the 15-minute visit

In the days of yore — when vaccinations were king and the veterinarian primarily was a syringe jockey — things were a bit easier, and expectations were noticeably lower. Dogs were just dogs, and cats were perceived as varmints by a large fraction of the population. Thus the 15-minute office call was born, and dinner was ready at 6 p.m.

Today we have taken our pets into the home and made them an integral part of our families. This has increased expectations enormously.

Yet, we persist on slicing the day into quarter-hour segments as if every visit is created equal. What do we do?

There have been various solutions to this dilemma:

• No appointments (walk in).

• Triple booking at one given time with openings each hour in hopes that someone is early, someone late and someone is on time.

• 10-minute appointments, booking multiples of 10 according to situations.

• Booking times based on perceived length (staff perceived but client driven at times).

• Various other time-crunch permutations from popular authors in the business world — many of whom have never been inside a working veterinary hospital.

• Have no fear: Most of these break down. But it's a good start.