They shift your attention from providing top-notch care to your patients. Everyone in your office can be at risk of getting into bed with these bugs. All it takes is unconscious negligence of vital details, poor management, unprioritized agenda, lack of checks and balances, failing preventive measures; and the list goes on and on.

A practice bug will always disguise itself, will let you focus on the unnecessary and eventually slowly take over your practice. This list below might not completely exhaust all the bugs in your practice, but will at least help you to identify the potential ones.

1. Equipment – Failing to routinely service your equipment or the continual usage of a broken one is a potential bug that a practice needs to guard against.
2. Inventory – Not keeping track of the inventory within your facility. An example is not knowing that you are out of an important surgical kit, or shortage of anesthetic supplies.
3. Unplanned schedule – As simple as it sounds, when a schedule is not in order, this can result in a failing appointment.
4. Disorganized practice environment – Having a waiting room, the reception desk or treatment room swarmed with the previous days’ activities slow down the work of the day.
5. Untrained employees – Poorly equipped employees who are always asking questions or who lack decision making skills can eventually be a bug to your practice.
6. Not working as a team – Having a practice full of employees with divided views.

Doing too many things can sometimes make you less efficient and unproductive, but not doing something at all is also a problem. To avoid an upsurge of bug infestations, apply some of the measures below if you haven’t already. They might help you to leverage your practice if followed at all times.

1. Upscaling your equipment – Don’t always wait for the equipment to break before turning them over. You end up spending more time and money to fix them. And it goes without mention to also maintain servicing of equipment. Servicing your medical equipment protects your investment.
2. Start  prioritizing – Align your schedule with the day’s activities by delegating duties and scheduling meetings. Start meetings on time and let your employees know when you are available to consult.
3. Put energy into preventative measures and maintenance– Research has shown that preventative measures are cost effective when properly followed. When you have good prophylactic measures in place you prevent and reduce the spread of a disease.  You get the bugs out while there is still time. Practicing regular inspection of hospital facility is also a good management practice that saves you from unbudgeted expenses with an increased production in the long run.
4. Quality veterinary medicine – Qualitative veterinary medicine entails paying attention to patient history of general well-being, an approach that helps solve the misery of how or why a particular animal is having a continuous health issue.  With qualitative measures, there is an improved understanding and assessment of the disease condition thereby saving your practice from unnecessary client complaints.  Keep the bugs under control!
5. Employ new techniques – Sometimes you might need to employ the expertise of others. If you are used to a particular treatment approach that is not producing satisfactory results, try a new one.  Engage the services of an expert if it means that it solves the problem.
6. Employee empowerment and team work – Further train your employees. Put them through management practice procedures. When this is in place you will not have to repeat the same thing over and over again.  An employee can turn out to be a bug in your practice if he or she does not master the mind of your practice. Emphasize team work in your training, good teamwork means less time to get the job done and higher productivity.

Shawn G. McVey, MA, NISW, writes in the highly informative article, Change is happening. Is your team ready?, “Imagine working at a practice that never buys new equipment, tries new surgical techniques, or prescribes new medications…Businesses that don’t embrace change gets left behind.” So if following McVey’s advice will stop your practice from bug infestation, don’t hesitate to embrace change.

Know that bugs will not always present themselves in the same way, nor be the same in all practices. Sure, they have something in common; the strength to sap production.  So, what are you going to do? Please don’t bug out!

© 2009 Dr. Olayinka Adeyoju

Tropicalvetworld.com

My personal persuasive word to all colleagues is to see beyond the theme and see how we can move the profession forward. Let that be the propelling force!

If you are home or abroad wanting to take time off, being at the conference would be a good place to unwind and meet old friends and colleagues. It is not too late to register if you’re planning to attend. If you do attend, be sure to provide us with your personal report of the conference.

With a collective effort, we can together build an ever-emerging veterinary practice in Nigeria.

There are two main ways to drive traffic to your clinic, the traditional route or virtually, by way of the World Wide Web highway, the Internet. This is not a short-cut to success theory, but rather a continuous exploration of new ideas that require adept stratagems. Methods that may not have worked in the past just might be the missing antidote with a little tweaking for perfection. So if you are wondering if engaging in traffic driving activity is right for your practice, allow me to answer that for you, “Yes!”

