. James Hagedorn of Bramer Animal Hospital in Evanston, Ill., says theoretically, he "absolutely cares" about veterinary rankings from an independent publication.

"My pride and wanting to have the practice look good to the public eye in those types of publications is absolutely what we want to be striving for," he says.

But from a practical standpoint, he notes that personal referrals are the No. 1 reason the majority of new clients land at his clinic, implying the influence of such publications has yet to be measured.

"With these organizations fairly new on the playing field, it may be kind of early to tell what kind of impact they're having," Hagerdorn adds. "There's always a danger of consumer ratings. You want consumers to be happy, but do they know how to rate something the same way we would?"

Other veterinarians who were queried about local guides in their respective cities of San Francisco, the Twin Cities and the Washington D.C. area, either weren't familiar with the book or had no comment regarding its content.

While the American Veterinary Medical Association and American Animal Hospital Association had no input for the Consumers' Checkbook ratings, the publication says the Humane Society of the United States was asked to review veterinary articles.

National input?