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VET TRUCK CONFIDENTIAL: Can We Make Veterinary Medicine More Efficient?

VET TRUCK CONFIDENTIAL: Can We Make Veterinary Medicine More Efficient?

Released Monday, 12th August 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
VET TRUCK CONFIDENTIAL: Can We Make Veterinary Medicine More Efficient?

VET TRUCK CONFIDENTIAL: Can We Make Veterinary Medicine More Efficient?

VET TRUCK CONFIDENTIAL: Can We Make Veterinary Medicine More Efficient?

VET TRUCK CONFIDENTIAL: Can We Make Veterinary Medicine More Efficient?

Monday, 12th August 2024
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0:08

Are you looking for positive change within veterinary

0:10

medicine ? If you want a community

0:12

that's focused on progress rather than

0:14

perfection , you're in the right place . Hey

0:17

there , I'm Dr Stacey Cordovano and

0:19

I want veterinarians to learn to be happier

0:22

, healthier , wealthier and

0:24

more grateful for the lives that we've created

0:26

. Welcome to the Whole Veterinarian

0:29

Podcast . Hey

0:35

there , welcome to another episode of Vet

0:37

Truck Confidential with my friends

0:39

Kelly Zetounian and Misty Gold . We

0:42

hope you are enjoying and finding this helpful

0:44

as we chat about life and work and all the Misty Gold . We hope you are enjoying and finding this helpful as we chat about life and

0:46

work and all the things in between . I

0:48

hope you enjoy this episode . Hi

0:55

again , ladies . How are you Doing good

0:57

? Misty's so good . She's dancing

0:59

, Okay . So glad

1:02

to have you guys here to chat again today

1:04

. I thought maybe we could talk

1:06

. Considering how busy all

1:08

of us are and how many

1:11

people in equine practice don't have some

1:13

giant team behind them , Maybe we could

1:15

talk a little bit about how

1:17

to be more efficient

1:19

in your day or just get the most

1:21

out of your day . What do you think I'm

1:24

in ? I love it , Okay . So

1:26

here's an intro

1:28

. Uh , what does your ideal

1:31

work week look like ? This is certainly

1:33

something we talk about at the SEP seminar

1:35

, but let's talk about our personally

1:37

.

1:38

My ideal work week I'm very

1:40

close to having it right now which is

1:43

, yeah , is two

1:45

days of what

1:47

we call my office time , so it's really like

1:49

time for me to get any sort of management

1:52

things done for the practice . It

1:54

also gives me time to run my own personal errands

1:56

and do consulting work , so

1:58

it's sort of a catch-all . On those days

2:00

, the days that we get to meet or

2:02

I get to meet with you all , that's really

2:04

nice . And then I do two days

2:06

of field work and

2:10

then I spend my fifth weekday

2:12

teaching at the local tech

2:14

school . So kind

2:17

of a nice mix of personal

2:19

, individual time , field time and

2:22

doing something a little bit different with my

2:24

degree .

2:26

What about family time ? Where do you

2:28

fit that in ?

2:29

I thought we were just talking about our work time . So

2:34

family time , what

2:36

I like about the days that I'm kind

2:39

of doing my office days , I get to work from

2:41

home and so I build in a

2:43

little bit of play and just seeing

2:45

Maddie with her caretaker

2:48

during that time , so that's kind of fun . It's like

2:50

I'm here but not totally

2:52

here , and then

2:54

I've worked it out so that I don't leave

2:57

before nine and I am home

2:59

by five .

3:00

Nice Mist . How about you ? Let's

3:03

see .

