Running your veterinary business is about more than just business, culture and management knowledge. It’s also crucial to understand what regulatory boundaries you have, so that you can not only be compliant, but also take advantage of your permitted scope. Regulatory bodies often communicate changes directly to their licensees through newsletters and formal communication. If your marketing and management team members are not licensees, then they may not have a way of knowing when changes...

Have you ever had an idea that fell flat on implementation? It didn't achieve your goal or didn't get the buy-in you expected? Have you ever tried something new without knowing how to get momentum or how to take your idea that one last step to make it successful? Our Practice Playbook experts, Senani Ratnayake and Aaron Eckler from Vet Alliance/Globalvet, explain how a simple system and a few important checkpoints can dramatically impact your success in implementing ideas and achieving your...

With the number of social media platforms (and hours spent on them) on the rise, it’s tempting for veterinary practices to feel pressure to post on more platforms, more frequently. A quantity approach can indeed be good to increase brand awareness and to appease ranking algorithms, in some cases. But at the end of the day… does it really help our practices? Does it help our already short-staffed teams? If your practice is struggling to get it all done when it comes to digital marketing, here...

Throughout your professional journey, has anyone contributed to your success or inspired you to take on new challenges while making you feel valued, appreciated, and included? Have you ever felt empowered and supported by your superiors or colleagues who pushed you to be your best? Our Practice Playbook expert, Senani Ratnayake from Vet Alliance/Globalvet calls upon some colleagues to share how their career paths were positively influenced by someone who set them up for success.

It’s a common scenario, particularly in healthcare settings such as veterinary medicine. You have a star employee, a top performer – whether it’s a veterinarian, technician or other member of your support team. This person might have consistent practice-leading production numbers or brilliant surgical skills. Maybe they’ve been with you so long they know the ins and outs of your protocols and procedures like the back of their hand and are able to do the work of two people. They might be the...

Does your clinic have a policy manual? If so, is it up-to-date? Do you view policy-making as a dreadful necessity or as a helpful guide for your employees, one that reflects the values of your practice and your team? Our Practice Playbook expert, Lucie Langevin-Neil shares best practices and five key principles for integration of effective policy-making into your practice. These insights will allow you to develop policies that reflect who you are and will help foster trust, collaboration and...

We are living in a time of continuous disruption, turmoil and uncertainty. Many of the challenges we face are beyond our immediate control, but how we survey our veterinary practices and prepare for an uncertain future is something we do have control over. What we need is a plan to help us deal with our current staffing challenges and the demands of our clients to ensure the future viability of our practices. In other words, we need a strategy. What is a business strategy? We want to compete...

How do you handle tough cases and difficult situations in your clinic? Does everyone just vent to their colleagues when they need to or is there a safe space where team members can share their frustrations and traumatic experiences? Our Practice Playbook expert, Dr. Shona Kowtecky explains how to implement low-impact debriefing in your practice, so team members can learn how to properly share their stories with the right person, at the right time, and in the right way.

In 2019, Dr. Andy Roark sent out a survey that would shine a light on something that impacts all of us in the veterinary profession. It allowed him to test his theory that some of the darkest moments for a veterinary professional come at the end of a long, challenging shift. His survey garnered over 8,000 responses. When asked “if you were alone in your veterinary clinic and needed to access the controlled drugs, could you do so?”, 71% of respondents said they could access the controlled...