Veterinarian in Society

VETERINARY PRACTICE MANAGEMENT

• The concept of business management has come to the veterinary world. But veterinarian has managed practice consciously or unconsciously. The practice management in veterinary is not integrated as that of human medicine. Most veterinary doctors work in isolation with that of pharmaceuticals, feed industry, sophisticated equipment manufacturers, laboratory facilities, breeders / their association, animal welfare organisations etc. In the recent years there seem to be informal networks with these input units with the veterinarian. This continue to be successful because
  • Clients were less demanding of the practice
  • Most emphasis was placed on clinical skills and services
  • Practice were smaller covering less clients
  • Less serious marketing plans or sales strategies required
  • Complex IT world is yet to take over

Veterinary Practice as a business

• Many aspects of business management are common to most organisations. Many areas of veterinary practice management have similarities with various trade and professional groups. These similarities encompass aspects of general business management such as business structure, client care, stock control, employment, marketing and financial management. More specific issues such as pharmacy management, copying with client grief and out-of-hours work also need to be taken up effectively in veterinary practice management.
• An important issue that challenge in veterinary practices was whether it is appropriate for a ‘caring’ profession to be concerned with profits. The core purpose of veterinary practice is the treatment and alleviation of sufferings of animals under the veterinarians care. It is a fact of life in business world that most things come down to money in the end. Failure to manage the business properly will have detrimental effect and compromise patient care.
• Profits only become unethical when they become out of proportion to the amount of time and investment spent generating them, with no regard or concern for others.

Practice Management in 21^st Century

• The veterinary business world is more complex and competitive and the need for effective and efficient management is of greater importance than in the past. The concept of “everyone manages” and delegation with empowerment are becoming more common.
• Today’s veterinary management can be divided into
  • Information technology
  • Human resources
  • Finance
  • Marketing and sales
  • General office management
  • Health and safety

Human resource management

• The HR management in the past had the following five inputs: recruitment, training on the job, rotas, discipline and salaries. While the Present management input includes; recruitment, induction training, lifelong learning / training, appraisals, employment legislation, CDP, discipline, job descriptors, contracts of employment, staff health and safety, rotas coaching and mentoring.
• Most modern practices have a significant increase in staff numbers, with more vets working as specialist and administrators performing specalised jobs. Although the traditional small practices with owner managers are still relatively common, there is a trend towards the empowerment of managers and administrators to oversee daily, general and often specific areas of veterinary practice management.