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[MUSIC]

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Welcome back to another episode of Questions with Crocker.

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With me, Dr. Crocker, an emergency veterinarian and practice owner in Texas,

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and my husband, Shane. >> Hey.

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>> What's happening? >> I'm showing my microphone straight.

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>> Why are you messing with it?

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>> It looks great from here.

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I'm sure it's great. I'm sure you sound good.

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We are podcasting.

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We're excited to be here. You were not on the last podcast because I was at VMX in Orlando,

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and I was podcasting with some people live on site,

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which we're going to do again at Western Veterinary Conference coming up.

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We're going to bring all our podcasting equipment, and we are going to just talk to people.

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I'm excited about it because I actually have a couple other couples that are

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in Veterinary Medicine that you and I are going to interview together.

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>> Sounds like a blast. [LAUGHTER]

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>> In general, you don't come to very many vet conferences with me,

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but you've been to Vegas before. What are your thoughts on vet conferences?

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Because you used to go to large conferences when you were in sales and working in health care.

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>> Yeah, I think they're a little bit smaller than human health care conferences.

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>> That's wild to me. Because it seems so big when I go to it.

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How is it smaller? >> I feel like there's,

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I suppose the big health care conferences, there's some like there's more people,

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and more vendors and booths and stuff.

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>> You said the booths are epic in human health care.

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>> A lot of them are, yeah, like budget two store booths and everything else.

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>> So big. >> It seems like a waste of money to be honest.

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>> I was about to say that. I'm so glad that our money in health care is going in good resources.

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But there was a couple cool booths at Western last year.

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Do you remember what we went and did at one of the booths?

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What do we do? >> The one where we saw what's his name?

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>> Grunk. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.

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So we saw the football player.

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And then we also, there was bull riding there.

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And I of course had to ride the bull and how'd I do?

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>> Wonderful. >> I would say that they were actually a little easy on me.

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It was a little weak. I've written better mechanical bulls and-

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>> A couple of you still in business? >> I don't know.

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We're going to see this year.

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They actually were not at BMX in Orlando,

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which is like the largest vet conference there is.

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And so I was kind of wondering that. Like, are they going to make a big showing again at Vegas?

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Is that just going to be like, they're conference?

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Because they did it at pretty big. >> Yeah.

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>> It was a pretty big deal. And I do enjoy going to conferences because there's always new things coming out

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that you hear about. Right now, there's a big stir

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because there's a new parvo medication that is a one injection.

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It's not a cheap injection, but it's still a lot cheaper than hospitalizing parvo dogs

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for many days in a row. And we've used it in our ER a couple times,

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but it's still really new. And so hearing the data on being able to treat some of these dogs that really could die

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from the disease and having them bounce back within 24 hours is pretty incredible.

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So learning about just all the new inventions, there's a lot of technology.

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A lot of new things coming out in that realm.

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And I think that it kind of speaks to what we're talking about today

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and the question that we have.

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Just in case you're new to the podcast. >> It's not a word.

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>> That's just. In case you're new to the podcast,

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listen, I just got off a three overnight in the ER.

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And I am not as young as I used to be in case you hadn't noticed,

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which neither of us are as young as we used to be.

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There was actually a picture of us the other day when we were dating.

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And I showed it to Corbin and he's like, who's that pointing at you?

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And I was like, that's dad. And he's like, he's like his hair looks a lot different.

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>> A lot different. >> So anyways, I don't even know what I would say.

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You got me so off track.

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But the premise of our podcast is questions with Crocker,

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because a lot of people ask us questions about veterinary medicine,

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about being a pet owner, what they experience,

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what we experience as a veterinary. And so we like to pull back the curtain and talk about some of those things.

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And this question comes from someone younger in the industry.

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And I think we can give them some good information.

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>> We'll give them information. >> That can be the judge of the quality of it.

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>> So we do always like to preface that anything we say and share

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is not professional information.

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We are sharing our experiences. We're sharing the things we've learned through

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all the years of working. But let's give credit where credit is due.

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How many businesses are you currently running, Shane Crocker?

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>> Oh no. >> A few.

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>> A few. >> I got more employees. >> More than one.

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>> There's a lot that don't have employees. So it's a little bit different, I guess.

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>> What, name one that doesn't have an employee?

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>> A bunch. Our real estate company that owns the vet hospital.

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There's a technical pay its own company, but there's no employees.

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>> I mean, we're the owners, so we're kind of employees, right?

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>> Not of that company. >> No.

