Smarter Paths to Revenue with Dr. Natalie Marks

[Kelly]

Come discuss Dr. Natialie Marks latest article in the Fountain Report.

[Dr. Natalie Marks]

Excited to start discussing Smarter (not harder!) Paths to Revenue!  Feel free to ask questions, share success stories, and challenge ideas - let's build together!

[Kelly]

Dr. Natalie Marks latest article on the "phone fix" Is packed full of information. What have you found to work or not work with "phone fixes". Have questions, stories from your hospital, comments for Dr. Natalie? Post them here for her to answer. Here are the highlights posted in her article:

[Amanda]

While I agree a in-person visit is ideal, what do you recommend in cases where your practice is overbooked? My practice is booked out 2 weeks.

[Bruce L Truman]

My opinion as a non-veterinarian industry person is that this is where virtual care can help. It does not matter if it is a service provided by the practice or a 3rd party service - they all improve access to care. Additionally, it has been talk about lots, but making sure that everyone in the practice is working to the top of their license will help also. 

[Dr. Natalie Marks]

Amanda, great question, and I FEEL YOUR PAIN!   There are a couple suggestions I have for you, and the first is where I agree with Bruce and others.  Access to care is the buzz term for servicing the number of patients and pet parents that need veterinary care, but we as an industry do a poor job leveraging our teams both internally and with third party partners.  I LOVE the idea of teletriage - utilizing team members to really screen the need for emergent and standard appointments.   This can be done on site, or as I prefer, with external partners who specialize in this space.  The other point I really want to stress is taking a close look at your appointment scheduler and how you can maximize time.  Our veterinary technicians have tremendous skills that are almost always underutilized and, if your team is comfortable, consider scheduling THEM for things like diabetes and fluid admin demos, nail trims, anal gland expressions, standard surgical rechecks, behavior consultations, Cytopoint injections, and other similar visits.  I'm always happy to talk more specifically - please feel free to contact me for more discussion!

[Dr. Natalie Marks]

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Noah]

Dr. Natalie,

We live in an area that is more lower middle class and are starting to see an rise in questions around pricing. Do you have any thoughts? Maybe you are not the right person to ask? But I saw the discussion about revenue and thought I would chime in to see if you had an answer? I know that we are hearing from our pet owners that money is getting tight so I am not surprised about the increased volume of questions. How do I handle these type of calls?

Noah

[Dr. Natalie Marks]

Noah, thank you for your comments and I very much appreciate where you are.  I have tried to never apologize for the value we provide as veterinarians and veterinary professionals, especially after owning a large hospital and having a much greater appreciation for what financially is needed to provide it.  I would suggest a few things:

• Lead your part of the conversation with empathy.  Access to care is a MAJOR issue today and we are all working on solutions.
• Provide options for pet parents to lessen costs of care - recommend pet insurance that supports the veterinary community, offer wellness plans, consider the "spectrum of care" (not every client opts for gold standard and that's OK), consider other financing options like Care Credit, and educate and truly focus on preventive care.
• LEVERAGE YOUR TEAMS - certified veterinary technicians often leave our industry because we don't empower them to utilize their skill to the highest level.  Technician appointments can assist many pet parents with their needs without a doctor's exam and then free up the veterinarian to focus on other in hospital or critical patients.

Hope this helps a bit?  Happy to talk further!