Building a Culture-First Practice: Practical Approaches for Prioritizing Your Business with Dr. Cheryl Roth

The GeniusVets Show features Dr. Cheryl Roth, Practice Owner & DVM, Guardian Veterinary Care with David Hall, GeniusVets Co-Founder. 

This insightful conversation will dive into the Trends, Threats, and Opportunities facing veterinary practice ownership today. 

This far-reaching discussion will cover: Building a Culture-First Practice: Practical Approaches for Prioritizing Your Business.

• Harnessing the Power of Part-Time Associates: Learn how to effectively integrate part-time staff, particularly working moms, to enrich clinic dynamics and insights.
• Building a Culture-First Practice: Discover strategies for nurturing strong relationships among staff, clients, and pets, and understand why prioritizing culture is vital for long-term success.
• Mastering Financial Balance: Gain insights into navigating economic challenges such as inflation and rising costs while maintaining fair pricing and quality care standards.
• Safeguarding Your Practice: Explore practical approaches to address legal concerns, including the uptick in litigation and board complaints, in the post-COVID landscape.
• Meeting Client Expectations: Understand the importance of fear-free and low-stress handling techniques, and learn how to meet the growing demand for these services effectively.
• And so much more…

Transcript

Welcome to the Genius Vets Show for veterinary practice owners and industry pros. At Genius Vets, it's our mission to help veterinary practices thrive, and this webinar and podcast supports that mission by giving a platform to the best and brightest minds in the veterinary industry, where we identify challenges facing veterinary practices today, discussing ideas, insights, and solutions that practice owners need to know about. If you like today's show, that's something we'd love to know. Feel free to send an email to genius at genius vets dot com. And make sure to check out the wealth of resources available to veterinary practices at genius vets dot com slash pro. That's geniusvets dot com slash pro.

Now without any further ado, let's dive into today's show.

And hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Genius Pet Show. I'm your host, David Hall, cofounder of Genius Pet. And today, very excited to be continuing our exploration of the trends, the threats, and the opportunities that are facing veterinary practice ownership today, by bringing a top performing veterinary practice owner to the show. Doctor Cheryl Roth is the owner of Guardian Veterinary Care, a four doctor veterinary practice in Sherwood, Oregon.

Doctor Roth has consistently demonstrated her dedication to practicing veterinary medicine at a very high level, achieving both accreditation and fear free certification within months of opening her practice back in twenty twenty one. So, some really impressive stuff, and I'm just delighted that doctor Roth is taking some time out of her busy schedule to join us here today. Doctor Roth, thank you so much.

Oh, thanks so much for having me here today.

Yeah. Absolutely. So you were one of the practice owners that we had targeted and identified as, as running a successful high performing practice, that we reached out to. And, when we were doing our survey, our initial survey of looking to get insights from practice owners across the country about what are the the the trends, the threats, and the opportunities facing practice ownership today. And the insights that you shared were really cool.

So I'd like to dive into those here today and give you a little space to talk about them a little bit more.

But before we we get into all of that, would you mind, sharing with our audience a little bit about, you know, your career trajectory up to this point? So you get a and I a sense of, like, where you've come from, how you've come up, where you're at today, what your goals are, where you're where you're looking to go.

Absolutely.

So I'm a a two thousand four grad of Colorado State, and I initially went out into general practice, moved to the East Coast, with my fiance at the time for him to go to medical school. And so I practiced my first four years in a very rural practice, in Vermont, took on call, did all the things, far away from referral practices, kind of just got to learn the nitty gritty of it all.

We moved to Minnesota four years later, and so got to practice in a much more urban environment, at a very kinda high scale practice, for a few years and then kind of eventually took a step back after my husband finished his residency, and went into emergency medicine. A little bit of it was to allow me kind of that flexibility to work when I could work and manage children at home.

And so we we tended to kind of try to work opposite schedules, so that we didn't have to pay for childcare and, could be with the kids more.

And and I found out I really loved it, so I I ended up working in emergency medicine for the next ten years.

