Episodes
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Which of today’s technologies could make a meaningful impact on the health of your patients and your practice? We invite you to listen to an encore presentation of our interview with Eric Garcia*, an internationally recognized digital and information technology strategist who works exclusively with veterinary practices.
Addressing the demands of today’s pet parents can seem daunting, and expanding your staff may not be an option. This episode outlines three technological changes that can make a measurable impact on your veterinary practice, your team and your pet patients.
In this episode, Eric guides us through the current state of the industry. To meet today’s demands and prep for the future, he encourages practices to consider technological changes before hiring.
“I always tell practices that before you look at adding more bodies into your practice, look and see what you can do to make your practice more efficient, to make sure that you're using the right technology,” Eric says in the episode.
He also offers three practical steps to help team members to be more accepting of new technologies — so you can take advantage of today's opportunities.
You can follow Eric anywhere on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn using the handle @EricGarciaFL.
*Eric was compensated for his insights.
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As the world of veterinary medicine evolves, how do veterinary practitioners make sense of emerging trends and market forces so that more pets and practices thrive?
In this episode, Dr. Lori Teller answers practitioners' most pressing questions on the present and future of veterinary medicine. Dr. Teller, past President of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and Clinical Professor of Telehealth at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine, offers expert advice on:
Workforce issuesDiversity in veterinary medicineTelemedicineArtificial intelligencePractice technologyIf you’re curious about trends involving today’s top-of-mind issues and opportunities, then this episode is not to be missed.
Resources:
Dr. Lori Teller: https://www.avma.org/about/avma-board-of-directors/lori-m-teller-dvm-dabvp-caninefeline-cvjJourney for Teams: https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/diversity-and-inclusion-veterinary-medicine/journey-teamsMentorVet Connect: https://www.mentorvet.net/connect -
Missing episodes?
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The power of the human animal bond makes pet parents feel passionate about their furry family members. When the subject turns to health-related costs, the result can be emotionally charged conversations, particularly when budgets are tight and treatment decisions become life or death. How can veterinary teams successfully navigate these conversations to benefit patients, clients and practitioners?
In this episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, Jonathan Wainberg, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Pet at CareCredit®, a Synchrony solution, shares helpful tools and integrated solutions that veterinarians can offer and use to support pet parents when unexpected costs arise. Wainberg also shares research on client communication, done in partnership with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), outlining how veterinary staff can more effectively talk about pet care costs.
Resources
Communicating with clients: Using the right language to improve care | American Veterinary Medical Association (avma.org)
Lifetime of Care Study
CareCredit
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We know animals are good for us. Animal interaction, for example, releases powerful hormones that lower blood pressure and induce relaxation, among other benefits.
When it comes to understanding the human-animal bond, Dr. Maggie O'Haire, Associate Dean for Research and Professor at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine, is an internationally recognized scholar in the field. Her research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and has been highlighted in more than 1,000 media stories globally.
This episode dives into the latest research on the emerging role of the human-animal bond on the well-being of veterans, children with autism, and hospital staff. Dr. O'Haire describes how:
Service animals can complement traditional PTSD therapy for veterans by reducing PTSD symptoms and panic attacks and normalizing stress-hormone levelsChildren with autism demonstrated more social behaviors and less "anxious activation" when paired with service animalsHospital staff who were experiencing stress and burnout reported greater feelings of accomplishment at work and less desire to switch jobs with a facility-dog programDr. O'Haire also touches on the important work Covetrus® is supporting so that service dogs get the preventive care they need to live long, healthy lives.
Find out more about Dr. O'Haire:
https://vetmed.arizona.edu/person/maggie-ohaire-phd
Follow Covetrus on:
LinkedIn
YouTube
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The veterinary community is increasingly turning its attention to the role of mental health in the workplace. Psychological well-being impacts everything from productivity to morale to safety, yet busy veterinary practices may be unsure how to best support staff mental health and well-being.
Our guest, Angie Arora, MSW, RSW, offers practical solutions to help practices foster psychologically healthy and safe workplaces. Angie is a Veterinary Social Worker, Well-being Coach and Certified Compassion Fatigue Specialist. She specializes in veterinary well-being, end-of-life and pet loss support, and equity issues in veterinary medicine.
Angie outlines the conditions and environment that give rise to burnout and poor mental well-being in veterinary medicine. And she shares strategies and practical tools to positively support employees’ psychological well-being in the workplace.
