The Pets Are Never The Problem

Meiji, one of the many reasons that we do what we do.

Many of the vets I know went into vet school because we had a stronger affinity for pets than we did for people. I mean, after all, we could have gone to medical school if we wanted human patients. Most of us were little girls who loved puppies and kittens hands over little boys, or even adults of any kind.

The dilemma in this is that you also need to master human communication skills as you are mastering your veterinary skills. Those pets just don't march themselves in the vet office door without a ride and a chaperone.

Sampson, another happy customer.

The successful practices learn this, practice this, and train their staff with customer service on equal footing with patient care and quality of medicine. There are many, many great clinicians out there, and even a large handful few who are great with their bedside manner, but in the world of private small animal practice where you already have to be the doctor of general, surgical, ophthalmic, internal, cardiac, geriatric, pediatric, neurology, etc. etc., it is really tough to wear all of these hats and be the happy-happy "Hello, my name is Dr. Doormat, How Can I Help You?'.

If you are fortunate enough to ever stay at world class hotel, spa, or retreat you will see and feel first class service for yourself. Every moment of your stay is pampered, planned for, thought out, scrutinized and customized. Everything is placed at your fingertips by smiling, professionals impeccably dressed and waiting for your every desire and whim. It is an army of well trained, synchronized, experts. There is no whispering, no slouching, no dirty pants, faces, shirts, no excuses, no gossiping, no cell phone checking, talking, or distraction of any kind from their primary duty: customer service.

Dixie, one of the girls forever indelibly marked in my heart.

My challenge as a practice owner has always been to try to instill this degree of attention and service in my staff so that our clients can feel like a pampered celebrity, (even if they are carrying a fecal sample in their purse). It is an arduous almost unattainable goal. Everywhere I travel I take home lessons about customer service.

Here are some of my observations;

1. My dentist. A lovely, charming, holy-Moses crazy talkative guy. He keeps a little note book in my file of key terms to discuss at each visit. Things like "merchant marine" "vet here in town" "dogs" "cats" etc. He studies his notes before my arrival and they give him ample areas of conversation between my "rinse and spit" instructions. I go back regularly and I give him an A for effort. His receptionist, well, she opens her glass door to check me in and out and keeps herself walled off from the waiting room the rest of the time. It's a quick cursory "hello" and "goodbye" and even though I have said these to her about a hundred times before I couldn't pick her out of a line up if she was the only female. (Huh, I think she's a female?). You get my point. His dental hygienist, well, she is a peach. I adore her, I go back because I like to hear how she is doing and catch up. She also is a client so we share pet stories.
2. My doctor. Well, he is even more chatty than my dentist. I know every single thing about his adult (long out of college daughter) that he knows. If she ever needs a writer for a dating service I could fill out the 490 questions accurately. He talks about twice as much as I do in our 15 minute appointment and he's not the one with  the presenting compliant. His receptionist? An older woman who may have teeth, eyes, a face, and a personality, but has never revealed any of them to me. I stand by her desk, she says "hello" face in a paper, passes paper to me, mutters a goodbye. She is so terrible that I am indifferent to her. Why does he keep her? Well, she runs the show so he doesn't have to. His nurse? well, she is always a young, fresh out of school, efficient, well trained taker of my temp, weight, blood pressure, pulse, and respiration. She lasts about a year and then leaves to find a friendlier face then Rosy-the-receptionist to spend her 9-5 Mon-Fri with. I can't blame her. Why do I go back? Huh? I like my health care provider, he's close, and I know what to expect. (Probably bad reasons).
3. My hospital. I am part of the Johns Hopkins health care network. When I go in for anything I am assigned a patient assistance adviser within the first moments of arrival. I am given her name, her "anytime for any reason" hospital phone number, her card, an arm around my shoulder and a full on face plant of trust and reassurance that she is in my corner for any and every thing that I might need while I am under their care. It doesn't change the fact that no one enjoys being a patient, and that hospitals are anxiety ridden buildings, but it does make me feel that I am not so alone in this foreign place. The doctors are top-notch (although there is an undertone of practicing under a shroud of bureaucracy and red tape). The nurses are efficient, prepared and fall into one of two categories; A. confident and at ease, B. bitter and cold.

Boomer. Dixie's big brother.
Always a smiling face!

My point for all of this? Why wouldn't I extrapolate out the strengths, identify the weaknesses, assess them all independently and bring them into my veterinary clinic? We are all customers in other businesses, we know what good vs great customer care is. Why aren't we ALL being the business who cherishes their clients. Further, why aren't we all being the customers who lead by example?