3:04

In this stage of life . One

3:07

of my children in particular

3:09

has I

3:12

call them special needs . So my work

3:14

time has shifted

3:17

, my work week has shifted . So any

3:19

listeners it might sound like very

3:21

little equine vet work

3:23

, but my ideal work

3:25

and what I have to do out

3:27

of necessity now is when

3:29

I'm parenting . I have

3:32

to just be parenting

3:34

Like the kids do require

3:36

that level of kind of on purpose

3:38

focus . So

3:41

my kids day , whether or not it's

3:43

school or camp starts at eight , so I

3:45

like to be able to do mom

3:47

stuff until eight when I drop

3:49

them off and then I like

3:51

to do outdoor physical

3:53

vet work in the morning . I

3:56

try to be done by 1

3:58

pm so that I can come home

4:00

and have two hours

4:02

to do any

4:04

sort of like paperwork office work

4:07

, whether that's for the practice or

4:09

for decade one or for

4:11

seps or like any of

4:13

other of the kind of vet hats

4:15

that I wear right now . That's not necessarily physical

4:18

practice . I pick my kids up at

4:20

three and then the boys are

4:22

at an age where they're a lot of fun

4:24

and they're active and I don't want to miss

4:27

out on that . So after

4:30

I picked them up from school I do not

4:32

do that work anymore

4:35

. I do baseball practice and taekwondo

4:38

and house stuff . I

4:40

play pickleball on Monday nights . That's

4:42

just for me Amazing

4:44

. Yep , I make dinner

4:47

. Those are the things that I have discovered

4:49

. When I , when I have that stuff in

4:52

order , it takes a huge

4:54

level of internal stress off of me and that's when

4:56

I feel most at peace . And

4:58

all the things that I'm doing and

5:01

my partner has a job that supports

5:03

a large portion of like our

5:05

home and life

5:07

, and so that's what works best

5:10

for us as a partnership

5:12

and for our family , so nice

5:15

that's awesome .

5:16

I don't think that you're saying it tentatively like

5:18

you feel bad

5:21

about that , but I don't think that you should . I .

5:24

I think you do actually um

5:26

I think you do feel bad about that .

5:28

I struggle with feeling

5:30

guilt , as if I'm

5:32

like not

5:35

a

5:37

real vet , I

5:40

mean that's but I don't struggle

5:42

with understanding like an accepting

5:44

that this . So I'm not

5:46

sure I think I struggle with other people's perception

5:49

of how much work that is Like

5:51

. Maybe that's not enough work , but I don't struggle

5:53

with understanding and accepting that in

5:55

this space this is the healthiest as

5:57

a person that I have felt in

6:00

a long time and we've had a rough couple

6:02

of years from just like a sandwich

6:04

generation , caretaker

6:07

of older family members and parents

6:09

and you know just a lot of stuff . But as

6:12

we discuss at SEPs , we are more than just

6:14

a veterinarian . We're whole people and this

6:16

whole people phase of my life requires a

6:19

lot more out of me than just that work

6:21

. So a

6:25

lot more out of me than just that work . So and I do have to remind myself , this is my revelation

6:28

this week I was in intense group practice for 14

6:30

years . That is not no time .

6:32

You did enough work in that time to really make that

6:34

for the next few years .

6:37

I and like that's a new revelation just

6:39

recently , like I do try to tell myself like self , you

6:41

don't have to , like you didn't jump

6:43

ship , you put

6:45

time in , you worked hard , so , like

6:47

you know , I'm not .

6:48

And I think that's that's what it's all about . Right Is

6:50

not having to fit

6:53

within a mold or

6:55

an expectation of what's been done previously

6:57

. Right , like you sort of started off saying most

7:00

people wouldn't think this , but we

7:02

know that most people

7:05

now actually want to

7:07

be working and seeing

7:09

appointments less than

7:11

they currently are . So

7:14

you are just doing it

7:16

where other people want to

7:18

start doing it . So I

7:20

think it's great and I think it's really important for people

7:23

to see and hear that , like we are not

7:25

working five days a week , six to

7:27

six , as equine

7:31

veterinarians out in the field

7:33

, and that's okay . Casey , what about you

7:35

.