We moved out to Oregon here about eight years ago, and I worked for another five years in in emergency medicine, kind of encompassing that whole ten years, but missed those connections, with clients, kind of those long term follow ups and and getting to know people better and and develop those relationships. And so I really was excited to go back into general practice. And so we opened our own clinic about three years ago, I'm board certified through the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners and canine feline practice. So we really wanted to make it a very high, you know, advanced level of medicine, and kind of bridge that divide between general practice and referral institutions.

So, yeah, I'm really excited. Being Accredited was top of my list, necessities, and so we we applied as soon as we possibly could.

We're very excited. And then, about a year ago, got certified as a fear free practice as well too. And we're we're super excited, and I'm I just love going to work every day. It's fabulous. I love what I do, and I love this profession.

You know, when you're when and it really comes through. Like, hearing you talk, it comes through, you know, seeing what I what we can about your practice, you know, online, it comes through. And and, also, it shows opening a practice in twenty twenty one. So that was you were at the at the kind of peak of just upward trajectory of demand for veterinary care.

And I get opening a practice, you know, at that time, there was so much demand. So, certainly, like, getting clients at that time wasn't, you know, was probably the least challenging it's ever been. Now it's been all that challenging for practices over the past thirty years. The the whole profession has boomed.

But but the fact that you've during that same time, because practices across the country were all impacted, and I can tell you the the number one thing that people were looking for was trying to attract doctors and staff because they were like, we can't even take on any more appointments.

Certainly, I could see you getting overflow of clients, but, you know, you also grew to a four doctor practice pretty quickly. You know? You got a little secret to share there.

A little bit of it is, just all about our culture. So when we opened, we decided this was, our baby. I do have a partner, and we really wanted to make it an environment where people could thrive, that they would come to work. They they would love working, they would love being here, enjoy the people that they worked with. We don't all have to be best friends, but we wanna enjoy what we do together and and really love what we spend the vast majority of our days doing.

And so we've really continued to kind of try to aim for that culture and taking care of people. We check-in with everybody regularly. How are you doing?

If there's a challenge or or an opportunity for improvement, we talk about it right away instead of leading it six months for review, when people don't have any clue what you're talking about anymore.

And, so we just you know, we try to make it a really happy environment.

We've been very blessed, with our two associates. We we knew them prior, from our our days in ER, and both were looking for part time experiences, as working moms.

And so we were excited to be able to kind of expand and bring them on, and each of them just has amazing, you know, insights to offer the clinic. And, so, you know, our and our staff as well too. We were fully staffed and not currently looking.

Please don't shoot me.

Everybody else is looking, but you guys are you know, I I agree so much. Your culture first, that it's everything. You know?

Yeah. And and, yeah, we really emphasize it's all about relationships. And so it's about the relationships amongst the staff, our relationships with our clients, our relationships with our patients in being fear free, and really honoring that relationship and that bond between our our clients and our patients.

That's that's the most important thing, and we really try to nurture that.

You know? And at the same time, I I also know that, you know, you're a VMG member. So that says a lot about, you know, your dedication to stepping away from the practice and working on the business and above the business rather than just in the business, and a lot so much of that gets reflected in that. Huge recommendation to any anybody listening, any practice owners that are listening that are not yet working with VMG.

Fantastic organization.

Well, you know, I what I wanna do, if we can, I wanna segue a little bit and shift into diving to to kind of what some of the thoughts were that you, you know, started sharing, in your responses, to the survey?

So we'll start with, you know, the first question was, what trends do you think will impact veterinary practice ownership in twenty twenty four? And again, while your your comments were brief and succinct, I think that there's a lot, you know, under the surface there, and that's what I'd like to unpack a little bit. For this question, you had said increase in use of AI, inflation, higher number of people suing and filing complaints, since COVID, awareness of and demand for fear free or low stress handling of pets. So, you know, those are several different topics.

And, again, I think there's a lot to unpack under under each one of them. Let's start from the top. When you said increase in use of AI, what are what are particularly I mean, AI is kinda trying to get into every nook and cranny. What are the ways that you're thinking and you're seeing and feeling already that you're finding it useful?

