Increasing Your Practice's Output and Better Serving your Clients Utilizing a Veterinarian/Technician Team Approach

Abstract

It is a common desire of many veterinarians practicing in animal agriculture to be able to add to the bottom line of the livestock operation that they work for by consulting with the producer in ways to improve management of their operation, commonly called production medicine. Yet many practitioners who have stated a desire to provide additional production medicine services to clients are not successful in implementing these services, partly due to a lack of time. One avenue to create the time necessary to provide extra services is the utilization of the veterinarian/technician team approach. Along with improving the beef quality of producer's career-change dairy cattle, this approach has increased the efficiency of the veterinary services provided, which saves the livestock operation money. Ultimately it allows for more services to be provided by the veterinarian/technician team, such as developing standard operating procedures and treatment protocols, implementing and monitoring programs, conducting field trials, and a myriad of other services. The ability to increase a practice's output and better serve clients increases the veterinarian and technician job satisfaction and increases the client's satisfaction with the practice and the total return to their operation.