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>> Is this the company you own that my name is not mine?

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>> Actually, I think I'm the owner of that company. >> So, so now we know the truth that you're hiding assets.

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>> There's several like that that require tax returns, but no employees.

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>> Why are you hiding assets from me? >> I promise you this, not the biggest question.

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We now need to address. >> You also have a lot of life insurance now.

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>> Oh, okay, good to know. Good to know.

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Actually, so that's one thing that people were talking about a lot at this conference.

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They were talking about disability and life insurance.

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And I think it's interesting because a lot of people said,

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you know, you being able to work is where your value is as a vet,

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like being able to use your hands, being able to do surgery,

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being able to use your brains.

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If you have a traumatic injury, that's all gone.

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So, they were talking about how disability insurance is so, so important in our profession,

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because it is such a physical profession.

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But I wanted to know your thoughts on that, because I feel like you

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are more aware of all the insurance,

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dos and don'ts in general. >> I would agree.

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I think especially for veterinarians,

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you'd have to use your hands, especially for surgery.

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Now, the reality is if you can't use surgeries and the more you can still do other things in the profession,

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so I don't think it's, you know, if you can't practice medicine,

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doing surgery that you just go sit on the couch.

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So, yes, disability insurance is probably important,

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probably more so for somebody that's specialized,

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like a surgeon or something like that, but I think there's other things you could do if you needed to.

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>> With your degree. Yeah, and we talk a lot about that, about the variety.

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That's one of the best things about the veterinary degree is it is so versatile,

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and you can kind of pivot and rotate whenever you need to.

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And I do know people that were practitioners a long time,

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and, you know, physically couldn't do it anymore,

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and so they moved into a different role in the industry role or a teaching role.

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And so, I think that does work. Now, I will say, I am aware of a veterinarian that does not have full use of her hands,

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and she does surgery still, and she actually speaks,

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and is a motivational speaker in her industry, and it's pretty amazing

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how she's been able to adapt and like still do those things.

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And so, I'm not going to say that that, you know,

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wouldn't be something like changing for somebody, but there is a lot of ways that you can, I guess, grow

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and still be able to hopefully do something.

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There's other coverages for disability that could be very important.

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I would consult with the insurance agent.

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With an insurance agent? Yeah, well, it's good to know that you have life insurance on me

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with all my travel and all the other things that I have going on.

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Actually, we had an interesting case in the ER that made me wonder a little bit

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how good my insurance was currently. So, we had a dog come in, and the dog was bitten and attacked by a coyote

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about five days before it came into the emergency room.

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And these owners had been treating at home the wounds.

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There was puncture and bite wounds kind of all over this dog,

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and it was about a 40-pound dog. She was pretty cute and adorable,

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but she came in and was lateral, which means she couldn't get up.

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All of her wounds smelled horrific, and were like seeping fluid.

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But the biggest thing was that she was very neurologic.

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So, her eyes, she didn't have a blink response.

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She was tremoring a lot. We had to give her medication to stop her from tremoring.

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She was just very dull. And, you know, when you have an animal that's been attacked by another animal,

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it's really not that common for coyotes to attack larger dogs like that.

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You do hear about them, you know, taking smaller dogs,

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but 40-pound dog is pretty decent size. And so, immediately on our list,

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had to be the possibility of rabies,

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because the time frame of being bitten and showing signs

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and there's different forms of rabies. Everyone kind of thinks of like, "Cujo."

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But there's actually like a furious form,

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which is the Cujo form, but then there's also a dull form when they're just really quiet.

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So, we handled her with gloves,

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and only those of us that were rabies vaccinated,

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handled her because we were really worried that

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it was potentially something like that.

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And rabies is transmitted by, like, saliva,

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and so, you know, you have to look in their mouth,

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check their gum color, so we just made sure to wear gloves,

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and obviously not get bitten. Because nobody wants to go through rabies' prophylactics.

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But I was thinking, like, what would happen

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if I needed to be treated for rabies?

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Because... I was trying to figure out that an entire time.

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How do you were going to relate that back to life insurance?

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I don't know if you were, like, scared. You were going to get attacked by a coyote or...

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I know. So, I don't know if that it was

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if I got rabies and, like, died because rabies...

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No, almost anything. rabies is fatal.

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Like, what would you do? I mean, obviously, you would, you know,

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not survive and never get married again. And, you know, spend your days and morning.

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Exactly what I was thinking.

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I always joke that I would haunt you forever if you.