Yeah. So we you know, just like everybody else, we're kind of exploring these avenues, as as they arise, but using AI both in marketing, social media, in writing responses, in responding to our clients, and trying to kinda get those responses a little bit faster and more sustained and and trying to say what we're trying to say without having to worry about each and every one of those words. Finding it is a very useful tool in that regard.

I'm really excited about some of the opportunities, that are availing themselves already with some of the urinalysis machines that we can do that use old you know, reusing facial recognition software into kind of recognizing what's out there, which may not exactly fall into AI, but utilizing it for looking at radiographs, and and just kind of all the opportunities that are coming along. I know there's several, opportunities out there as far as, AI looking and scanning, even finding little aspirates and and masses and trying to kinda get answers a little bit quicker, for for our clients who don't have to wait that week, to find out what the scary new bump is on their pets.

And I think that'll lead to more people willing to to do those kind of, testing on their pets and find cancers earlier. And, so I'm just I'm really excited for what opportunities it it will it will bring to the profession. And I think with any new technology, there will be drawbacks and and benefits and just trying to find those things that are beneficial and and utilize them. And, yeah.

Yeah. I I absolutely agree. Have you, have you used it at all, with any of the scribing tools yet?

I I have it on my list to do, right after spring break to give it a try. My husband is an MD, and, they just started using it in their ER.

And they're, like, they're trialing it right now as we speak, and they're loving it. And, I can't get them to stop bugging me about it.

I'm just trying to figure out how to integrate it with, my, you know, my online software.

I can hear it now. Cheryl, it's it's saving me hours a day. You gotta do this. Right?

Like, you know She's pretty excited about Yeah.

That's that's very cool. The the next thing that you had mentioned there after AI was inflation. So how are you feeling the impact in your practice?

You know, and and my my perspective on it is probably a little bit shortened. I've been a practice owner for not quite three years yet, but have watched those prices on things just dramatically increase, on, you know, medications, on vaccinations, on, you know, all of even the cost of building out a practice, the cost of of loans, with interest rates going up, and then the effect that it's having on our our client base as well too.

I think it's really that boom that we were seeing during the pandemic, I think is starting to slow off.

I definitely don't have a degree in economics, but, you know, I'm feeling that as a practice owner.

And so we're trying to kind of how do we balance the need to pay our employees a living wage, take good care of our doctors, provide the best medicine, and yet not overprice so that we aren't able to take care of all of our our patients.

Yeah. I think we're all still, like, we're trying to settle into, you know, and the repercussions of what happened from the inflation boom. But, you know, leading indicators of where the inflation is going, it's it's it's certainly cooled, and it's getting back to where they're saying that they wanted it to go. And they're looking at potentially cutting where, you know, those sort of things.

So, without pulling out the economics, you know, crystal ball or anything like that, it certainly seems like that's going the right direction, but yet you're left feeling. Right? Like but did you increase your prices? I mean, I know your price only started twenty one to twenty twenty one.

Did you go through an increase even in that short period of time?

Oh, yeah. We have. We've had to increase them, you know, every year even just with our costs going up.

And it's hard because I feel bad. You know, we increase prices because we wanna give raises to our staff members and, make sure that they're, you know, living in a large metro in the Pacific Northwest.

The cost of living is really expensive out here and Yeah. Trying to take care of them and make sure that they're settled and that this can be a career for them, and not just a job for straight out of high school and and move on.

You know, making sure that people stick in this profession and and stick around is is really vital, I think, to being able to continue to provide the care that we want to to our clients. Absolutely.

You you also you mentioned this was an interesting one. Nobody else had mentioned this particular, note. Higher number of people suing and filing board complaints since COVID.

Yeah. I, I had heard that in chatting with some of the state board members that the number of complaints has gone up and just really skyrocketed, since COVID. I think there's a sort of a a general I don't know if it's an underlying grumpiness or distaste or just everybody's feeling the stress, still of of what was going on. And, I think it is just kind of overflowing into other areas, and frustration with, you know, whether they're not able to get in or didn't have that communication face to face, while we were doing curbside type things.

