Business

We received a promotion from a magazine that allows us to send customized issues to our best clients every quarter. Will this promotion generate the type of return we've been looking for?

Trenton, N.J. - Ninety-two students from seven veterinary institutions are scrambling for last-minute tuition funds following a New Jersey budget battle that axed $650,000 from the state's $1.337 million Veterinary Medicine Education Program (VMEP).

Tampa, Fla. - The American Veterinary Medical Association's Group Health and Life Insurance Trust (GHLIT) has boarded the student circuit in an attempt to education future DVMs about their services.

Avoid these seven missteps to protect your practice's potential. (And avoid some sleepless nights.)

Are you taking a risk by not checking potential employees' references? Getting information might be easier than you think.

Lately, when I get to the clinic, I can hardly wait to leave. The clients are great, but there's a lot of negativity among the team members. What can I do?

Veterinarians are confronted with clients who darken our doors under the most dire of circumstances.

Getting paid for your services and staying in clients' good graces don't have to be mutually exclusive goals. Try these tips to collect fees quickly and with grace.

The U.S. Army Veterinary Service Corps considered cancelling its 90th-anniversary celebration when the first veterinarian since the Vietnam conflict was killed in action May 18 as a result of a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Twenty-seven percent of respondents to our survey say yellow page ads rank among their most effective marketing tools. But that's not enough to bank on.

Evolving technology continues to make veterinary diagnostics and treatment increasingly similar to human medicine. But your opinions on industry issues diverge dramatically.

Specialty practices offer services that are sometimes more than a primary care facility can handle. But more primary care practitioners are branching out.

With just two hands-and so many hours in a day-delegating tasks that don't require a DVM makes sense. Yet our study shows doctors spend several hours each week performing tasks they could pass on.

After 30 years of practicing small animal and exotic medicine, I found myself doing exploratories on the business of veterinary medicine.

Are new grads' expectations about quality of life and child rearing changing the veterinary workweek?

Respondents say yes. Female veterinarians face unique challenges.

Half of veterinarians surveyed think their facilities and medical equipment are better than the other practices in their area. But how do they really know?

It's not that different from what established practitioners want. We probed to learn what type of practice future veterinarians want to join, what they see as their greatest strengths, weaknesses, and fears.

It's the numbers that drive this special annual report. We reviewed more than 15 surveys specifically about the veterinary profession, and conducted two of our own, just for this issue. Our editorial team looked at 1000s of numbers. We talked to at least 40 experts to develop survey questions and concise analysis that pulls the key points from the study data. And that's not counting all of you who contributed by participating in studies.

Today more of your clients dabble in herbal remedies and nutritional supplements. Are pets, and the veterinary practices that treat them, following the trend?

28% of Well-Managed Practices hold weekly staff meetings.

Are you ready to rekindle your love affair with your job? Do you need tips to work more effectively as a team, offer out-of-this world client service, or deal with your biggest frustrations in practice? We'd love to help. And that's why we're jazzed about Firstline Live, a team training event designed to give you the same kind of high-energy advice and inspiration we deliver in Firstline—except in person.

Generally, people who wind up managing veterinary practices know how to get things done. But you can get to the point that you're running around executing every minute. So you're not investing the way you need to in planning and prioritizing.

The late client, sister to the no-show, can topple your schedule and turn your practice into a three-ring circus. Use these four strategies to manage past-due arrivals.

Use these tips to forge the best relationship and foster the best work environment you can during a tough but exciting time in your life.

It is a big decision for both you and your client to refer your patient to a university or other specialty practice for further workup or tertiary care.

Evolution is a most awesome force, and it is seldom, if ever, benign. Right now, mankind tops the food chain, but for how long is anyone's guess. Like the characters in the Jurassic Park epics, we will fall and be replaced someday, probably by something that the current flea products don't protect against. The Earth is neither our friend nor our enemy. It just is what it is, providing us with sustenance on one hand and catastrophic devastation on the other.

You know there's more to paying team members than cutting a check. But are you sure you're keeping the right records?