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Anyways, totally, totally a tangent here.

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But... That was not on our questions. That was not on the questions.

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But, yes, that was an interesting case.

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And it was not a fun case to deal with,

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because of the concern for rabies, which is fatal in people.

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So, vaccinate your dogs, please. Did you put the dog down?

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Yes, we did. We actually talked to animal control,

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because of the exposure and, like, how neurologic she was

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and how many people she had been in contact with,

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especially in the household with, like, all these children

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and people we needed to know if she had babies.

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And so, made that decision

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and submitted the samples to find out.

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So, we'll find out in the next couple days, actually.

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And if she is positive, we all get to get lots of shots as a prophylactic,

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which is not very much fun. But, we'll see.

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We'll see. At least there's something that we can take just in case.

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So, back to our question.

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So, I thought that this was a good one

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and one you could kind of speak to with all the, I guess,

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balls that you juggle and I could speak to it too.

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But, at Shuni Vajohana, and I don't know if I said that right,

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wants to know, how can you...

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What? Don't give me that face.

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Show Hiotani. Shuni Vajohana.

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That's what it looks like. I don't know. You can reach out to me if that's your...

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I'll go with Shuhi Yotana. You do not know.

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And who was? Is that her? Guarantee.

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It's definitely not a baseball player. But, wanting to know, how can you become an efficient vet?

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So, I think this is a great question.

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It's a great question that younger vets ask a lot.

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And, I think it's an important question.

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So, first, let's just talk in general about,

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why does it matter and why is it valuable to be efficient in our field?

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What is your thoughts? I think it's important in any field to be efficient

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because you get more done and typically getting more done,

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allows you to potentially make more money,

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allows you to see more patients.

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There's probably a lot of reasons to be efficient.

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I agree. I think even further, if you're an efficient veterinarian,

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that means hopefully you're getting your records done in a timely manner.

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You don't have a lot of things hanging over your head.

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Like, when you leave at the end of the day, you have good time management.

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You are able to just not be as stressed.

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I think the more efficient you are in the more processes you have in place

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and you use the resources you have,

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then the better you'll be as a veterinarian to your pet patients,

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but also the better you'll be to yourself because you'll have a little bit more

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availability to rest, relax, take time off mentally,

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when you don't have as much hanging over your head.

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And a lot of that means getting things done in the time you have to get them done

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and being able to go home and just rest.

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So, a couple of things came to mind right away.

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And I think for me, it started with,

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what are the things that take up like the most time

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that really are a time suck when you're a young veterinarian and you're just starting out?

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And at the top of that list,

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which I don't think a lot of people think about,

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but is veterinarians doing technician duties?

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So, I am a firm believer that a great veterinarian

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will have quite a few technicians at their disposal

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and they will do the things that they have to do as a doctor

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and the technicians will do all the other things that they are able to do

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and to the utmost that they possibly can, that their license and their state allows.

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And I think that is one way that you can be really efficient.

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Now, the struggle is a lot of young vets, when they get out,

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they don't trust people to do things for them.

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They're worried constantly and so they,

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which honestly some of those technicians probably know more than they know,

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100%, 100%, especially on the technical side of things.

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And I actually tell the young vets all the time,

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like you will learn just as much from the rest of the team as you will

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from this senior veterinarian who worked with it,

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and if not even more, right? And so I think that they often want to be the one to place the catheter

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or intubate or do this surgery.

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And when I start working with people,

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sometimes they're shocked that all I do with this surgery is examine the pet,

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make sure nothing major is changed. They're in a good condition for anesthesia.

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I do the drug calculations or actually a double check the drug calculations

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that they have done to make sure everything's good.

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And then I say, great, and they put that pet under anesthesia,

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they intubate, they prep, they clip, they do everything they need to do.

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And then they call me and say, "Hey, they're ready for surgery."

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And I go in there and I do the surgery. Then after surgery, I say, "Thanks so much, y'all were great.

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I leave and they recover the patient."

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And so my time with that surgery patient is much less

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because I let other people do the job that I know that they are able to do.

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Now, a lot of it is also, I've worked with a lot of these people a while.

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I know their capability. I trust them.

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There are certain cases that are more critical

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that maybe I'm a little closer by, right?

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But I really do know that they can handle like what I give them.

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And when you're starting out especially, you're nervous

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because your license is what's on the line.

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And if something goes wrong, you know, that's on you.

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So I get why it's hard to trust, but I really think to be sustainable in this career,

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you have to kind of trust your team to do the things that they're supposed to do.