And it yeah. I think it has affected both our clients as well as primarily our staff and our you know, the last thing we need to be doing while we're working so hard and trying to see as many patients as we can and getting everybody the care they need is then worrying about, you know, did I say the wrong thing? Did I cover all my bases? Have I have I covered my butt so that I'm not gonna get in trouble in addition to worrying about taking care of the patient?

Right.

Does that a little bit of Yeah.

I I I should have probably said, actually, quite a lot of people did mention, you know, something along the lines of of clients being more active to complain online, you know, more more vocal, more grumpy clients, that sort of thing. The you you had mentioned, you know, people suing or finding board complaints. No one had had quite mentioned that, but I absolutely not only see and agree, but I can see it across the the country. People are feeling a lot of that.

Right? Just people's, willingness to, at the drop of a hat, go online and blow somebody up in a bad review for, a lot of times, very unfair things. And particularly in veterinary, it's almost always a very unfair thing. It's it's pretty rare that the practice really did something wrong, you know, when I see those, you know, negative review or whatever.

You'd also the other thing you mentioned with the the the more demand for fear free or low stress handling of pets, I think that that there was certainly a lot of, increase in awareness among the public, you know, of these issues. A lot of people just spending more time when they went home for COVID with their pets and, you know, just putting more, I don't know, awareness and and sense of necessity on those, criteria. How are you feeling that in your obviously, as a fear free certified, practitioner, you know, you you you put a lot into that.

Yeah. And I think, you know, I think the demand is out there. It definitely you know, we're hearing it. We have people coming and finding us specifically for that reason, that there are a lot of stress cuts, whether there are more or whether it's just more awareness.

I think we you know, it's debatable.

But I'm really We all put a lot of ourselves into whatever we're perceiving.

Right? Like, if I'm feeling stressed, I'm like, everything's really stressful.

So maybe there's a lot of reading that. There's the public perception as we just talked about a second ago is overall public is a little bit more stressed, so their perception of what's going on is a more stressful thing. There's probably some projection there.

You know, and all of our our COVID puppies that were born in in times where we couldn't, be as social and couldn't get them out and socialize them with other dogs and other people and and events. And so they're more nervous and more worried coming in.

But I think it's an amazing opportunity.

I'm so excited.

I've gone through both programs, both the low stress handling and the fear free certification, and I think they're both amazing.

I think the awareness they're bringing to the public with better handling and just being conscious of the patient's, fear and anxiety and and stress that they bring to the room and and ways that we can help decrease that are are really in improving our relationships even with our clients, in addition to the Yeah.

They're coming in. How How do you bring my stress levels down? If this can if a little of this can wash onto me, that'd be great.

Ab absolutely. Yeah. We've We've just seen so many success cases even in the last couple of years.

We we're celebrating them on a weekly basis. I mean, it's amazing that we're like, yeah. Here's this little Frenchie who, last you know, he's bit an employee because he was so freaked out with nail trims. And now six months later with all the things that we're doing with him, you know, there's no biting attempts and no growling and no grumbling, and he lets you trim nails.

And, you know, we're just beating peanut butter and making him happy.

And, the the amount of stress, I think, it takes off of our clients, as well as the joy it brings to our our staff is is really a a reason to celebrate every day.

You know, I wanna I wanna call a little attention to to two things there. Number one, the story overall just demonstrates that you're being effective in in how you're practicing care and what you're able to achieve in, an animal and how they're reacting. And but you also right in the beginning of that, you said you pointed to something that points back to your culture, that you guys are actively tracking and uplifting and sharing and putting emphasis on these stories of tracking those types of results and and congratulating the team so everybody feels that they're, like, they've part participated in something that had an effect in life, and that brings purpose back. And that builds culture, and that helps people avoid feeling a burnout and all those other stresses.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And that's all all generations, I think, feed into that. And I know some of our younger generations are really craving that that sense of purpose that you need to know that they're making a difference, and not just punching a clock and and coming in because, I mean, these are our lives. We're trading we're we're trading hours of our lives for money.

And why not do what you love doing, and and do it for a good purpose and a good reason why you're doing it.

