Top Veterinary Practice Issues that Negatively Affect Culture, Retention, and Performance.

With over 70 years of experience and having consulted with nearly 2000 veterinary hospitals in the United States and abroad, this top 10 list has been consistent through the years with some different approaches since the pandemic. Beyond consulting and advising, we teach practice management for veterinary students at Washington State University (Rick) and University of Georgia (Jeff). As a part of the 4th year curriculum, we conduct on-site evaluations for practices where the veterinary students observe appointments, interpret practice and financial data, and make recommendations for improvement to the owners.

The veterinary health care team: going from good to great.

Effective veterinary health care teams are crucial to the successful practice of veterinary medicine and contribute greatly to everything from excellent patient and client care to practice financial stability and practitioner and staff quality of work life. Contrary to a commonly held belief, healthy teams do not form naturally. This article examines the complex nature of successful teams and outlines a process that can be followed to assist practices in their efforts to evolve from ordinary work groups to highly interactive teams.

Teaching non-technical (professional) competence in a veterinary school curriculum.

Data from focused studies and comprehensive surveys suggest that developing or enhancing non-technical (professional) skills will result in a more satisfied and successful veterinary student or veterinary graduate. The College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University has devoted considerable time, effort, and resources to augmenting the non-technical aspects of its curriculum while maintaining the traditional strengths of its DVM program. Here we summarize pertinent research and best-practice recommendations from a variety of sources and outline the steps that have been taken, with the underlying rationales, to integrate the teaching and modeling of non-technical (professional) competence throughout a four-year course of veterinary study.

Veterinary students as elite performers: preliminary insights.

The KPMG ''Mega Study'' (Brown JP, Silverman JD. The current and future market for veterinarians and veterinary medical services in the United States. J Am Vet Med Assoc 215:161-183, 1999) and other studies (Cron WL, Slocum JV, Goodnight DB, Volk JO.

Tenoscopic-assisted treatment of open digital flexor tendon sheath injuries in horses: 20 cases (1992-2001).

Objective: To determine history, physical and diagnostic examination findings, medical treatment, and outcome of horses with open injuries to the digital flexor tendon sheath treated with the assistance of tenoscopy.

Design: Betrospective study.

Animals: 20 horses.

Clinical evaluation of the effects of immobilization followed by remobilization and exercise on the metacarpophalangeal joint in horses.

Objectives: To evaluate clinical effects of immobilization followed by remobilization and exercise on the metacarpophalangeal joint (MPJ) in horses.

Animals: 5 healthy horses.

Procedure: After lameness, radiographic, and force plate examinations to determine musculoskeletal health, 1 forelimb of each horse was immobilized in a fiberglass cast for 7 weeks, followed by cast removal and increasing amounts of exercise, beginning with hand-walking and ending with treadmill exercise.