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Do you feel that way is just like an owner of a business that that is a hard thing to do?

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Or are you really good at delegating and letting people do their jobs?

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I think I'm pretty good at it, but I learned watching other business owners

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growing up, my dad always said, "There's the right way.

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There's the wrong way. There's my way."

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And I understand his point, understand why it does what he does,

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but you also become a bottleneck to being able to grow

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if you have to touch and oversee every little thing.

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So I think I learned a long time ago that sometimes you have to rely on the team

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you put in place, allow them to do their job.

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And like you said, oversee just to make sure the results are what they're supposed to be.

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Yeah, and there's always opportunity to, you know, test and see like how well people can do

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and how much you can give them. And then to take back some of that if you need to.

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The first thing you can do, Mom, when you said about efficiency is,

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"Mom, I went to, well, how do you measure efficiency?"

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So for me, it would be like on a day, how many patients can I see and how many surgeries can I do?

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The previous practice I worked at that had a group of technicians that just

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rocked it out. I could do three, four procedures in two hours, like surgical procedures.

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And that's because I basically, you know, would help start the dental and then I would go do a spay or

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a neuter and then I would come back and extract teeth and then I would go do another spay or neuter

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or grow through removal and then, you know, they'd have the second dental down and I'd come out.

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So I could bounce around while other people were doing all the things that they are very capable of

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doing. And so it's really for me, like, I know my ability to do multiple things. I know how long it

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takes me to do these procedures and it really shouldn't slow me down having other people do their job,

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right? And then the other thing I think about is, where else can my time be spent? So instead of spending

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20 minutes helping get a surgery patient ready when I really shouldn't be the one that needs to be

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doing that, I'm just been 20 minutes working on records or maybe seeing a room and seeing a whole

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another patient and a whole another appointment. So I consider things to be efficient when I think

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about how quickly I can get things done with a good team and with the right support. I will say I

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can't hold everyone to that standard because I think I work a little differently and communicate a

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little differently. So I wanted to walk a little bit through like how I would do appointments because

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I also think that's something that has helped make me more efficient. So one of the biggest things that

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I think is important is a lot of times in the traditional setting, you know, a technician gets the

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pet, they get the weight, they take the history, they come and tell you this is what's going on,

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then you go in the room and you do your thing and then you say, okay, this is what I need you to do

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and it's like this back and forth right between you and the technician. I certainly prefer,

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and this is partially from working in open concept DR, but I've been able to take some of this to GP.

18:26

I prefer to be faster in the room. I prefer to be a part of the history taking. I'm doing my exam

18:34

while they're taking a history. We're talking at the same time. I'm asking questions. They're typing for

18:40

me. So they're typing up a history. They're making sure it's thorough. Sometimes they can even type

18:45

up the exam findings as if I'm talking through them like what I'm finding and what I'm seeing. And so

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I think having you guys work together as a team in a room versus having the your turn, now my turn,

18:57

your turn really makes things more efficient. Yeah, I could see that also lead to more questions

19:02

from the pet owner, right? So the technician gets all those information and then you come in and

19:07

that leads to more questions, which actually drags that entire point out even longer. Yes. And it's so

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funny because a technician will tell you this all day long. They will go in there. Oh, you're here for

19:16

vaccines. Okay, anything on it? No, fluffy is totally healthy. Everything's great. Okay, so no issues.

19:22

No, fluffy is awesome. We're good. And then literally I'll go in there and look, be like, well,

19:28

there's actually, you know, they've been limping for about three days and there's this lump on them.

19:32

And then it turns into, okay, well, now you got to look at all these things. And I'm not saying you can

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cut that out completely, but I do think by being part of the conversation, if you're able and

19:40

getting in that room faster and seeing why they're there and asking the questions you really want to

19:46

know and doing your exam while the tech is taking a history can be really, really helpful. So that's

19:52

something that helps me. I also really like it when, you know, I'm in a room and I like for certain

19:59

cases, especially sick ones for a technician to be in there with me. And you know, if I say, you

20:04

know, I really recommend we do lab work or I recommend we take X-rays. And then there's those, yeah,

20:08

I think so. They'll actually take the pet and start getting those diagnostics done while I'm answering

20:13

like any additional questions. And so that is helpful just to keep the appointment rolling. And I'm

20:20

going to probably go see another room while the blood works running while the X-rays are being done.