That's it. And that is the attitude that breeds success today. I mean, for sure. You know, I wanna let's let's move on to the second question of the survey. We got two more to get through here, and, and we do wanna we probably only got about ten minutes left.

What threats the question is, sir, is what threats do you think veterinary practice ownership is facing in twenty twenty four? And you had pointed out three things here. Inflation, which we already kinda talked about. Yeah.

Demand for higher wages, which I think is tied into that. And then the next one is the increase in number of corporate owned practices. So I'm gonna take it back to you and that the demand for higher wages. How are you feeling that today in your practice?

I am an excellent question.

You know, I think all of us saw that through throughout COVID that, as we're trying to hire people, we need to offer better wages and and keep increasing that in order to to staff, when we're we're kind of maxing out and we're in a in a in a a time when our staff sort of has that advantage of picking wherever they wanna go. Because for every, you know, one applicant, there might be multiple jobs available for them.

So that competition is gonna raise those prices, right, and what we need to be paying.

But, also, I think is our awareness of trying to keep team members in the profession, and and provide them a living wage and and making this a career for them, those those wages are gonna go up.

And I think that's amazing. It also is a challenge. And and how do we balance that out with not pricing out our clients, from being provide the care that they need.

Yeah. Yeah. These are these really are I feel from this study, I I feel that this is a squeeze that every prize owner is feeling right now. It's a very real thing. These are real dynamics in the industry, but I also I truly believe that these are these are short term.

And and here's why, because there's some real interesting changes in the dynamics that are going on right now. And this exact scenario played out in the pharmaceutical industry twenty five years ago. So twenty five years ago, the pharmaceutical industry was going through a massive boom. All these new drugs coming out, all these prescripts getting, you know, super prescribed. There was a huge, you know, push for all this, and there was not enough pharmacists, actually.

And so one of my best friends, his dad owned a pharmacy. I saw us play out with him. He couldn't hire any new grads because the corporates were throwing these hundred, hundred and fifty thousand dollar signing bonuses and scooping up all the new grads. Sound familiar? Right? This has been going on. And so as response to that, they were they were kinda bleeding the the small independence dry.

And in response to that, the schools increased class size, and then they opened up a bunch of new schools.

K? So so that was, hey. We need there's a there's a demand. We're shorting the industry. We've gotta we've gotta get more, pharmacists out there.

So So there was a big push for that.

And then there was a big promotion for, hey, become a pharmacist to fill the schools and all of that. Well, what happened was if you fast forward to today and you adjust for inflation, pharmacists today are making roughly about fifty percent of what they were making twenty five years ago.

And the reason for that is all of these pharmacists hit the supply and demand. Right? Like, once they all, like, ten years, you know, and so, like, about fifteen years ago, there's a reason I went back twenty five about fifteen years ago, the market was getting flooded now with all because of the schools, you know, increasing class size and new schools was market was getting flooded. And so what happens with supply and demand?

Now there's a bunch of pharmacists. So wages start to March down, particularly at the corporates that don't quite have the bleeding heart for their staff. And they more have people that are just making decisions based on numbers. Right?

And so their their their wages start to go down. And what is that for a corporate owner that's profit? Right? So the the corporate owner isn't like, oh, let's cut everybody in and make it fair.

Corporate owners like that is we don't have to pay as high of, of wages for the most expensive person on our staff. And that's, that's now profitability for us. So what we're seeing today is we're seeing a lot of that same dynamic. There's not enough veterinarians to meet the, to meet the demand or texts.

Schools have just increased their class size, and they're they're gonna build a bunch right now. They're planning on building ten new schools, and those are underway.

And, so that it's gonna take probably, you know, six, seven years before that's really even starts hitting the the market in a big way and making any sort of a dent in the supply, you know, economics of this. But if that continues to play out, what's going to happen, you're going to see in about four to five years, you're going to see corporate realize that, Hey, this is coming and the supply and demand is going to be that. So let's go back and buy a bunch of veterinary practices because a few years after we own them for a few years, the most expensive employee is going to get their wages are gonna be decreased and that's profit margin for us. So there's gonna be another big wave wave of acquisition. But to the second point of what you said there, the increase in number of corporate owned practices, massive increase. There was a huge wave of acquisitions during COVID, but it's pretty much cooled off.