7:35

Yeah , as much as I am like a proponent

7:38

of this exercise exercise

7:50

, I'm a little overdue . No , I say it every time I talk about the exercise

7:53

. It will change as your life stages change , so I am overdue on an evaluation

7:55

of my current life stage in this

7:57

. Yeah , this is the year

7:59

of no for me . I'm cutting back on

8:02

as much as humanly possible , hence

8:04

the podcast not being out in a while and

8:07

hence the podcast , you know , changing

8:09

. But

8:12

yeah , my ideal

8:14

is getting my kids

8:16

to school or camp , working

8:19

on all the different projects throughout the day

8:21

, and I am responsible

8:24

for getting them in the afternoon . So that means my

8:26

day wraps at , you know , 2.15

8:29

, 2.30 . And that's a short day

8:31

. And my ideal

8:33

is that I would get an hour

8:35

, an hour and a half additional

8:39

in the afternoon to kind of wrap up my day

8:41

. Because what I've found is , since we've

8:43

lost a nanny , just because of both kids

8:46

going into full-time school , I

8:48

used to have a nanny till about 4.30 . And

8:50

so even when I went to pick up my older

8:52

son , I dropped him to

8:54

her and I still got about an hour to

8:56

wrap up my day . And that is what

8:59

I'm finding I am missing now . So

9:01

I get kind of the same amount of stuff done but

9:03

I don't get that closure at the end of the day

9:05

. And you

9:07

know I've been noodling on how

9:09

to find it or and and currently

9:12

I'm just trying to cut things out and I'm not

9:14

sure that I love

9:16

everything that I have to cut out . I wish

9:18

there were just a little bit of extra

9:20

time in the day . And so , whether

9:22

that's exploring something like you know , additional

9:25

help just for the afternoon from from

9:27

a college student or something like that , but yeah

9:30

I'm , I'm in an exploration kind of

9:32

phase right

9:34

now because it's not currently my

9:37

ideal , but my ideal

9:40

would be to separate kind

9:42

of all that work into the middle of the day

9:44

. And then that

9:47

includes , you know , practice management , the

9:49

Cairo and other lameness

9:51

work I do , and then

9:53

of course the other projects , seps

9:55

and the whole veterinary and things like that mentor

9:58

vet . So

10:04

I also pretty strict boundaries around the end of the day , like obviously I'm on call but

10:06

and that doesn't bother me , it doesn't hurt my feelings to have to

10:08

leave something . My kids know it's important

10:10

for me to have to leave certain things when I'm on call

10:12

. That doesn't phase me at all . I know I'm like

10:14

a little weird in that way , um

10:17

, but when I'm not on call , I'm

10:19

not doing . I'm not doing

10:21

work anymore , and in the evening

10:23

, after they go to bed , or anything like that . That's , it

10:25

was just too much for my brain .

10:28

How are either of you making

10:30

that happen ? What are your ? What are the efficiencies

10:33

that you've built into ?

10:35

I think , personally I'm trying to lean on technology

10:38

and you know that it takes some

10:40

time to learn it . I realized there's an

10:42

uphill battle for that for

10:44

some people who just feel like they're so busy they can't

10:47

even take the time to learn it . But

10:49

for me , covet I've started

10:51

using for records . I'm

10:53

notoriously slow on records

10:55

and now that I have someone you

10:57

know , another veterinarian that needs to see them like

10:59

they need to get done , needs

11:07

to see them like they need to get done , and so Covet is sort of an AI supported record generator

11:09

that I can just copy and paste into records and that is very

11:11

helpful . And then I have

11:14

found an app called Taskade

11:16

. That's a to-do list sort of project

11:19

organizer , but it also has AI support

11:21

running in the background so it can help me create

11:23

templates for things and even

11:26

like employee reviews or like key

11:29

performance indicator outlines . It'll help

11:31

me generate one for , like a veterinary practice

11:33

. It's very smart and not that

11:35

expensive for the year , so those two

11:37

have been really helpful for me . And then it's

11:40

shared as a team , so we have like collaborative

11:42

lists between the support

11:44

staff and my associate

11:46

and myself . I also

11:49

asked my husband for more help than he

11:51

was providing previously and I

11:53

will say that that has been very beneficial

11:55

for our entire family .

11:57

Asking for help . That's the summer theme for my practice

11:59

for

12:09

my practice .