The fate of small private veterinary practices lies in our ability to sell our clients on the value of our services. The goods we used to hold exclusively in our control and sell at hundred percent mark ups are gone. I am focused and committed to providing the best patient care, medical care, humane care and compassion that anyone could find anywhere.

How am I going to do it? Well, that's for another blog.

OK, everyone likes a hint: Pawbly (...learn all about it here!) and some new exciting things at the clinic are brewing..(that's another work in progress..we are getting there),,,stay tuned....

If you have a pet question you can find me at Pawbly, on Twitter @FreePetAdvice, and at the clinic, Jarrettsville Vet.

Related blogs;
What Is Pawbly?

DVM 360's article, Sell Clients On Your Service. July 2014

I want to hear from you! What burns your butt about your health care providers? Where do you find amazing customer service? What do you wish that your vet did differently to improve your visit?

Thanks for reading!

And as always, Be Kind..

Trying to Understand True Compassion? Where do you draw the line?

I read the latest issue of dvm360, as I always do, but I had had to put it down, let my emotions settle and resume reading at least three times. After taking an inordinate amount of time to read, I had to walk away, let my inner frustrations settle, and then decide what I was going to do with the burden of my conscious screaming at me.

So, my answer? Throw it out for the world to share my burden, help me understand my frustrations, and hope that with all things that the discussion will open and awaken our collective sense of responsibility and desire to live in a more peaceful and compassionate world.

The headline that has me unloading on all of you was titled, "Oklahoma OKs bill allowing horse slaughter for human consumption."

I know, take a deep breath, its not so easy as to just want to vomit and protest, "well, I'm not eating horse!"

Oklahoma decided on March 26, 2013 by a vote of 32-14 to allow for slaughter of horses for export to countries like Italy, France and Belgium for human consumption. Sounds pretty appalling, doesn't it? But as recently as 2007 there were two facilities in the U.S. that slaughtered horses, Illinois and Texas. They closed because federal funding was eliminated for them. After they closed horses were transported to Canada and Mexico for processing and then exported.

The atrocity of this whole dilemma? Well, after the government banned or assisted in the shut down of the slaughter houses almost everyone agreed that the state of the horses fate worsened significantly. Without a place to send horses many were left or abandoned to starve to death. So the state of OK put HB 1999 before the Senate. To "allow the humane, regulated processing of horses."

My internal struggle is as follows;
Question 1. Do I think it is better to kill an animal then to let it suffer? Answer, Yes. (Do I think the same for people?, I'm not sure anymore. If it is myself, then yes.)
Question 2. Do I think that the horse has a different place in society than a dog or cat? No.
Question 3. Would I ever ponder killing cats or dogs for consumption, No, Horses?, No. Cows? Pigs? Rabbits? Guinea Pigs? (Did you know that all of these species are eaten in many parts of the world?)

The statistics are a good way to put the argument into perspective.

In 2006, the last full year the horse processing plants were open, 102,260 horses were euthanized for processing in the U.S.

The state of OK sent 160,000 to Mexico for processing.

The Association of American Equine Practitioners (AAEP) though it stresses it is not pro-slaughter, does not support current proposed federal legislation to ban horse slaughter for human consumption. The association regards itself as "pro-welfare" of the horse and believes that without long term placement for affected horses and the placement for affected horses and solutions to the core issues that contribute to the unwanted horse population, humane euthanasia and processing for human consumption may be an undesirable necessity. "If a horse owner is not able or willing to provide humane care, the AAEP believes that euthanasia at a processing facility is a humane alternative to a life of suffering, inadequate care and possibly abandonment."

To thicken the plot, many states - Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska among others - are trying to introduce legislation to promote the opening of plants in their own states because the horse slaughter industry reports in 2006 the industry grossed an estimated $65 million.

Animal welfare advocates dispute many of the claims of horses being treated better when the horse slaughtering plants were open, and feel the reason so many horses are sent to slaughter is because of economic hardships, and that the argument that horses are better of being killed is ridiculous. Wayne Pacelle, the president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States stated that "horse owners should commit to providing lifetime care for the animals."

It is my firm opinion that any life that you chose to take responsibility for is a life long choice. How do we have over 3 million dogs and cats euthanized every year in the US? Is it better to bury them? If we can't find homes for our unwanted pets what do we do with them?


For the complete dvm360 May 2013 article please see;
http://goo.gl/OByVU

For the New York Times article from October 11, 2011, please see;
http://tinyurl.com/cb2wuy7