Dr. Dani Cimino was at a crossroads with her mobile practice when she heard last summer from BetterVet, a startup house-call business co-founded by two veterinary industry veterans.
“I had a successful practice for many years, but at the same time, I was limited by what I could afford as far as technology and marketing,” Dr. Cimino said.
BetterVet, under the leadership of VetCor founder Bruce Herzfelder and former American Veterinary Medical Association president Dr. John de Jong, asked Dr. Cimino to come aboard as the chief veterinary officer. She said “yes” and rolled her practice, Crossroads Mobile Vet, into BetterVet.
Today, a handful of mobile practices are rebranded BetterVet. The veterinarians — all BetterVet employees and Fear Free certified — are in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver and Boston, where Dr. Cimino still sees patients. Coming soon is BetterVet in Austin, Texas; South Florida; and Tucson, Arizona.
The average client is a millennial, a demographic at ease with mobile apps, which is how BetterVet home visits are requested and telemedicine calls made.
“They’re used to tapping a button and getting an appointment scheduled, which is not anything I could have done as a solo practitioner,” Dr. Cimino said. “Then, it was me answering emails or my tech answering emails and phone calls. Now, we’ve empowered clients to book their appointments and care for their pets in a way that is a much better experience for everybody.”
A BetterVet veterinary technician accompanies a veterinarian on house calls or is paired with a colleague on visits that don’t require a doctor’s presence.
“They do a lot of rechecks, second vaccines on a healthy dog, our presurgical appointments,” Dr. Cimino said. “And we pay them appropriately, at least a third more than the industry standard.”
For patients needing hospital care, BetterVet partners with VetCor, which operates 444 clinics nationwide and opens its doors to the mobile doctors.
“Before, I would refer patients to other hospitals and hope I got them back or was kept in the loop,” Dr. Cimino said. “Now, I can maintain ownership and control of cases that need surgery or dentals or X-rays. It’s kind of the best of all worlds.”