20:24

And then I can look at them and pop back in there, right? But it's trying to get those things done

20:28

quickly so that I can move on to the next room and the next thing. So utilizing them in that way is

20:35

really helpful. The other way you utilize them is you train your team to communicate for you. And you

20:40

train your pet owners to trust your team. So callbacks. It's another thing that's kind of a pain in the

20:47

butt, but it is really important. It helps create like trust and a relationship with pet owners. And

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yes, we do email sometimes like healthy young dog blood work looks great heart, um, test is

20:57

negative. We'll email that, but anything else or anything where they were sick and we were checking

21:02

something, I really want to call them just to answer those questions, but I don't really want to

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call them. I want my team to call them. And so training them how to communicate, you know, those

21:13

things that might be abnormal, what the next steps would be answer questions will keep you off the phone

21:19

and being in those long conversations. Yeah, I think even sitting at groundwork with the customer

21:23

while you're in the room, hey, um, you know, so and so technicians going to even call back,

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so we have the findings, you know, kind of sitting at that framework where they know it's not going to

21:31

be you making that call is probably huge. It is it, um, it helps to set the expectation. And then I am

21:39

really big on if an owner wants to talk to me or if an owner calls during the day, unless it's something

21:44

I really do have like the time to really talk to them. I am big on like, hey, have some email with

21:50

their questions and I'll email them back or have them send a picture of what's going on. So using

21:54

technology in that way to communicate as much as I can, which is a lot faster and easier than getting

21:59

kind of stuck on the phone. I'm also pretty good at not getting stuck in conversations. I think that

22:04

people want to talk and they want to be heard, but I think learning how to figure out like why are

22:11

they really there really addressing that and then making sure you can move on to the other thing

22:17

is a little bit of an art. We all know talkers that are just hard to shut down, but I'm pretty good at

22:25

kind of saying like, okay, and we need to make sure that we get this done on fluffy. So I'm going to go

22:30

and check on C like where they're at with everything. I'm good at turning the conversation around and

22:35

kind of getting out and I don't get feedback that like I don't spend enough time with people or they

22:40

don't feel like I'm engaged because I think when we're talking, I'm very much eye contact, very much

22:45

asking the questions I need to and answering the main reason they're there, right? But small talk,

22:52

I make a little bit of it, but it's not a long drawn out process. So utilizing your team in that way

22:58

to have them do the skills that you know they can do so you can be doing just doctor things,

23:04

having them communicate as much as possible, I think is hard as a young veterinarian to trust

23:11

people to do that, but it's all part of the training process and if you don't feel like your team can

23:15

do that, then really you have to start with training them to do those things and you know what's the

23:21

thing everyone says like I don't have time to train, well you don't have time to not train, right? Because

23:26

it's going to make you slower and make you make it worse. I think that technology is also something

23:32

that's underutilized in veterinary medicine. So can you think of any technology pieces that would

23:38

would probably help or practice to be more efficient and help with veterinary and to be more efficient?

23:42

Yeah, I was going to back up and step further and say how you create your day is going to help with

23:48

your efficiency. Let's talk about that. I like that. So having a practice management system

23:52

that you set up your appointments appropriately and those appointments are scheduled appropriately

24:00

is going to allow you to flow through the day better. Okay, so I'm going to say something controversial.

24:05

There are veterinarians that especially when they're coming out of school, they are requesting

24:12

to have like hour long appointments. That's what they're starting as. And I, so just with the way I

24:25

work in the way I... There's only eight hours in the work day. I know, I know. But the way I work in the

24:30

way I do things, I don't understand it. Like I don't understand what would take an hour. And I work

24:38

emergency. Like I work really tough cases, right? And I also work GP and I see second opinions and I see

24:45

tough cases. But the longest appointment I schedule is 30 minutes. And that's for second opinions that

24:51

are going to be going through old records and like, well, you know, that may do more diagnostics. And

24:56

even then, I tell my team like, really don't schedule me 30 minute, like schedule me 20 because I can

25:01

take five minutes from this one and 10 minutes from this one and I can like get the time I need and I'm

25:05

I can balance multiple rooms. But I have a hard time with people needing an hour for an appointment.

25:16

And this is... Like people being your clients need to feel like they need an hour? No, no, like the

25:21

veterinarian. Feel like they need an hour for an appointment? And I don't know. I mean, I need

25:28

honestly, if like people out there have hour appointments, I would love to hear... Yeah, I like to

25:33

know what that flow is. And also I'd love to know what they're... And compensated for that Tom.

