NCVEI online tools now help equine practices

Schaumburg, Ill.-Equine veterinarians will soon have access to online financial tools developed by The National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues (NCVEI), thanks to an association grant.

NCVEI, a collaboration of four leading veterinary associations developedto boost the economic status of the profession, says it plans to extenduse of its tools, specifically benchmarking capabilities, to equine practitionerswith the $50,000 in funding it receives from the American Veterinary MedicalAssociation (AVMA).

Until now, NCVEI's financial tools have applied strictly to companionanimal practice. The analytic work for the equine benchmarking tools wasjust recently completed. The grant will fund the engineering and copywritingnecessary to post those tools online.

Through the NCVEI Web site, www.ncvei.-org, veterinarians can accessbenchmarking tools at no cost. The analytical tools are designed to be practicemanagement tools that enable the individual practitioner to compare hisor her performance to prevailing standards and practices. Neither NCVEInor its constituent associations suggest, advise or encourage users to respondto reported statistics in any particular manner.

The $100,000 grant, authorized by AVMA in late 2002, will apply in parttoward NCVEI's inclusion of equine practitioners for its benchmarking tools,and also toward a promotional campaign to recruit and educate more generalpractitioners on the tools available from NCVEI.

Reacting to AVMA's recent grant, Howard Rubin, CEO of NCVEI, says he's"really pleased" by the opportunity to serve equine practitioners.

"Although the NCVEI has primarily had a companion animal focus sofar, we've always had a deep concern about veterinarians who are not companionanimal practitioners. The funding of the final benchmarking tools for equinepractice will allow us to start down the road toward delivering on the promiseto these AVMA members," he says.

To date, about 3,500 veterinary practices have used the NCVEI pricingand benchmarking tools.

NCVEI is the brainchild of the AVMA, the American Animal Hospital Association,the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges and the Canada VeterinaryMedical Association.