PRIORITIZING PROFITS NEGATIVELY IMPACTING QUALITY OF CARE AT VETERINARY PRACTICES

When a corporate consolidator acquires a veterinary practice, they often look to cut employee hours as a cost-saving measure in order to maximize profits — while pushing for more client appointments each day. The cost of labor is typically the largest expense for veterinary practices and can make up to 51% of a veterinary practice’s gross revenue.

CARE for Pets™ has analyzed employee reviews for several of the larger veterinary consolidators on the leading job websites — many employees say that quality of care is impacted by corporations prioritizing profits over patient care.

QUALITY OF CARE IS NEGATIVELY IMPACTED BY VETERINARY CONSOLIDATORS*

  • Employees doing the work of two or more people because corporate won’t hire additional staff due to unachievable revenue goals that increase constantly.
  • Corporate seemed to be more worried about the number of patients that came through the door than the quality of care we were able to provide — inadequate staffing levels to support the amount of patients we were expected to see.
  • The company terminated all senior staff after hospital was acquired by the corporate consolidator.
  • The company hired more doctors with substantial sign-on bonuses. Corporate cut our pay, hours and laid off so many employees that we didn’t have much support staff left.
  • The problems started when many employees started to leave and no one was hired to replace them – one support staff worker was left to help multiple veterinarians before management decided to hire more employees.
  • Company wants schedules to be as filled as possible by adding shorter appointment slots, which overwhelms the staff and lowers the quality of patient care.
  • The hospital was on a tight budget and has to practically beg for new equipment and supplies that are necessary for the staff to do our job efficiently.
  • Because we are always “down in revenue,” doctors had to increase number of appointments. Quality of patient care plummeted as our schedule became overloaded and the team became overwhelmed.
  • Local management was not allowed to fire anyone — even if there were life threatening mistakes made.
  • Corporate made us shorten our wellness appointments to generate more revenue, so we were always behind and overworked.
  • Company threatens employees if they don’t bring in more money – cut employee hours, close hospital for the day and pressures veterinarians to do more.
  • The veterinary hospital is constantly understaffed. The rare new hires are totally inexperienced and unmotivated and make a lot of mistakes.
  • I just entered the veterinary field and I am being asked to do tasks that I am not trained on.
  • Patient care is severely lacking due to cutting employee hours and an overworked skeleton crew.
  • The veterinary practice couldn’t keep workers due to corporate focus on productivity numbers and cutting of employee hours.
  • The practice didn’t have enough equipment, let alone properly working equipment.
  • Random days of closure at the hospital with no notice to customers.
  • Patient care was not prioritized and safety issues were ignored. Doctors were pushed to see more cases with unsafe staffing ratios.
  • A licensed veterinary technician stated that advocating for your patient or the client puts you in trouble with management and the company will hold everything against you.
  • Hospital manager was told by corporate that the vet practice had to hire new staff members and cut current employees hours.
  • The quality of medicine is suffering due to lack of training and inexperienced staff — mistakes are being made.
  • After the hospital was acquired, the corporate consolidator immediately cut worker hours due to productivity score.
  • Emergency doctor was reprimanded for offering clients treatment options that weren’t gold standard — If the client could not afford the gold standard.
  • Veterinary consolidator purchased hospital and would not let management hire new workers to replace others that have left — all while cutting remaining employees hours and stretching other employees thin with an excessive workload.
  • Clients never see the same doctor or supporting staff — very high turnover rate of employees.
  • Clients can no longer afford basic care and preventatives because prices have doubled at our hospital and are leaving.
  • The transition after the sale to the corporate consolidator has been abysmal with unpaid bills to vendors, hospital is consistently understaffed with over worked employees.
  • Company refuses to staff adequately to ensure proper patient care — patient-to-staff ratio is completely unbalanced.
  • The company always has issues with paying vendors bills, so services are cut off.
  • Corporate does not allow adequate ordering of supplies which results in shortages or no stock of everyday essentials.
  • Company outsources “scheduling” to a foreign call center that doesn’t know anything about veterinary medicine.
  • The veterinary hospital needs new equipment and most requests are denied.
  • The focus from corporate was on pinching pennies rather than hiring enough employees to make the hospital run smoothly.
  • Veterinarian stated that the company would install low quality technology and diagnostics and would not give the staff support when things did not work.
  • Our veterinary hospital is severely understaffed and is not allowed to hire more employees.
  • Company operated the hospital with a barebones budget that left us constantly running out of vital materials, medications, and other supplies — raised prices several times throughout the year.
  • Imbalance of doctor to staff ratio –too few working veterinary assistants to support the many doctors.
  • Excessive double booking of 15-minute medical appointments can lead to lower quality of medicine – scheduling multiple patients to see a doctor at the exact same time slot.
  • Basic maintenance requests for the vet practice was ignored by upper management that impacts the safety of staff and pets.
  • Little to no training for new hires or furthered education for the existing employees.
  • Pressure for higher volumes of patients from management is causing great stress on the staff — losing long term employees.
  • Half the equipment at the veterinary hospital is broken or doesn’t work appropriately and the company takes their time in fixing things.
  • Cutting employee hours makes it difficult to care for patients and do your job when you are short staffed due to reduced hours — not allowed to work additional hours.
  • There isn’t enough staff to properly clean the practice — when I brought up these concerns about the standard of cleanliness at the hospital, it was ignored and my job was jeopardized.

FOOTNOTES:

  • *Worker statements may be edited for length and or clarity.

RELATED:

Common Employee Complaints of Veterinary Consolidators
https://www.pets.care/common-employee-complaints-of-veterinary-consolidators/

  • PROFIT-DRIVEN VETERINARY MEDICINE: Many employees of veterinary consolidators say their employer prioritizes profits over patient care.