25:36

I would love to know what their ACT is, like average client transaction because I couldn't only see

25:43

people a day and like pay the bills, but I think that part of it is they spend time communicating and I

25:52

think a lot of it is they spend some time maybe talking to the other vets about their plan and their

25:59

things. And then I also think a lot of it is like getting their records done. So they're they're trying

26:05

to make sure like all that is done before they move on to the next patient. And I think it's great that

26:13

people feel empowered to ask for that, right? And I know practices that are like we start a new grads

26:20

off with hour long appointments. I know practices that do 45-minute appointments for like all their

26:25

veterinarians no matter who. So I think different practices are just structured differently and they

26:30

probably charge... I mean yeah you got to you got to increase the prices to more, right? But I don't know

26:37

what I would do with an hour with each client and... I mean if you're a specialty center and you're

26:43

dealing with a lot of... Oh 100% 100% no sick medical cases I can see that maybe, but I don't know.

26:50

So I think that that's interesting and honestly I would love to hear from people who like require an

26:54

hour or their practices set up that way because I would like to know more about that. And

27:00

I'd like to know more about the financial model like what they what they have to charge to make that

27:04

work. Yeah my meat gut is wild but I'd like to know more just a broad say. Yeah but my the way I work

27:12

the idea of it is like... I'm not saying it. I'm saying my good reaction is to call it stupid but

27:23

okay okay. I will hold back my judgment until I get more permission and then I might call it. I

27:27

would like more we would like more information please so if you do that but I do think I mean I think

27:34

that people if that's what they need then it's good that they're able to ask for that and if people

27:38

can give people that and slowly work them in... Is it what they need or what they want right? I mean

27:43

there's a lot of things in life I won't but I'm necessarily need. It could be both and the way that

27:48

people work it's just might be the pace is different and honestly if they're still making the

27:53

practice money or if maybe they are making more money for a permit because they spend more time

27:58

with them like... But it would be on that like you're doing it injustice to your other clients now you

28:02

have to push appointments out further because they can get as many people seeing during the I don't

28:06

know there's a lot of a lot of questions about this. We have a lot of questions in general. We're not

28:11

saying it's the wrong way to do it. We're not saying it stupid. We are not saying it's stupid. No

28:17

like I'm not saying it's stupid but I just I don't understand it right. So but I do think a lot of

28:22

that part of that is records. So I wanted to talk about records. That's what I was going to

28:26

actually technology in general. I mean if you can have your notes be filled faster because you have

28:32

templates built and everything else and there's a lot of technology things you can utilize to

28:36

expedite your records and your prescriptions and get your x-rays into one place where you can see

28:42

them and there's a lot of things you can use your practice management forward. I create efficiencies

28:45

throughout the day. I agree and I think like you said how you schedule so just setting yourself up

28:51

for success that your front desk is not booking you like all sick appointments in a row you know and

28:57

things that are like going to take more time that there's you know wellness sprinkled in there with

29:01

sick appointments. You know I like to know if there's some AI around this. I mean right now if you

29:07

think about it we utilize our customer service reps and their knowledge to say this needs to go

29:13

here because of whatever right there's got to be some AI around being able to plug in keywords

29:21

and it automatically schedules even more efficiently. So I actually think that's an amazing idea and if

29:26

someone knows of something like that that'd be great because we were even talking. And if it's not

29:29

existing we trademark. We're trademarking it now. Copyright trademark it's our idea we get paid for.

29:35

But we were talking about that because we were having a little bit of an issue with scheduling

29:38

surgeries because all of us have separate surgery times and then also you know a catanuter takes

29:43

significantly less time than a you know dog spay and an older dog takes more time than a younger and

29:50

for dentals depending on the grade of the dental you can actually do like more less denials in a day

29:56

right. So we were talking about that and I was trying to come up with like time frames for how

30:01

much time you needed for kind of each one. But honestly if there's a way that a software would just

30:06

do it for me. I mean there's there's enough smart people out there working on AI like if it's not

30:10

already creating existing today it's got to be pretty close. Someone's working on it. So I do

30:15

think that you know having them schedule for you the right way is extremely helpful and also will

30:21

help you get out of there on time. Like I don't want my last appointment today to be a sick one. I

30:24

wanted to be a wellness and I wanted to be something that's healthy and so that record is easy to get

30:29

done and it's easy to just be done for the day. But technology and utilizing it is great. So

30:35

there's some things that I heard about recently that I think would make people more efficient with

30:40

record record keeping a lot of that revolve around using AI to do your records for you.

