The Veterinary Industrial Complex

Pawz4me wrote:

4X4Dodger wrote:

Secondly my main point about large vet practices and the amount of money they MUST bring in to pay the salaries, overhead, service debt et. al are real world and there is no denying that there HAS to be tremendous pressure to increase income at every opportunity to meet those costs, to say nothing of profit or a decent living for the Vet.

It depends on what the extra employees are doing. Are they really unneeded, a product of poor management? Then sure prices will have to be raised to meet the extra cost. Or are they productive employees who are bringing in money to the practice--are they groomers and boarding kennel attendants and things like that? If so they're making money for the clinic. In most clinics nowadays the vets aren't the only ones who generate income.

It really does not matter from a business standpoint if employees help bring in income. It is the Practice that the income belongs to. The VET still must meet the Salaries of ALL employees. And as any business person knows Labor is often the biggest expense of almost any type of business. Regardless of what the employees do the practice still must bring in a very considerable cash flow to keep the doors open. In the vet practices that I visited I'd bet my new truck that that figure is close to 1.5 million/year

Thats $125,000 PER MONTH and $4,166.66 EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR.

You dont do that with boarding and grooming. The vast majority of that income MUST come from visits and tests and surgeries, selling drugs, expensive dog foods et al.

These are just the facts of what kind of cash flow you must have. You cannot convince me as a business man that the VET(s) don't feel a tremendous amount of pressure to meet those income goals every month.

And even IF you cut my estimate in HALF it is still a formidable amount to have to bring in.