Get bizzy: dvm360's top 10 business and management articles of 2016
If you missed them the first time, be sure to check out your colleagues favorite tips on how to run a successful veterinary practiceand have a life as well!
Even if you can diagnose the most elusive disease, perform the most complex surgery or manage the most intractable behavioral issue, you very likely could use some help in the practice management arena-and perhaps a little advice on enriching your personal life as well. Here's what veterinarians, practice managers and team members clicked on the most over the course of 2016. So click away yourself (the headlines link to the full articles), and may your 2017 be more successful and rewarding as a result!
10. Top 10 signs you need a vacation
You've heard people refer to this mysterious and elusive concept "vacation," but its nuances are a mystery to you. To start with, how do you even begin the difficult quest to make one happen with all the challenges you face in veterinary practice? Review the classic symptoms and decide for yourself if you should prescribe a vacation for yourself. (Here's a hint-the answer is probably “yes.”)
9. Can you save this client? (Yes.)
Well, most of the time. Whether you're making tailored vaccination recommendations, giving customized nutrition advice or fighting the good fight with the latest data and protocols for parasite prevention, it's easy to get frustrated when clients don't follow through. Let's take a look at three different types of clients and decide-educate or fire?
8. A national look at nonveterinary ownership
This interactive map, updated in 2016 due to popular demand, collects information on laws governing nonveterinarians owning or partly owning veterinary practices as relatively traditional corporations. Remember that laws are always changing, some attorneys have new ways to allow nonveterinary ownership, and your success will be based on the appropriate practice agreement you craft with your own lawyer. Now dive in!
7. An introvert in a public profession
Are you an introverted veterinarian who's drained by human interaction? You're not alone (although you probably wish you were). This article by Dean Scott, DVM, a reluctantly self-professed introvert himself, helps you thrive in a career that's tailor-made for extroverts.
Members of the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association were asked, “If you had to give advice to a new manager in a single, one-line statement, what advice would you give regarding staff management? What is your best-kept secret or what has made the biggest impact on your staff?” Here are the gems they offered up in response.
5. 5 ways to wow pet owners (and pets)
You don't have to redesign your veterinary clinic from scratch to build in features that get smiles going and tails wagging. After all, nothing says "We love you" like coffee and potty stations. (You know it's true.)
4. Scaling Mt. Vet: Pain and progress in practice
In a 2016 survey, dvm360 asked more than 350 readers, "What is the most pressing issue facing you personally as a veterinarian?" The answers we received should show you that you're not alone in your struggles and strains-and we also offer up resources to help you cope.
3. 11 ways to take your veterinary practice from chaos to cakewalk
We know life isn't always a party, and everyday stressful events in practice can bring you, your clients, your staff and your patients down. Be proactive, put your party hat on and take steps to ease the stress! These low-stress handling techniques help tremendously at one veterinary teaching hospital.
2. "Best. Veterinary Practice. EVER."
For rave client reviews and better patient experiences at your veterinary hospital, don't neglect the power of positive reinforcement for cats, dogs and people. (Who says the treats should just be for patients?)
And the no. 1 veterinary business article for 2016 is …
1. Putting my darkness into the light
Some of you have known Dr. Marty Becker as a practice management guru and veterinary medical correspondent for over three decades. Only a half-dozen of you know that his father killed himself with a shotgun and that he, too, suffers from depression. In this raw and honest commentary, America's Veterinarian pleads with the profession to get help when needed-and rediscover the light.