30:45

So there's actually apps now where you can take your phone in and you can set it on the counter

30:51

and tell the owner like hey this is going to take my notes for me it scribes for me and it will actually

30:56

listen to you talk to the owner listen to the history you'll talk about your physical exam which I

31:01

already do in the emergency room because I'm in front of owners. So I'll say like I'm just going to

31:05

listen to the heart now that sounds great. You know their body condition is good. Okay I see we have

31:10

a little bit of tartar so you're saying these things anyways and then the app is picking up on it

31:15

and then you can go and it you can teach it to have a template for like what you want your physical

31:20

exam to say and everything and it will just auto fill everything for you. To me that's a no-brainer

31:24

right and then it's in your PM system you read the real quick mix and quick adjustments that

31:29

you know is based on something that may have been missed or with your needs and then you move on.

31:34

Well and then there's also things like I think it's called the talk of two and talk of two is where

31:42

your keyboard actually listens to your voice and like types for you and so it's kind of like a

31:47

dictation software but you can teach it and it has veterinary words in it so if you're saying things

31:53

that are words that usually you know wouldn't be on there like eosinophil or mass cell like those

31:59

things always get changed when I try to like captions in social media it actually knows those words

32:03

and so you can say it and it would just you know fill it out for you. Chat GBT has a whole thing where

32:10

you can have templates and you can just type in like it was a cushing's dog and I you know found the

32:15

basic things and it'll auto fill a physical exam. The key though is it's got to get in your PM system

32:20

right so if you're using like chat GBT you have to copy paste probably something like that so

32:26

ideally you want a software technology that's auto scripting directly into PM system.

32:32

So ones like talk to are integrated and I do think it's like a third party integration right but it's

32:37

integrated and you can still use it and any keyboard that can hear you basically can use it so

32:44

any keyboard like set up in your practice and it's based on your voice like it knows your voice

32:50

specifically and so I think it's interesting I haven't used it but I've been looking at those

32:55

different softwares because I will be honest. This is a plug for talkative. No I made for

33:01

who wants some people to give us some stuff. Oh yeah I already know them they're great those guys

33:08

would probably let me try it out but I do think that thinking through like ways like this that would

33:15

help you do these things faster and make small changes. Now absolutely for records templates are key

33:20

and every practice management software is going to have templates and then you can go in and

33:24

adjust it for what you want. One of the biggest issues I see young veterinarians do is they

33:28

spend way too much time on their notes and records and yes it is a medical record yes it is something

33:33

that at some point could be legal you know issue so you need to be thorough but use your templates

33:40

and do not write paragraphs like you wrote in vet school like let's be honest what we had to write in

33:46

vet school was ridiculous like the amount of information that we had to write you have to learn

33:50

to simplify your findings. There's been precedent set where like shorthand or something like that is

33:56

considered you know okay. Yes so I actually was on ethics and grievance and committee

34:04

for the Texas Veterinary Medical Association when I was a student and we actually got to see

34:10

like different board complaints and ethics complaints and some people got in trouble because nothing

34:14

was documented. Yeah what makes sense right? You can't do a record yeah and not document anything

34:19

and not document like what you gave a pet or you know sometimes you do have to put like I don't

34:25

put owner decline things but I'll say like discuss hospitalization versus outpatient treatment like

34:30

owner like cell patient treatment or recommended radiographs owner elects to wait and see if pet

34:36

improves. I don't really say declines but I kind of say like no they went a different direction right

34:41

but I make sure I put in there like what my recommendation was and so there's definitely that but I

34:48

do think I found apparently you can put in there like routine neuter was performed and as long as

34:55

you can say like this is my routine neuter yes and you can explain like what you mean and it is

35:01

something that you're privy to you're fine and you're covered but with templates being in there

35:08

really you can auto fill out that stuff and your neuters are done the same use the same suture

35:13

and you do it the same technique so you really don't have to change that much so setting templates

35:18

up correctly using templates if you have paper records which sorry if you still have paper records

35:23

if you want to be efficient get rid of paper records get rid of paper records but there are stickers

35:28

you can actually put on a paper record and you can mark abnormal or normal if you want to be efficient

35:32

get rid of paper records not shame crackers saying that but but that is something I think utilizing

35:40

your technicians within the room with you to scribe is also huge I don't want to be on a computer

35:44

typing while I'm talking to an owner absolutely not but I would love it every time they start typing