Traditional Traffic

To define traditional traffic-driven marketing is to see it as establishing a continuous contact relationship using physical vehicles. This is not just meeting somebody one-on-one or exchanging business cards in a public gathering. There has to be a continuous action of relational flow and follow-up. I have prepared tips on how to do this. Take a moment to review your current strategies against the list below to see how you can increase traffic to your clinic.

Traditional Traffic Driving Tips

1)      One-to-one marketing. This term, though not new to professional salespersons, is known to foster deeper commitment from customers. Don’t assume that clients will come to you; you go to them. You generate the traffic.

2)       Organize community programs. Programs can be in the form of micro contributions of your services to the local community. Monthly or quarterly events such as giving free vaccines, treatments, discounted medication or other services. An example might be giving older but effective products with valid expiration dates. In doing this, you clear excess inventory, retain clients, thus creating new traffic.

3)      Advertise. Market your clinic in magazines, yellow pages and other public directories. See chart from Veterinary Economics below, pg 4.

4)      Give. Develop the habit of giving tips to your clients. This could be informational tips or materials; e.g., How not to feed your pets. Practice being a gift-giver.

5)      Business profile. Always have your practice profile ready for easy pick up by clients at the help desk.

6)      Deliver quality service. Rendering high-standard veterinary medicine, will keep clients coming back for more. I have personally seen great results of this in my own practice. Be quick to answer client questions; don’t give them the impression that you are not up to the task. Be a ready-to-fix-the-missing-joint Veterinarian.

7)      Follow-up. Always follow-up with your client after every treatment. Let this be a routine practice in your clinic and always keep a current mailing list of customer contact information.

8)      Referral strategy. Practicing referral strategy is a form of building a strong network with your colleagues, staff and clients. This has been proven to be one of the most effective means of marketing a service.

9)      Create a clean and well-structured environment. Let’s face it, people are always impressed by a sanitary and professionally structured facility. Create a system like this and you will always see them knocking at your door.

10)  Be a friendly practitioner. Always talk things over with your clients. Become interested in the pet owner as well as the pet. This behavior increases the pet owner’s comfort level. Veterinary business consultant Karyn Gavzer once said that developing a bond with your client is the most important thing you can do to build your practice.

11)  Be a 24 hour mobile vet. While this is not everyone’s cup of tea, there is a niche market developing with on-call mobile Veterinarians who make house calls. Clients love it!

12)  The unknown. Don’t believe in the this has never been done before mentality. You just might be surprised at the fabulous results you get. Do not be afraid to attempt the unknown.

Virtual Traffic

Virtual traffic driving is building a continuous contact relationship through the medium of Internet communication. Driving virtual traffic may sound easier than the traditional route, but don’t be fooled, it involves just as much focus and effort and it is more than just having a website. Updating your website with new content and other relevant information exclusive to your practice specialties is just one of the tips offered below.

Virtual Traffic Driving Tips

1)      Website. Before you start talking about marketing virtually, you must first have a website to show for your practice. You can use this avenue to tell your potential clients about your practice.

2)   Continuous updating of your website. This is not about new graphics or redesigning – don’t get me wrong, that is also absolutely important but I want to convey the importance of regularly adding new tips and resourceful information to your website. In addition, content should be replaced every 1-3 months. Waiting any longer than 3 months would outdate your website.

3)      Online and print directories. The use of directories is a favorite tool that works well for professionals. It is an inexpensive way to market your practice for your locality. Some are free while others may want you to part away with a token.

4)      Advertise on other websites. Advertising products or specialty services provided by your practice on other websites is another effective way of driving traffic to your clinic. In doing so, be sure to highlight any specialty services that you offer such as veterinary imaging, diagnostics, mobile vets or 24 hour vets.

5)      Promotion. Displaying promotional products, services or events on your website does a great deal to hook your target audience, and the continual use of promotional products promotes your services indefinitely.

6)      Make your website informational. News attracts people. There is nothing that drives and sustains traffic like the right information at the right time. Start blogging about your interest; be creative in your information and always include the latest news topics. If they don’t read it from you, they will read it from somewhere else.

7)      eNewsletters and eZines. Compile monthly or quarterly information loaded tools to share knowledge of the veterinary field, latest advancements and client feedback.