Find Angie at www.angiearora.com and on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/angiearora and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veterinarywellbeingcoach/
Watch podcast outtakes on YouTube: Covetrus® Connected Care
Follow Covetrus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/covetrus
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Do staffing and retention keep you up at night? We invite you to listen to this previously released episode with Matt Salois, the former chief economist at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).
Be sure to follow the podcast and look for a new episode next month.
The Veterinary Workforce Crisis: What's Behind It and How Do We Move Beyond It?
A trained economist, Matt Salois is a pro at parsing the latest veterinary industry data on employment, productivity and employee well-being. Salois is President of Veterinary Management Groups, where he's charged with enhancing the economic and cultural success of more than 1,800 veterinary member practices.
In this episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, Salois makes sense of the real-life reality behind the numbers — normalizing visits, high turnover and burnout. For practices looking to tackle today's challenges, Salois cautions against investing solely in a bigger pipeline of veterinary talent. With a deeply knowledgeable and optimistic outlook, he offers concrete steps to begin to remedy systemic issues, such as turnover, low productivity and poor mental health among veterinary practitioners.
The ultimate goal? To help practices achieve a more sustainable business model, connect more deeply as a workforce and with clients, and improve animal health.
Resources:
Veterinary Management Groups
Matt Salois
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Addressing the demands of today’s pet parents can seem daunting, and expanding your staff may not be an option. This episode suggests three technological changes that can make a measurable impact on the health of your veterinary practice, your team and your pet patients.
Our guest is Eric Garcia*, an internationally recognized digital and information technology strategist who works exclusively with veterinary practices. An award-winning speaker, Eric was recognized as Speaker of the Year by VMX in 2020.
In this episode, Eric guides us through the current state of the industry. To meet today’s demands and prep for the future, he encourages practices to consider technological changes before hiring.
“I always tell practices that before you look at adding more bodies into your practice, look and see what you can do to make your practice more efficient, to make sure that you're using the right technology,” Eric says in the episode.
He also offers three practical steps to help team members to be more accepting of new technologies — so you can take advantage of today's opportunities.
Additional information:
https://todaysveterinarybusiness.com/how-to-market-your-online-pharmacy/
https://www.diggovet.com/blog/maximizing-online-veterinary-pharmacy-traffic-and-sales/
https://covetrus.com/study-reveals-new-covetrus-technology-saves-time-provides-relief-to-overworked-understaffed-veterinary-practices/
https://go.covetrus.com/pulse-veterinary-practice-management-software-google
You can follow Eric anywhere on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn using the handle @EricGarciaFL.
*Eric was compensated for his insights.
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Around a year ago, Covetrus® launched a first-of-its-kind solution called Covetrus Pulse™, a cloud-based veterinary operating system or vOS™. Since then, Pulse has helped veterinary practitioners serve over 3.5 million patients across more than 14.6 million appointments.
But what is a vOS™? And, importantly, amid today’s demands, how has the Pulse technology improved the lives of veterinary practitioners and the animals they care for?
In this episode, Benny Estes, Director of Product Management at Covetrus, shares real-world insights gleaned from the practices that have been using Pulse. He describes how Pulse helps address many of today’s pain points in veterinary medicine, including:
WorkloadsInefficiencyLow MoraleWork-Life BalanceWhether you’re a practice owner, doctor or veterinary technician, this episode is full of actionable learnings gained from veterinary professionals just like you.
Additional information:
https://covetrus.com/study-reveals-new-covetrus-technology-saves-time-provides-relief-to-overworked-understaffed-veterinary-practices/
https://www.dvm360.com/view/newday-veterinary-care-chooses-covetrus-pulse-as-veterinary-operating-system
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Now more than ever, pet parents need help budgeting for veterinary care. At the same time, higher compliance, revenue and iron-clad client relationships are the chief goals of many practices. Are care plans the answer?
In this episode, Dr. Karen Felsted, a veterinary industry thought leader, explains why care plans are good for animal health and a practice’s bottom line. Dr. Felsted is the former CEO of the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues and served on the research team for several major veterinary industry studies, including the Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study.
Drawing on research and decades of experience, Dr. Felsted answers veterinarians’ most pressing questions about care plans, debunking common misconceptions about the plans. She emphasizes the role technology plays in modern care plans and the appeal of care plans to Millennials. She also shares the most effective steps to add customizable plans for preventive care, chronic care and dentistry to your practice flow.
Additional information:Dr. Karen Felsted, MS, CVPM, CPA
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Is your veterinary practice team overwhelmed by today’s hectic pace? We know practices could be more efficient, but what are the steps to get there?