I mean, there's there's very little acquisition going on right now Yeah.

Which is good. I mean, we're we're on the we're on the independent side. Come on, independence. You know?

Yeah. And and really, truly, practice ownership is is the opportunity for veterinarians to increase their their wages. I mean, it's it's truly taking on that that risk of of owning a practice is is what allows those wages to go up, which is what's gonna allow some of these sky high loans to be paid off at some point.

And so that's, I think, where the concern is, is is losing that opportunity, for those profits to stay within the profession, and support and be able to pay off those student loans.

I still have student loans, and we won't talk about how many years ago I graduated, that are, you know, still kicking my butt. And I'm, you know, got a daughter who's looking at going into veterinary school behind me. So, yeah, I'm and I'm a little bit worried. I wanna make sure that as a profession that we don't total knee jerk and say, hey. Let's open a million new veterinary schools and provide all these these vets to the area. I think, you know, looking at recent study that they've just released, you know, the issue truly is retaining staff and retaining doctors and retaining, support staff, and not producing doctors and producing, veterinary technicians and then having them leave the profession.

Yeah.

You know, but I think that when we see them leaving the profession, it's a lot because not every practice has the culture that you're actively building. And I think if they did, you wouldn't be you wouldn't be losing employees like that. The other thing is that we're gonna go through a huge period over the next starting this year, next year, and the year after that. Of all those practices that did sell, most of those practice owners, they signed a two to three year contract that they were gonna be in there for an earn out or whatever it might be.

But those so those funds, all those, there was a hundred and eighty acquisition companies and the majority of them were just like, k. We'll buy you at a fifteen to twenty x multiple. And then once we own sixty day of these practices, we can sell them at a twenty five to thirty x multiple to a bigger acquirer. And that was the whole play on the vast majority of those.

But when all of a sudden, when the equity markets changed and when the FTC kinda indicated they weren't gonna let everybody roll up, roll up, roll up forever, They started blocking certain acquisitions and telling some groups that we won't name to divest part of their portfolio, and those sort of things happen. That that sent told private equity, hey, musical chairs is stopping way before you think it's going to, and you can't roll up forever. So they're like, you know what, guys? We're not gonna fund the next round of acquisitions.

And a bunch of And a bunch of these groups now got left holding the bag, and they're facing some really serious hardships because those doctors who used to be the owner, they're the captain of the ship. Soon as their contract's up, they're gone. They're not gonna stay on as an employee.

And so and and the the other associate vets and people that are in there, they're not really all that happy. I haven't heard too many great stories that they're so happy with the corp new corporate ownership. So I have heard some. They're not all corporate's bad, but a lot of them aren't super happy. So when the doctor when the former owner leaves, this is that's gonna be a sinking ship, and it's gonna give strong independent practices like yours the opportunity to pick up other associate vets or techs and certainly clients that are no longer getting the same level of care that they're used to. So there's gonna be a lot of that, I think, in the next few years.

The ability for a a smart, you know, well run independent practice owner to maybe pick up additional locations as they're looking to fire sale. Because when those private equity funds put their stuff together, they put it together with a timeline. They're supposed to return people's money over the next couple years, and they're stuck owning a practice they're gonna have to sell. So a lot of really weird dynamics there.

Yeah. It it definitely is. And, yeah.

What we call opportunity. And that's my segue to the last section here is opportunities.

You mentioned increase in AI for client services and diagnostics, which we kinda touched the base pretty good, I think, in the beginning.

But you also mentioned ease of online CE and virtual visits for rechecks, triage, and stuff. I would love to hear where you're getting your CE, what platforms you like, and then I would love to hear you talk about how you're utilizing, tele rechecks and triage.

Absolutely.

So I am I have been a big supporter and fan of that girl for a long time, of what they're doing, and really being able to make dinner for the kids when I get home and yet still get that CE opportunity by listening and and and carrying on, you know, watching those videos, has been really helpful.

