Ten practice management tips you can take home and start (Proceedings)

Practice Tip Ten: What have the referral centers taught us?

Practice Tip Nine: Seven steps to a recheck

Seven steps of Recheck- a client does not leave without an appointment

1. Educate the client

2. Establish a convenient day of the week

3. Choose a specific date-appointment books set up 6-12 months in advance

4.Always make an appointment

5. Mail your first reminder card

6. Mail your second reminder card

7. Make a reminder phone call

Practice Tip Seven: Have a daily blueprint

Practice Tip Six: Develop one protocol a day

Standards of Care protocols

• Written medical protocols (First Choice Medical Protocols by Drs. Hoskins and Whitford)

• Five Minute Consultant

• Handbook of Small Animal Medicine-Morgan

• Common Small Animal Diagnoses: An Algorithmic Approach-Charlotte Davies

• Text book of veterinary internal medicine-Ettinger

Practice Tip Five: Write two personal notes a day, make one more phone call

Practice Tip Four: Establish a Coaching meeting

• Schedule time to meet with each doctor.

• Discuss their career goals, ambitions, and desires

• Look for your opportunity to obtain "nagging rights" you must willingly, knowingly, voluntarily, give someone else "nagging rights" to keep us honest on our goals we set for ourselves

• Have them evaluate themselves

Practice Tip Three: Improve inventory management

Pricing dispensing, what is Walgreens charging?

Practice Tip Two: Have a treatment room quarterback

The purpose of this position is to make sure the hospitalized case receives indicated examinations and treatments, that all charges and discharge instructions are posted, and to communicate with the front desk, the doctors, and the clients the status of each patient. This is an overview of the position and is not limited to the major duties

Major duties

• Perform and print hospital census at 8 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm

• Consult with technicians and doctors, and record status of patients at the time of census; attitude, appetite, bowel movements, urination, vomiting

• Make sure each patient in the hospital has been weighted, and weigh recorded in the record

• Make sure a treatment sheet has been established for each patient

• Make sure all treatments on admitting sheets have been performed

• Notify doctors if a patient has been admitted to the office in the morning for them to exam or treat

• Consult with technicians and review treatment sheets; making sure all treatments and medications are circled on travel sheet

• Consult with doctors if they have any additional treatments or medications that need to be added to travel sheet

• Enter all charges into the computer for patients; releases that day need to be entered by three pm

• Major duties continued

• Compare invoices with stored estimate. If inconsistency occurs it needs to be brought to the attention of the attending doctor

• Make sure an aftercare sheet has been filed out for all patients being released that day

• Communicate with front desk and clients the status of animals in the hospital

• When time permits assist other technicians with the following duties: radiographs, laboratory tests, restraint, ect.

Practice Tip One: Call Ten Clients That Have Not Been In For Eighteen Months and Ask Them Why?

New Client Retention Survey

• This survey determines the percentage of first time clients seeing a particular doctor who, approximately one year after their initial visit, schedule another appointment with the practice (not necessarily the same doctor)

• What we are looking for is the new client that only came in one time

• Benchmark is 70%

Pediatric survey

• Search for: new clients in for well-puppy one visit or well kitten one visit that only came in one time.

• Search by doctor

• Give the client two months to come back in.

• Bench mark 70%