35:49

and they start putting stuff in for me it's very helpful and even if it's a little reminders of

35:54

things I said are things that I found abnormal it's great to be able to go back and work on that

35:59

the business suddenly says don't do scrubs go with a I mean even if there's some upfront calls to

36:06

get this stuff integrated the long term of AI is it's got to be significantly better than going

36:11

to scribe everyone I know that has utilized AI says it does take a little bit to set it up and train

36:16

it basically like for what you want but is much easier than that let me say thing going from paper

36:20

records to electronic record right it's a big pain yeah it's gonna be huge pain it's gonna slow you

36:25

down for six months until you get it figured out but once you get it figured out you're good to go

36:29

yeah I personally will tell I will be honest I want to be honest I do not get my records done

36:35

every day at the end of the day completely definitely things that are really sick or things I know

36:40

will need to follow up or I need to send records elsewhere I do but if it's like a routine puppy

36:45

visit and the puppy was perfectly healthy and I'm pretty much gonna auto fill that sometimes I

36:49

just am going in the next room and then I am a person that at the end of the day can just sit and

36:55

like zoom through everything but I like to do it from home that's why we have cod-based software

37:00

like I want to come home I might spend time with you guys and the kids and get everybody down and

37:04

then I'll sit and like go through records but really that's my choice because I like to walk around

37:10

and talk to people I like to spend time with everybody even if I don't have something else I have to do

37:15

records are not my priority what about on the billing side I could see where that can create

37:19

some inefficiencies from veterinarians trying to figure out what to charge for who's taking care of that

37:24

how's everything can put into those so I'll be honest I have seen data that says that

37:30

it's actually better if your support team bills for you because things aren't missed and we're more

37:37

likely to give discounts or to write stuff off when we see the cost of things and so especially if

37:43

you have like a very open book way of leading where people know like when we make money it helps

37:50

everybody as a whole like you can have more raises you can pay people more or there's bonus systems

37:55

in place like they are inclined to want to build things and build correctly and so I

38:00

like it when my team does the invoicing they do a majority of it and then I'll just double check

38:05

things we have templates for all our surgeries and all that surgery invoicing gets done

38:10

usually while we're in the procedure and they're monitoring anesthesia they can just

38:15

put that template in and request meds so we have a lot of that streamline and I think that

38:20

causes us to miss less things when it's being built and I come out of a room and it's already

38:26

built and I just can glance at it real quick or say let me add these three medications

38:30

bottoming bottoming it's done approved and the owner can get checked out faster one of the things that

38:36

makes me the most frustrated in the world is if we had a great appointment with someone great experience

38:42

and they go up front and it takes forever to check them out I was I was just going with that

38:46

efficiency is better for the veterinarians better for the technicians but it's also better for

38:52

the customer experience yes so I would agree completely that you got to get the customer

38:56

in and out of it can you stand there forever yeah trying to check out I mean we have a couple of

39:00

adorable cute like older customers that want to talk because they don't have a lot of people talk to

39:06

and so they'll sit and banter but I don't want them to have to wait because we don't have the

39:10

build on yet because we don't have the meds ready yet like I want everybody doing this person's

39:14

not clicking the right button or standing there looking at the screen trying to figure out what to

39:17

click next yes and how to build for it or how to do the care credit or how to do the scratch pay so

39:22

those are all things that we continue to work on because I want that to be seamless seamless experience

39:29

100% is there any other inefficiencies that you can think of my biggest thing are the things that are

39:34

the time sucks and so I really want to be you know being efficient with records being efficient in

39:40

the room with the clients making sure that everyone else is doing the things they can do with the pets

39:45

and I can do the minimal amount that I need to do is there any other inefficiencies you can think of

39:51

now I was just going to say I think this is completely parallel with almost any industry and any

39:57

type of business right you have to utilize your employees and allow them to maximize everything

40:03

that they can do you have to utilize technology to the best of your abilities and whatever you can

40:08

afford maybe take care of both of those that's going to make you significantly more efficient

40:13

right there it's going to and it's also been proven by numerous studies it's going to make

40:18

this profession more sustainable and cause less burnout for you and your team if you allow people to

40:24

work to like they're a most ability and they feel valued and they feel trusted they are going to

40:30

want to be there longer and so I think overall being efficient helps everyone so I think that's a

40:37

good place to stop I hope that we gave some good tips and tricks talk to you you can reach out to me

40:42

whenever that's right whenever you're ready to allow us to do some stuff we're looking to check

40:46

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