Pay up front for poop

Dr. Melisa Hicks and her team at Blue Cross Veterinary Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., improve compliance by encouraging clients to prepay for fecal tests. Her team members always recommend a fecal test during a pet's wellness exam, but often they're unable to obtain a sample at that time. So they started calling clients the day before the appointment to remind them to bring in a fresh stool sample—but clients still forgot, Dr. Hicks says. Now, team members ask clients to pay for the fecal exam when they pay for the wellness visit. And this strategy is working. "Almost all of our clients who prepay will drop off a fresh sample in a timely manner," Dr. Hicks says.