A surgeon cuts

I remember that one of the hospitals where I worked hired a veterinarian who loved surgery. It didn't take long for the staff to notice that he handled his cases differently than the other veterinarians in the hospital. Whereas, most of the doctors had a wait and see attitude towards some non-life-threatening situations where surgery would be the ultimate solution if things did not improve, he was scheduling surgery right away.

The staff, of course, freaked out, he was different, and different was bad, so, I asked the practice owner what I should say to the staff to help them understand what was going on. Always the most verbose of men, the practice owners said, "He's a surgeon: cutters cut." Not as helpful as I may have hoped, but at least I gained some perspective.

Since that time I've noticed that this simple equation is repeated time and again in veterinary medicine. Cutters cut, and hospitals hospitalize. People solve problems in ways that they are comfortable with. And even if that solution may be appropriate, it may not be the most appropriate.

Oftentimes when we are greeted with a problem we deal with it the way we have successfully dealt with similar problems. But sometimes the solution entails a different solution than those that we are familiar with, after all, you can't cut out parvovirus.

It's hard not to become something of a one-trick pony when you own a business. Most business owners are fairly conservative about change. No one wants to pour money into every new thing that comes down the pike, so a certain amount of study is required to help most businesses make good decisions.

This is where most businesses fail to learn. Medicine seems to have pretty straightforward cause and affect, we did A) and B) occured. But we also know that everything may have worked out fine had we employed C, F, J, or Z.

I knew a veterinarian who said of Cephalexin, "you might as well piss in their ear." I knew another doctor who though Clavamox was useless. Some veterinarians solve almost every problem with depo medrol, while others treat it as a rare and poisonous substance, to be used sparingly, if at all.

The fact is that our habits are just that. We think Clavamox works because in most cases it does, and probably so would Cefa.

But your habits are not always as benign in business. Cause and effect are often far removed from one another. Behaviors you have today may have difficult far reaching effects in the future.

Think of what (if anything) you are doing about declining pharmacy income. Is you habit to ignore things and hope they will go away? If so, you are losing clients you do not need to lose to online pharmacies. Is your solution to resist change as much as possible. Are you cutting profits to the bone to stay competitive? If so you may be winning the battle but losing the war. Do you educate your way out of it? Do you educate clients about the dangers of online pharmacies and fight for every one? You may win in the short run, but ultimately the tide may turn against you. Do you surrender and believe if you can't beat them, join them by providing your own online pharmacy and keeping as few drugs on hand as possible?

All of these solutions look at the same problem (declining pharmacy sales) and addresses them differently. You may see yourself in here. Some of these solutions may work better than others, that is not the point. The pharmacy solution may be different than the declining visits solutions, or the declining profits solution. But the your thought habit may see the solutions through a similar prism. Look at your solution to the pharmacy question. How are you solving it? Is this the same way that you solve other problems that your hospital faces? If so, you have become a cutter who cuts, and you need to free yourself from your habit.

Once agin, engage your team. Outline the problem and ask them for honest solutions. Challenge your own solution as openly as you can. Be aware that teams often reflect owners and managers, so encourage different solutions than those created by the habits of the hospital. A good way to do this is to bring up your normal reaction to the problem and make that solution off limits.

Do your techs practice what you preach? Do you?

Part of creating a preventive care message for your clients is creating one for your staff, after all, they deliver much of it (or should). But, how well is that message really getting through? Your staff may be parroting what you say, "Yep, twice yearly exams for seniors, yep, got it." But have they really 'got it'?

When was the last time you saw your staff's pets? If you were to do an audit of your staff's pets and compare them to your ideal client, would they be compliant? Are they practicing what they preach?

If they are not, you have an issue.

If you cannot convince the very people you interact with every day of the importance of preventive care, then how are you going to convince your clients in the space of an office visit? The only way the staff can move towards the same goal is if they believe it. Imagine a football team where only the coach thought that they should go for the championship, what are the odds that they'll actually go?

Now, don't get me wrong, the players still might love to play the game. They'll show up for practice and put on a good show, and maybe even win a few games, but when it comes time to put in that extra effort they simply won't, because they care, but not enough.

Think of the championship as your attempt to reach 100% compliance with your clients. You're coaching your heart out and the team says, "yep, we're on board", but if the staff doesn't even do it for their own pets, what makes you think they'll fight the good fight to bring it to other people's pets?

Lets use a real world example with dental prophies (or dentals, or COHATS, or whatever word du jour you wish to call them). Let's say for the sake of argument that you believe that every grade 2 pet should have a prophy. Now, I'm going to go on a limb and say your compliance is exceptionally low on this because clients don't clean dirty cars, and they're certainly unlikely to clean white teeth.

Here's a compliance issue that is a hard "sell". Every one needs to be fully on board with this, so look at your numbers. What percentage of your staff's pets have had a prophy in recent months (years, decades)? Look at staff compliance, and it will tell you where the holes are in your client compliance.

Your team needs to believe what you believe, not just say what you say, and if that isn't the case, then you have work to do.