Episode 6 of the Covetrus® Connected Care podcast explores proven, no-nonsense strategies to:
Uncover and understand areas of inefficiency in your veterinary practiceStreamline workflows without changing how you practice veterinary medicineTap into technology to recapture precious minutes and grow revenue and relationshipsThe episode features Dr. Link Welborn, Chief Veterinary Officer for Covetrus in North America and the owner of 6 AAHA-accredited hospitals in Tampa, Florida, and Stephanie Foster, Director of Customer Education at Covetrus.
A recent study by the American Veterinary Medical Association found that highly efficient practices saw 75% more patients per veterinarian than less efficient ones. If you’re looking to level-up your practice’s efficiency, see more patients and increase revenue, then this episode is a must-listen.
Sources:Study explores secrets of highly efficient veterinary practices. AVMA. October 26, 2022
Covetrus study shows benefits of new technology. DVM360. July 27, 2022
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Pet parents are seeking reliable health information about their pets — but are they finding it? When surveyed, 56% of pet parents said their top sources of information were pet retailers and the internet, rather than their vet. Given this reality, how can busy veterinary professionals take a more active role in connecting pet parents to reliable content?
In this episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, we talk with Wendy Toth, publisher of Great Pet Care, an educational site for pet parents that’s part of Covetrus, and Dr. Hanie Elfenbein, an emergency services veterinarian and frequent contributor to Great Pet Care.*
Because pet parents are going online to look up symptoms or research an illness — either before, after or even during their vet clinic visit — Dr. Elfenbein says the information they find there should be reliable and understandable to the average animal lover.
“I think it's important to be able to really meet those pet parents where they're at for both the health of the animal and for the compliance of recommendations,” Dr. Elfenbein says. “With content like Great Pet Care, I can be confident that well-researched informative information is available as a reliable resource for pet parents.”
Visit Great Pet Care
Are you a veterinarian interested in writing for Great Pet Care? Click here to apply.
Additional information:
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. More pet owners are shopping online. July 28, 2021.
Hanie Elfenbein, DVM
Wendy Toth, VP of Content/Publisher of Great Pet Care
*Wendy Toth is a Covetrus employee and Dr. Elfenbein is a paid contributor to Great Pet Care.
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Back in 2014, an American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) survey discovered that one-third of veterinarians surveyed knew of occasions when pharmacies dispensed drugs to clients that were different from what the doctor had prescribed or were a different dosage. And 10% reported having patients harmed when outside pharmacies substituted one drug for another.
Since then, the AVMA, professional organizations, colleges and companies like Covetrus® have worked to support hands-on veterinary pharmacy education in pharmacy schools.
Our guest this episode is Dr. Jennifer O’Grady, Covetrus Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacist-in-Charge, who created the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) curriculum. The goal of the curriculum is to help pharmacists to better understand animal health. Today, Covetrus offers preceptor sites for five veterinary APPE programs at the following educational institutions:
University of New EnglandCreighton UniversityUniversity of Nebraska Medical CenterTexas Southern UniversityAlbany College of Pharmacy and Health SciencesLearn MoreCovetrus Announces $120K in Scholarships to Support Diversity in Veterinary Sector
UNE College of Pharmacy partners with Covetrus to offer students hands-on learning experience
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A trained economist, Matt Salois is a pro at parsing the latest veterinary industry data on employment, productivity and employee well-being. Salois is President of Veterinary Study Groups, where he's charged with enhancing the economic and cultural success of more than 1,800 veterinary member practices.
In this episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, Salois draws on his extensive industry knowledge to walk us through the latest data on pet-care demand, supply, and veterinary employment and productivity.
Salois makes sense of the real-life reality behind the numbers — normalizing visits, high turnover and burnout. For practices looking to tackle today’s challenges, Salois cautions against investing soley in a bigger pipeline of veterinary talent. With a deeply knowledgeable and optimistic outlook, he offers concrete steps to begin to remedy systemic issues, such as turnover, low productivity and poor mental health among veterinary practitioners.
The ultimate goal? To help practices achieve a more sustainable business model, connect more deeply as a workforce and with clients, and improve animal health.
Resources:Veterinary Study Groups - https://www.veterinarystudygroups.com/
Matt Salois - https://www.linkedin.com/in/msalois/
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Research tells us that when veterinary visits are less stressful, there’s a stronger likelihood for early intervention and successful treatment.1
In this episode, Dena Barlow, a former veterinary technician and current Senior Technical Marketing Specialist at Covetrus, describes a new exclusive partnership between Covetrus® Compounding (Roadrunner Pharmacy and Atlas Pharmaceuticals) and Fear Free®. The partnership aims to reduce visit-related fear, anxiety and stress for pets — and everyone involved in their care — while also increasing compliance and improving pet health.