12:09

Nice , I tried technology and I have actually I spent money . I have , like , the iPad

12:11

pro with the pencil and I have this like other digital notebook

12:13

, all in an effort to

12:16

make record keeping , in particular

12:19

, faster and easier . And I

12:21

am back to a notebook

12:24

, a single notebook . It goes

12:26

everywhere with

12:28

me . It encompasses everything

12:31

. So I

12:34

, for example , when we're talking about efficiencies

12:36

, I also rely pretty heavily on routine

12:39

. So and

12:41

this is for life , not just practice because

12:43

again at this stage in life I

12:46

feel like I'm flowing back and forth between

12:48

that all day , every day

12:50

, and

12:53

I sit down and make

12:55

a menu , a dinner menu . That is

12:57

one of those things that just

12:59

the mental load

13:01

of having to think about what people eat all the

13:03

time is a real drag . So

13:06

on Monday I make a menu . Monday

13:08

through Friday , only dinner . Lunch

13:11

is easy for me for packing and whatever

13:13

and breakfast , but dinner weighs on

13:15

me . So in my

13:17

notebook I've got that . I make

13:19

a grocery list based off of that and

13:21

on , my job on Monday is to go to

13:23

the grocery and just shop off the list , which

13:26

has saved so much time

13:28

, money and mental

13:30

load , stress , and then for the rest

13:33

of the week I don't

13:35

have to think about what's

13:37

for dinner , I just look at the menu and

13:39

make it and like that is something stupid

13:41

and simple . That has really revolutionized

13:44

my existence . Also , in that

13:46

notebook is where I keep . I make

13:48

a list each day of what

13:50

has to be accomplished . And I

13:52

challenged myself . We had a speaker at one

13:54

of the seminars talk about list making

13:56

and about how we have a tendency to write

13:59

projects on

14:01

the list and not tasks

14:03

. So I really tried

14:06

and that kind of resonated you

14:08

know I'll just put like clean the basement , that's

14:10

overwhelming to

14:13

make the list each morning of everything

14:15

that needs to get done as

14:17

a task , an individual task that

14:19

helps me kind of see the day better and that

14:21

I can check off and kind of stay on top of . And

14:24

then I also have like the week . Not

14:27

that I don't have a calendar in the phone and

14:29

a calendar digital calendar here

14:31

or there but I write like for the week the

14:34

quick things that I feel like my brain is always like gosh

14:36

, what do we have on Monday night ? What's Tuesday

14:38

night ? You know , it's like taekwondo at

14:40

this time , and this time also in the notebook . So

14:42

no matter what I'm doing , I can

14:45

flip back and forth and see what I need

14:47

. And then what I've had to let go of for the

14:49

medical record is that I really want this

14:51

like beautiful medical record that I can

14:53

share with the client . That

14:55

looks really aesthetically appealing

14:58

and I have let that go . I'm continuing

15:01

to tell myself that done

15:03

is better than perfect and

15:06

, as long as it has all the pertinent information

15:08

to be a medically sound record

15:10

, that that's what we're going to have to do right

15:12

now , and so with a written record , I write

15:15

that as I go I don't have to remember . That's much

15:17

easier for me to transcribe

15:20

into a quick something

15:22

to send over ?

15:22

How about you , Kelly ? What are you using

15:25

to get more , stay more efficient

15:27

?

15:28

My technician how

15:30

many ?

15:31

do you have again ?

