A Fresh Approach: 3 Questions for an Animal Health Executive
Why it’s important for animal health businesses to help veterinary practices identify new growth opportunities, learn new strategies, and keep their team members healthy in a demanding profession.
MEET THE EXEC: Pat McCarthy is PSIvet President
1| One of the agenda items for PSIvet’s recent Business Symposium for veterinary practices was discovering new growth opportunities that will change the way they do business. What are some of those opportunities?
PSIvet area managers are equipped to assess the needs of our member practices and implement solutions for growth. As an example, our team can identify areas of low compliance, and by implementing our compliance consulting module, help the practice improve in key areas as dentistry, Parasiticides, bloodwork and other areas that are not meeting the compliance standards. Another area of opportunity that we featured at our Business Symposium is adopting an online pharmacy platform to improve compliance and pet owner experience.
2| Why is it important for independent veterinary practices to develop new strategies and tactics that will help them compete in the marketplace?
As we look at data across the industry, the trend shows that overall client visits and transactions are down for many practices this year. In addition, many practices are struggling to drive new clients in the door. In order to stop these negative trends, new strategies will need to be implemented. The majority of independent veterinarians don’t have access to a financial dashboard to monitor their practice’s financial health. With our service called Pulse, our members have access to 16 KPIs that will help them understand and better manage their practice’s performance. Our partnership with IVET 360 enables our members to drive new clients in the door and to address the transaction and visit declines that plague much of the industry.
Another strategy would be to join our study group called SGA (Strategic Growth Alliance) and share best practices with a group of progressive veterinary practices with the goal of better understanding your business and how to grow it profitably.
3| The lack of affordable healthcare and access to mental health support has seriously disadvantaged independent veterinary practices from competing for talent. How can an organization like PSIvet help independents in this area?
One of the most critical areas to attracting and retaining talent is by being able to offer affordable health care. Seventy percent of independent practices do not offer health insurance or health benefits to their employees. This has put them at a serious disadvantage from competitors of all types that do offer health benefits. PSIvet has developed a solution with our partner, Vault Consulting, that addresses the affordability concern while covering 80% of the health care needs for employees of independent veterinary practices. The solution is called PSIvet Employee Benefits. Our members will have access to this health benefits package which includes direct primary care, chronic disease management, acute illness treatment, and telehealth. The telehealth portion provides direct access to mental health consultations. We plan on working directly with groups like MightyVet, TalkSpace and Not One More Vet (NOMV) to get greater awareness and access to mental health support.
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