The goal of the partnership is to empower veterinary practices with:
Tailored medications to enhance the health and well-being of petsEasy-to-use tools to automate ordering of dose forms and flavorsFewer steps in the ordering process to save timeRather than being one-size-fits-all, compounded medications can be customized to help the veterinarian and pet parent administer the medicine in the dose forms and flavoring options the pet likes.
As Dena explains, "At Roadrunner and Atlas, we believe the world will be a better place when we treat each animal with individual empathy and remove the unnecessary anxiety from animal healthcare. We want to evolve to bring personalized care and animal-friendly medicine — for veterinarians and pet parents alike.”
Learn more:
Covetrus Compounding
Fear Free
Becker, M., Radosta, L., Sung, W., Becker, M. (2018). From Fearful to Fear Free: A positive Program to Free Your Dog from Anxiety, Fears, and Phobias. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc. -
Technology can be a unifying force for good, connecting practices to pet parents and pet patients to improve animal health. If you’re curious about technology, how do you choose one that will support your clinic’s goals for the long term?
In the first episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, Ying Chen, Chief Customer Officer, Product at Covetrus, outlines practical, easy-to-follow steps to find value in technology. For example, she suggests starting with certain technologies, which she calls “small t” technologies, rather than others. -
There are a half-million service animals in the United States, according to ShareAmerica, and 16,766 assistance dogs certified by Assistance Dogs International.
These animals aid in so many ways, yet the cost of veterinary care may prove unaffordable for the families that adopt assistance canines after their years of service are over. Now, a new initiative aims to close the care gap with service animal care plans.
Our guest, Nick Braukhoff, is a volunteer firefighter and software manager at Covetrus. He’ll talk about the types of service animals that might benefit from these plans and how the plans enable local clinics to do good in their community, while fostering stronger bonds with pet parents.
Find out more about the pilot program by emailing [email protected].
Please like, subscribe and review the show wherever you listen — it helps new listeners find us!
Have feedback? Email [email protected]. -
Periodontal disease remains the most common clinical condition in cats and dogs, according to a recent AVMA report. How can practices proactively address this enduring problem — beyond raising awareness of the issue during Pet Dental Health Month. What role can technology and veterinary innovation play each and every day to help solve this health problem?
In this episode, we chat with Michelle St. Mary, Director of Utilization and Coaching at VCP, about dental care plans and dental options as a means to improve oral health care. As it turns out, 65% of VCP-supported plans include dental, making the plans a significant driver of dental compliance.
Learn more at vcp.vet. -
Veterinary workloads are rising as practices care for more pet patients amid ongoing challenges. Could technology provide a path forward? In this episode, Georgia Wraight, EVP and president of Global Technology Solutions at Covetrus, tells us about a new, complete solution called Covetrus Pulse.
The recently announced technology brings all of your software applications into a single, seamless veterinary operating system, letting practice teams focus on what matters most — caring for pet patients and building client relationships.
Find out more about Covetrus Pulse at cvet.co/pulse. -
During the pandemic, pet insurance rates rose 23%, per the latest report from the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. In this episode, Dr. Doug Kenney, author and host of the Pet Insurance Guide Podcast, outlines the value of pet insurance and pitfalls to avoid. We also explore the intersection of wellness plans and pet insurance and how the two services can work hand in hand in your practice.
Wellness Plans: https://vcp.vet/preventive-plans/
Chronic Illness Plans: https://vcp.vet/what-are-chronic-illness-plans/
Pet Insurance Guide Podcast: https://www.petinsuranceguidepodcast.com/
Wellness, Dental, Chronic Disease Plans Make Pet Healthcare Affordable - Veterinary Care Plans (VCP) - Episode 67: https://www.petinsuranceguidepodcast.com/2021/04/wellness-dental-chronic-disease-payment-plans-make-pet-healthcare-affordable-veterinary-care-plans-v.html -
More than 20,000 veterinary practices here in the U.S. rely on Covetrus practice management software. Coming innovations to this technological backbone will give vets and their staff new tools to work more efficiently and achieve better clinical and business outcomes. In this episode, Sara Swenson of Covetrus provides us with a sneak peek into the future of practice management software at Covetrus. She also describes the differences between wellness modules and VCP's platform and reveals when VCP will be integrated with AVImark, eVetPractice, and ImproMed.
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