All these podcasts that are out and available now, you know, driving to work. And in fifteen minute drive, I can still pick up a tidbit of information, something useful to use in practice, has made it really convenient. You know? And as a as a parent and and a busy family, it's much harder for me to get away to go to a three, four day conference somewhere else.

There's a, you know, a million moving parts that have to be coordinated, to make sure that things at home are going okay, in addition to getting there and and sitting through CE.

Sometimes I don't have the attention span to sit and listen for ten hours in a day, but it's great to be up an hour or two here and there.

So I think it's a great opportunity, and I think it's bringing more CE available, to both doctors and and support staff, and and giving them that opportunity to hear from these experts on a regular basis. So I've I'm I'm the unpopular one who loves Zoom meetings and loves being able to connect with people from across the country, without having to get on a plane and and go and visit. I love things in person too. Don't get me wrong.

But I I love that convenience and that availability, to do a lot of those things. And but I I don't discriminate. I, you know, I will listen to CE put on by corporations that are sponsoring people, by independents, our local CE, and our our local Oregon VNA and PBNA and some of our county groups still do great CE locally. And I'm a nerd and always will be, and so I will I will take my learning where I can get it.

I love it. What about, the virtual kinda for rechecks and triage? What are you guys doing there? How are you how are you using that?

Absolutely.

You know, I think there's there's nothing quite as amazing as being in person, and being able to get your hands on a patient, but but there are definitely a lot of questions and concerns that some of our clients will have. Oftentimes, they're just things like, I'm worried. How does this incision look post spay?

Is it okay? And the availability now for people to text in photos and or email them in or send us a video where we just need to kind of a quick peek. Nope. That's normal.

Or, oh, no. That's concerning. You need to come in.

Or, oh, no. I know what that is, and that just needs this antibiotic.

For things that we've already been taking care of. So problems that already are are existent, and we know most of what we need to know, but just kinda wanna get that added piece of information.

It's really fantastic. It allows us the opportunity to take care of these patients, but without without them having to necessarily drive in, find a time, have all that staffing available to take care of them here in office.

There's a lot of things I can do in between visits, with people who are coming into the clinic to to take care of some of these patients.

Some of my seizure patients, you know, they might have had a, you know, two or three more seizures, and we just need to chat about adjusting their medication. There isn't anything about looking at them that I need necessarily to get my hands on, but, being able to have that consultation. So we'll do that either through Zoom or just on a telephone call and schedule them that way. Mhmm.

And we try to kind of meet that balance between using doctor's time. So we do charge for them, but it's not as expensive as if they're coming in because we can be a little more efficient. And so we're trying to utilize and be as efficient as we can with our time and our space.

So it sounds like you're you're doing a mix of you got phone calls. Maybe they maybe they take a photo and, what, text it to you or something. And then and then you can jump on a Zoom call.

Yeah. So trying to figure out what what situations work best for what and, just be able to provide the care that our our clients need and and really kinda tailor make it for for what that particular patient needs.

Yeah. Absolutely. Well, I love it. You are you are embracing the future, and it is one that is in high demand. And it sounds like you're just doing a rocking good job.

I wanna really wanna thank you, for, you know, coming and spending some time to share your insights, with our audience. And is there any, you know, parting words of wisdom or advice that you'd like to, offer before we sign off?

You know, I just say I encourage our colleagues in practice to try to find the opportunities and the challenges.

I you know, there's there's some negativity that is out floating around about, you know, being a veterinarian or being in this in this field, in this profession. And I I you know, I'm not a super sunshine, Pollyanna kind of person, but I just really enjoy what I do. And I think that there's an opportunity for us to find the positive and really just hang on to that, Remember why we do what we do.

And I, you know, I love what I do, and and I love being a veterinarian. And I I just I hope that I can help other colleagues to to find that passion again too if if by chance they've they're losing it.

So Yeah.

I love it. It definitely comes through.

With more independent practice owners who are approaching things the way you are, the the professionals will be very, very strong for a very long time. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And, and to everybody who has joined us here today for this this conversation, we've got another great conversation coming up right after this.

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