Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Posted by Animals at 5:56 PM Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Veterinarians are not Recession Proof

Posted: 14 Sep 2009 07:59 AM PDT

Good-dog-Miles-with-DrLarry There have been thousands of articles written about the effects of the current recession on various groups. We know that unemployment is higher than any time in the last 28 years. Individuals are feeling the pinch through lost jobs, fear of losing their job or foregone wage increases.

When people are out of work or afraid of being out of work, they spend less which perpetuates recessionary activity. They buy fewer cars, eat out less often and put off buying that new stove or washing machine. 

Veterinary Medicine is certainly not recession proof, either. Many of the medical journals I'm reading these days are full of stories about slow to no growth, postponed hospital improvements and even layoffs of staff and associate veterinarians. It seems no one group is immune from the larger economic picture.
 
I came across an article recently that gave me hope for the future. It was about the type of Veterinary practice that seems to be weathering the storm better than others. Let me explain.
 
This is an oversimplification, but historically there have been two basic types of veterinary practice; Firehouses and Wellness facilities. A Firehouse type practice is one that relies on acute illness and accidents to walk in the door. When that happens they spring into action like the folks on "ER" and do their level best to save the unfortunate critter. The procedures are heroic, often successful and ultimately, expensive for the human involved.
 
The other type of practice is the one that preaches prevention and health. They suggest that clients bring their pets in at least annually for wellness exams and any testing that might be needed to uncover latent disease processes. They believe that it is better to keep the pet healthy and if they catch something early the chances of a successful resolution are better for the critter and ultimately, less expensive for the poor human involved.
 
Tell-me-where-it-hurts
As you can imagine there is a little of both going on in all practices, but those that practice wellness tend to run the fire engine less often. 
 
The other thing about the wellness practitioner is that their average transaction fee is lower than the other type of practice. The average transaction fee is something that most veterinarians track as a measure of practice management. They do have to make money to stay in business and pay off their student loans, after all. 
 
Despite the lower average transaction fee, the wellness practitioners are weathering the recession better than their peers. They have proven that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and their clients have learned this valuable lesson. It's not a hard lesson to learn. It's intuitive and we've all heard it from our mothers and grandmothers. Even in hard times their clients are coming in for the annual exam and other routine wellness procedures that keep their pets on the path to lifelong health.
 
I listened to President Obama's speech on health care the other day and I was impressed by his emphasis on prevention over cure in his plans for health care reform. I was also a little proud to be a vet. It seems that most of my peers have taken the path to wellness and it has proven to help even in a sick economy. 

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