15:33

I usually have two that come with me during the daytime

15:35

and we have the

15:38

ratio is basically two to one for the doctors

15:40

, for support team to

15:42

doctor team , and

15:47

not just utilizing them but kind of

15:49

going on this concept . And again , I heard this

15:51

from one of the speakers at very first

15:53

SEP meeting and she said only do what only you

15:55

can do , and

15:58

that is my mantra . So you

16:00

know , when it comes to the

16:03

types of appointments that I see it's only

16:06

do the appointments that I can do and

16:08

the remainder go on that

16:10

assistant or technician schedule

16:13

so that they can go and do follow-up

16:15

, adequant shots or laser

16:17

therapies or those things that you know

16:19

bring value and obviously need to be

16:21

done for our patients . But that is not

16:24

where I need to be spending 30 minutes of

16:26

my time lasering a horse's back . You

16:28

know like I can get the whole

16:31

end of the month of billing done in

16:33

that period of time or I can have that

16:35

you know review with one of my employees

16:38

that we talked about in another one of our

16:40

discussions . So

16:42

that's really been my

16:45

big kind of efficiency is not

16:47

taking on every task just because maybe I can

16:49

do it a little bit faster or it will be done exactly

16:51

how I want it done . But

16:54

kind of embracing and being okay

16:56

with letting other people take over

16:59

has really helped me

17:02

in my day . I

17:05

do like lists . I have my like

17:07

handwritten desk journal , misty

17:09

, so I still this works

17:11

better for me . There's too many electronic calendars

17:14

and shared calendars that I have between

17:16

working at Foothill and

17:18

the practice and my consulting and

17:20

my family calendar and the EasyVet

17:22

appointment schedule . So at

17:24

the end of the week or beginning of the next week

17:26

I go through and I kind of block off the

17:29

time so that I just mentally , you

17:31

know , kind of know where I need to be and what I need to be doing

17:33

and when . And

17:35

that has certainly helped , helped . But I

17:38

really do think like if it were not

17:40

for the awesome team that I have

17:42

, my , there's no way that I could set the

17:44

schedule and not start appointments

17:47

until 10 and be done by

17:49

4 to get up and home on time , and

17:52

there's no way that I would be able to only

17:55

be working and seeing appointments and producing

17:57

that revenue two days a week without an

17:59

amazing group who's been given , you know

18:02

, the reins to really do

18:05

what they need to do .

18:07

Yeah , that's definitely inspiring . I

18:10

don't think I delegate enough , for sure , I think

18:12

. One thing it sounds like we all do , though , is take a chunk

18:14

of time to plan the week . I've found that to be

18:16

so helpful . It sounds like it works

18:19

for both of you too . So I feel like

18:21

in my highest

18:23

period of burnout , I was kind of just letting

18:25

my life run me , and that's one way

18:27

one kind of low bar

18:30

way to start

18:32

taking control of your life is just sit

18:34

down for 20 minutes and think about how the week is

18:36

going to look . I mean , it's gonna get messed up , but

18:38

at least you have a plan to start

18:40

with .

18:41

I'll also throw out and this is something different

18:44

but maybe somebody listening it

18:46

will resonate with them is that with

18:49

a son that has special

18:51

needs or high needs , finding

18:54

the right therapist for

18:56

him . And our situation has allowed

18:58

me to work with

19:01

the therapist really regularly on

19:03

what we need as a family to be able

19:05

to be done and then what skills does that

19:07

translate that we need to build

19:09

up with him . And there

19:12

were so many ways that

19:14

I was getting burnt

19:16

out and our family was burnt out that

19:18

just over time we had kind of evolved

19:21

in a way because that's we

19:23

didn't know better and that's what kind of like

19:25

worked to help us survive . But we weren't

19:27

thriving , like simple things that like

19:29

bedtime that under a typical child won't

19:31

have trouble with . But now , nine years

19:34

in , we were still struggling with and like really the

19:36

amount of freedom going

19:39

to see appointments that are farther away than I know

19:41

that my son would be comfortable with me being

19:43

Things like that

19:45

that we can just kind of address up front

19:47

and the therapist gets to talk to me

19:49

and understand why it's important

19:51

for us and what impact it's having and then help

19:53

him to cope with that and we kind

19:55

of work as a team with him

19:57

has really given

19:59

all of us him

20:02

probably more than anyone this like amount

20:04

of comfort and

20:06

confidence and he's getting to like

20:08

do all these different things and feel

20:10

good about it , and it's really given us a lot

20:12

of freedom as well and like that's

20:15

therapy is one of those things that I think when

20:17

you are busy and burnt out , you just don't know

20:19

where it would fit in or how

20:21

to do it . But I can tell you it has really

20:24

changed our lives

20:26

.

20:27

Yeah , I always like to think that when I feel the busiest

20:30

is probably when I need need

20:32

support the most . So I'm trying to try to

20:34

make time for it . Awesome . Well , thanks

20:36

for sharing everybody . We will put some resources

20:39

in the show notes , for sure . And

20:41

, um , if anybody has any suggestions

20:43

, um , maybe when I post this on

20:45

social media , you can share your suggestions there

20:48

too . Awesome , Talk to you soon

20:50

.

20:50

Bye .

20:53

Thank you so much for spending some of your

20:55

precious time with us . We so very much

20:58

appreciate it and truly hope that

21:00

it helps you just a little bit . We hope

21:02

you are doing well and we will talk to you again soon

21:04

.

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