I have been opportune to see veterinary practice in three countries, and though each country differs in process, the desire for clients remains the same. A combination of both traditional and virtual marketing results in an increased client base which ultimately results in increased clinic growth.

In summary, increasing your bottom line equates to greater take away pay for both Veterinarians and their staff. Having a great website or the most exquisite clinic is not sufficient to generate pools of clients, rather it is a well thought out marketing strategy that makes the difference. There should be regular variations of your clinic and website. Said differently, you want your clients to see new things every time they visit. Here’s a little test for you. Do you continue to visit a website that is the same each time you view it? I know that I don’t, and my guess is that you don’t either. Your development and remolding of client retention efforts will reap rewards from increased traffic flow which includes being a greater asset to your community. Start driving!

© 2009 Dr. Olayinka Adeyoju

Tropicalvetworld.com

Dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis) is one of the known ectoparasites of dogs that has been in existence longer than we know. The small dark brown insect is able to survive temperatures as high as 85°F (35°C) and low as 35°F (3°C) with an optimum humidity of 70 percent.

Dog fleas like most other fleas are wingless so dogs get infested most often through contact with other dogs or contact in a flea infested environment. A new way of handling flea infestation in dogs has always been a major concern for scientists, Veterinarians and, of course, pet owners.

There are hundreds of products (chemical formulations) used in the prevention and control of fleas. Popular brands of topically used flea control and prevention products includes K9 Advantix (Imidacloprid and permethrin), Advantage (Imidacloprid), Frontline (Fipronil), Bio spot (Permethrin), Defend EXspot (Permethrin), Nylar (Pyriproxifen), Promeris (Metaflumizone), Revolution (Selamectin) and Vectra 3D (Dinotefuran &Permethrin). All these are formulated to be applied as a spot-on, spray, dab-on and or aerosol.

The oral and/or chewable formulations include Capstar (Nitenpyram), Proban (Cythioate), Program (Lufenuron), Sentinel (Lufenuron) and the new COMFORTIS (Spinosad).

Other formulation types are collars, shampoos and powders which are known to be economical to average pet owners. Looking at all of the brands of parasiticides, a line of distinction could be drawn as to which is most effective, safer and/or economical. This commonly used formulation types like the collars, shampoos and powders seem to be loosing their acceptance even though it is cost effective, as pet owners have shared.  Most times the tablets and topical solutions do not offer a long lasting effect. A lot of time is devoted to shampoo baths and powder applications, all with no enjoyment by the pet and the owners. In addition, pets sometimes swallow and inhale these products and there could be danger of toxicity resulting from the absorption into the skin and contact with the eyes.

As the demand for topical products is on the increase, pet owners begin to wonder which is most effective out of them all. When Frontline entered the scene, it was widely accepted. Thereafter came several others like Bio Spot, Revolution, K9 Advantix, Promeris, Vectra 3D and many not listed here.

Advantage was introduce earlier into the market before Frontline but its advantage did nothing special, thus paving the way for Frontline to take the front line. So what happen? The manufacturer introduced another ingredient synergistically increasing the efficacy of Advantage. Now that manufacturers have taken to synergy, how will they all differ? Which is most effective considering that some of these products portray nearly the same active ingredient? They are in popular demand by pet owners because of their safety use, effectiveness and low toxicity.  Some are highly recommended by the Veterinarians themselves.

So what motivates the pet owners demand?  Could it be because some of these products are indicated in just more than fleas or solely for the effectiveness?

As the topical products gain more popularity among pet lovers than the counterpart shampoos, collars, pills/tablet (chewable), a new brand of drug is being introduced into the market soon!

Last year came the following:

Comfortis (Spinosad): Indicated for prevention and treatment of flea infestation solely in dogs and specifically against Ctenocephalides felis. Given orally once a month at a recommended minimum dosage of 13.5mg/lb (30mg/kg).

Promeris: Apply once a month as spot-on for flea and tick control.

Vectra 3D: Apply once a month as spot-on for flea, tick and mosquito control.

Note: Before using some of the chemicals/drugs mentioned above, you should consult your local Veterinarian. Your Veterinarian will tell you how age, breeds, species and the health status of the animal plays a role in the different drugs/chemical. Otherwise read label instructions and review the status of your pets before medication.

Copyrigth 2008: Dr. Olayinka Adeyoju